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NEW YORK (AP) — Sian Zeng, who merges her love of fine art and textile design in whimsical, magnetic wallpaper, is the grand prize winner of the first Etsy Design Awards, announced Tuesday.
And she owes it to dinosaurs and Little Red Riding Hood.
The London-based Sian creates handmade, sometimes fairytale-inspired illustrations on wallpaper with magnetic linings, and sells it with three magnets of a customer’s choosing for interactive fun. A dinosaur motif is her best-seller among a dozen designs that also include an enchanted forest and tropical blooms.
“It was inspired by my final year thesis on Little Red Riding Hood. I was interested to see how the story evolved over the centuries,” said the 35-year-old Sian, a graduate of the art school Central Saint Martins, in London. “I wanted to create interactive magnetic wallpaper that would let people tell their stories using a set of characters.”
She was awarded $15,000, which she said she’ll put back into her Etsy shop, SianZeng .
Etsy, the online marketplace for handcrafted goods, opened the competition to sellers around the world. The competition drew thousands of contenders. Other winners are based in the United States, Greece and Israel.
Winners were chosen by a panel of judges, including actor Dan Levy, style expert Joe Zee, fashion designer Anavila Misra and artist Garance Dore. The idea, said Etsy trend expert and fellow judge Dayna Isom Johnson, was to recognize the very best of Etsy.
“We’re a global platform and I think sometimes people forget that,” she told The Associated Press. “The Etsy Design Awards are really about the celebration of our incredible community of over 2.3 million sellers that we have around the globe.”
Sian began her Etsy shop with other handmade goods in 2009, soon after her college graduation.
“Being young graduates, it was difficult to showcase our work anywhere,” she said. “Within the first week we sold well.”
The competition’s other winners, in specific design categories, received $1,000 each.
A self-taught woodworker, Justin Nelson of the Etsy shop FernwehWoodworking, was recognized for inventive decor driven by his Sling Chair. It has a frame of hand-shaped American walnut and a hand-stitched leather seat and back. It was the first chair the Bend, Oregon-based former Marine ever created.
Molly Goodall, whose Etsy shop is called LittleGoodall, was the signature style winner for a sky-blue, wool-blend, felt girls’ coat featuring a rainbow and fluttery gilded butterflies. There’s also a faux fur collar and epaulets. The McKinney, Texas-based Goodall was inspired to launch her shop of whimsical children’s apparel when her 2-year-old son refused to wear his hood during winter. She created a felt lion coat to motivate him.
Etsy’s earth-friendly winners are an Athens, Greece, couple, Vicky Moudilou and Stam Guinis of the Etsy shop EatingTheGoober. They create clothes, accessories and bags out of discarded tires and upcycled fabric. The judges recognized the pair for slide sandals made from recycled materials that come with wide interchangeable uppers.
The other winners include Tel Aviv, Israel-based Naomi Shiek of the Etsy shop WoodlandPapercuts, and architects Alejandro and Sara Pijuan, who create midcentury-inspired pet furniture in their garage, selling on Etsy at PijuanDesignWorkshop.
Shiek uses papercut techniques to create Jewish wedding ketubahs, with newlywed customers of many faiths commissioning designs to showcase their own wedding vows, meaningful texts or wedding contracts.

The Friends of the Blue Lodge held their annual golf tournament Saturday at The Atchafalaya at Idlewild near Patterson. The event, which featured a scramble format, benefits free masonry in St. Mary Parish. Below are the winners.

Morgan City’s Teche Regional Medical Center isn’t the only new south Louisiana hospital connection for Ochsner Health System.

Ocshner, Louisiana’s largest private employer and the operator of a growing number of health care centers around the state, and the board of Lafayette General Medical Center announced plans to merge Wednesday.

St. Mary Hospital Service District No. 2 is awaiting the Louisiana attorney general’s approval for a separate lease agreement under which Ochsner would operate Teche Regional, replacing LifePoint Health. Approval is expected at the first of net month.

Company officials have promised expanded services at Teche Regional and the benefits that come from being part of a large health care network.

The negotiations with Ochsner also offered reassurance that Teche Regional would stay open in an era when rural hospitals are under economic pressure.

Lafayette General is one of the biggest players in the regional health care market centering on Lafayette. Under changes in the public hospital system during the Jindal administration, Lafayette General also assumed the management of the former University Medical Center, now known as University Hospital & Clinics.

“As part of the agreement, Lafayette General will anchor services as the regional healthcare hub in Southwest Louisiana for the statewide health system, and Ochsner will invest $365 million in capital and resources in Acadiana over the next 10 years,” according to a joint press release from Ochsner and Lafayette General.

Ocshner is promising a $50 million expansion in services at Lafayette General, including pediatrics, women’s health, cancer care and behavioral health.

Ocshner is also offering greater financial stability for University Hospital, which would be a benefit for people who need health care they can’t afford. And a $10 million fund will be created and administered by the Lafayette General board to promote community wellness, the press release said.

Ochsner says it will raise the minimum pay for hospital employees to $12 an hour and increase the number of residency positions at the medical center by 48 to go with the 75 at University Hospital. Physicians enter residency after graduating from medical school and often go into practice near where they were residents.

The Morgan City Council congratulated two of the city’s baseball teams Tuesday before turning to the ultimate in municipal inside baseball: the budget.
Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi rolled out his draft budget for the city fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. It’s the first step in a process that will eventually result in final passage.
The budget continues to reflect the regional economic slump that will soon enter its sixth year.
In his budget message, Grizzaffi wrote that “the recurring expenses have historically risen while the economy has slowed the pace of revenue. This had made managing the City operations very difficult as we continue to adjust.”
The draft budget foresees an increase in revenue from $39.4 million to $40.2 million, and an increase in expenditures from $38.5 million to $39.5 million.
Tax revenue is expected to be about $7.5 million, up about $34,000 from the amended 2019 budget.
Spending is expected to be slightly less next year for police, fire, general government, public works, and recreation-culture-public programs.
The 2% longevity increase for employees who have reached their one-year anniversary is included in the budget at a cost of $148,000 in wages and $52,000 in benefits.
The employ count will be 231.
Despite the lean budget, the mayor’s budget message said the city has managed to avoid cuts in services while adding a $378,000 firetruck, six new police detective cars and three police patrol trucks, plus new playgrounds at Lake End and Lawrence parks.
The budget for next year includes a $140,000, 46-foot bucket truck, an electrical service truck, four leased patrol vehicles and $300,000 for sewer rehabilitation.
Also Tuesday, Parish Councilman Patrick Hebert told the City Council it will receive $1,075,000 in the next round of spending from a parish government bond issue. Local governments have been using the money they receive from the program for road improvements.
The baseball players who got congratulations from the council and mayor Tuesday were members of the Morgan City Dixie Youth 9- and 11-year-old All-Stars.
The 9-year-olds were runners-up in both the state tournament and the World Series in Brookhaven, Mississippi. The 11-year-olds were state runners-up and qualified for the World Series.
Also Tuesday,
—The council approved a liquor license for Daniel Solar’s Eclipse Bar & Grill, 605 Martin Luther King Blvd.
—Heard from Marshal Kenny Duval that the parish’s annual Red Ribbon Week anti-drug event will be Oct. 18-27.
—Changed the dates of the regular meetings in November and December to avoid holiday conflicts.
The meetings will be Nov. 19 and Dec. 17.