My new Cargoh shop

For the past several years I've been trying to sell my artwork on Etsy. Etsy has become a HUGE marketplace for handmade goods and the competition is fierce. I've tried out various other sites to see if I might have some more visibility and in turn better sales. I have found  Etsy to be my most reliable site to be seen although a bit lacking for actual sales. A little while back I took a chance on a local handmade site. I had heard about Cargoh from some other local sellers who were very impressed with their vendor support.I thought that because it was a new site I would have limited competition. While I haven't made a sale on Cargoh yet, I've had some good views.

For a little while now though I've been considering that I should offer something totally different in my Cargoh shop. As of last week I've started listing my polymer caly pieces. These pieces are all one-of-a-kind items that I've created to feed my need to master this medium. I will be offering earrings, pendants, rings and possibly a few other ideas I have cooking.Please feel free to check out what I have listed so far. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Wordless Wednesday

Vaivanat

Kira Ferrer

Matte Stephens

Janine

Pinterest

Before the Christmas holidays I usually try and think about which handmade gifts I will make for everyone. I always try and think of something I haven't made before so no one gets bored of the type of gift year after year. I used to go through all my saved Martha Stewart magazines and see if there was anything I hadn't tried out yet. This year I found a wealth of crafty how-tos through Pinterest. If I didn't see something on my home feed that I had thought of I would just type it into the search bar and probably find that someone somewhere had tried my idea. 

I just love Pinterest as I'm a very visual person and I love the ability to scan through hundreds of gorgeous photos posted by like-minded crafty people. While my foremost interest on Pinterest is for the how-tos, I also enjoy being able to browse tons of inspirational artwork. Really, this site makes me sigh with admiration. Below are a sample of some of the pins I've put on my boards. You can find all of my boards here. What do you like to use Pinterest for?

Inspirational art

To try list

Baking inspiration

Cuteness

Wordless Wednesday

Chocovenyl

Under The Stair Studios

Just Noey

Managerie Prints

Year of the Dragon print exchange

Last year I posted about my submission to PROOF Gallery's Year of the Rabbit print exchange. Well this year's Chinese zodiac is the dragon and I recently sent off my submission for the show. I really enjoy working with the Chinese zodiac theme as it always produces a lot of new images for me.

Below is the linocut that I submitted and I only did an edition of 6 for this one. I colored this one with artist pencil crayons. My kids saw me coloring and begged for some to color too. Luckily I had a few dud pulls still around for them to use. This has re-kindled the idea of creating a kids coloring book this year. Hmmmmm....

I just got notice that the deadline for the exchange has been extended to January 25th so if you're quick you might be able to submit a dragon too. Guidelines for submissions can be found on the blog Year of the Dragon.

Wordless Wednesday

Mmim

Pop Up Cardmaking

Gingiber

Erin Elizabeth

Happy New Year! Calendar give-away

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas break and you're looking forward to 2012. For myself I'm looking forward to working on the numerous projects and ideas that have bubbled up recently. As always, I depend heavily on calendars to plan those projects. I have a new family calendar up with photos of my girls, an agenda to plan daily events and this year I created a couple different year-to-date art calendars to put up in the studio.

Could you use a calendar to start 2012? Be one of the first 4  people to comment and I will send you one of my year-to-date calendars.Put it up in your home office, studio, on your fridge or give it away as gift. Be sure to include your email address so that I can contact you and get your mailing address. Here's to starting the year off with some art!