A creative way to give money as a gift for a child

Last weekend my youngest was invited to a birthday party. This was kind of special because it was the first party she was invited to without her big sister. As part of the information on the invite, we were asked NOT to buy the birthday girl a gift but rather give her a "twoonie" and another "twoonie" towards a charity of her choosing. What? No toy-of-the-minute to wrap? How do you give a twoonie as a gift?

I loved the idea of this birthday girl getting to pick out her own special toy with the money she would get from everyone. I especially loved the idea of this little girl looking forward to donating money to a charity special to her. It's a fantastic gift idea that goes a long way and is appreciated so much more than most gifts.

I still wanted her money gift to be special so we used it to make a little stick puppet. I folded a five dollar bill into an origami shirt and then I added paper accordion legs and arms. I printed off a small photo of my daughter and cut a long neck tab that I used to insert into the shirt collar. Finished off with paper hands and shoes, we secured the collaged body onto a chopstick. My daughter thought she looked hilarious as a bouncy legged puppet.

Now how is that for a fun and personable, inexpensive and meaningful gift?

The Jealous Curator

Mark Ryden

I had to put a plug in for a friend of mine who writes a great blog on art. The Jealous Curator features artists and artwork that has made the author say,"Damn, I wish I thought of that!"

As a fellow lover of mixed media and collage work, you can really see the appreciation of inventive and unique art. Take a peek at the features and be inspired too. Damn!

How do I price my art?

I've been thinking about this post for a while now. As an artist, I have struggled alot with how to price my work and determining its' value. Now that I have decided to be more proactive in selling my work, I have had to question its' value everytime I post something on Etsy.

 Etsy is an amazing site to find so many highly talented and skilled artists. I have found, however, that  there are alot of artists who sell their items too low. This is great for those of us looking for beautiful things for very little. It's not so great for people like myself that realize that I have to compete with those prices. It's taken me many a years to convince myself that I deserve to be paid well for my images and ideas. 

 As such, I have tried different formats of my work to make it more "sellable" to the Etsy shopper. I have created digital prints of my monotypes  and paintings which have turned out to be amazing in their clarity and color. I have access to a Canon Pro9000 and have found it to produce images better than anything that I have sent out so far. Being that they are still archival I think that I may use the printer for my collages which will deteriate much faster.

I have also created some glass pendants of my images which I just love. Now my images are portable!

So even with all the adjustments I've tried to make to reach my "target market", I have to say that I haven't sold one digital print or art pendant yet. I have only sold original paintings and hand-pulled prints so far. Go figure.

I would love to hear from other artists and their thoughts on pricing their works  and how they market their talent.

As a side note, I would like to share with you some of the finds I've seen on Etsy. I love posting my favorites and wish I could puruse the art pages even more than I do.

I recently bought some pieces from meluseena, a.ka. Lisa Falzon. They will be hung up on my wall of inspiration. Lisa's work is fantastic and she collages with a computer in a way that I only wish I could do. Now that's a good use of a computer!

Another artist that I am kicking myself for not buying from is five in the morning. This edition sold so fast that I lost my opportunity to own such a well done print. I kept looking at it and its' description to determine why the artist was selling it for only $15 (!). I will check back often so that I don't make that mistake again.

As I opened up one of my Decor8 daily I was blown away by Natasha Morton and was heartened to see that she sells originals. I would love any painting set by her but I just might convince myself to buy one of her collages.

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Finally, I love the work by Etsy artist Francois Dyment but luckily I get to see his work all the time. I ended up marrying an amazing painter and he has really inspired me in so many ways. Francois is also selling originals and is at the higher end for Etsy prices but has a selling history that justifies this.

Tell me about your amazing finds on Etsy. Is there an artist on there that you feel deserves some more recognition?