This Little Pigment

                    I love artists who combine different mediums. Andie mixes hard metals with delicate watercolor pendents to create mini works of art. It's a lovely Victorian heirloom craft back when sweethearts would make mementos of each other to hold close to their heart. Andie takes a modern twist on this beloved art and reinvents it for today. Acorns, fish, beloved pets, and whimsical craft.
                     Since I love dogs, I pulled this pendent out of her shop. I invite you to look through her shop and find something you like or commission your own Objet D'Art. Have wonderful day and see you at the show tomorrow!

Stick Staff Cane

                 To work with wood, you need a good sense of humor and patience. It splits, fractures, and twists in all kinds of directions. You can either fight the wood, or learn to work with it. Woodworking forces a type of inner character polishing that I love in Nash. He's gets a sense of inner assurity and peace when he pulls something out of the grain. Al is the same way. He's a quiet man with a cane who you talk to and feel relaxed chatting with. It is only later, as you see what he creates spill across his table that you realize what wealth his inner mind is. Every time I meet him, he's dreamed up something new. Last year it was dragon canes and whistles. Then mustaches. Now, it's custom Santa whistles.
                 If you love wood or one of a kind crafts, check out this traditional art at his booth on Sat. I'm sure you'll be delighted. 
               

Kirara

          I love conversations that begin with, "I sell on Etsy to feed my craft addition." Katie makes a lot of great arts and crafts. Every time you drop in her shop, you see something cute, you just didn't know you needed it yet. Take this to die for monkey kozie, perfect for keeping your beverage warm with a smile.
          You know you need it!
          We can all thank her mom for introducing her to photography in high school. To many more new creations and a great day! You can check out her shop here.

Harvaitt Design

                   Modern art is the basis of almost all fabric prints produced today. The idea is to inspire instead of slavishly copy an original. It's a concept that is addicting to find beauty in the everyday. Harvait Designs is well-known in the area as a geometric artist and interior designer who loves cityscape skylines and quirky animal paintings. Christine paints bold acrylic colors across the canvas. My current favorite piece of hers is the cheerful squirrel on right. Because I love squirrels and yellow, but it's likely it says something else to you. Modern art speaks to all of us in so many different ways and times.
                    It is gift you can look at a hundred or thousand ways and see something different each time. I like that. So I encourage you to look through her shop and blog if you want a little serene in your day. May you see something new each time you visit her.
                 

Li Sashay

                  Hey everyone, welcome back from the weekend. Today we were supposed to tell you all about Li Sashay, but really it's pretty simple for us. Li Sashay is a labor of love for both of us. It exists because we love making women beautiful in their lives with the work of our hands. I could spend all day telling you the hows and the whys, but instead I'm going to go eat dinner with my husband. If you are a woman, may you hear that you are loved today. And if you are a man, please go tell a woman in your life how wonderful she is and how much you love her.

Liz Moran

           The first time I met Liz, she had a couple paintings tucked under one arm and a smile on. I can't remember where she was coming from, but she smelled like the best coffee shop you'd ever walked into. Even today when I walk into a Starbucks, I associate the smell with her. Fresh roasted beans and fluffy pastry. She's a got a great smile and her paintings match the warmth she has in person. There was one that was simply amazing. It was this huge scarlet rose. I managed to beg, borrow, and plead to keep it for a few months to decorate our office building as you walked in the front door to our building, you would turn the corner and there it was. Better than a fresh cup of coffee in the morning. It's since sold of course, but the warmth of those months remains in my memory.
            There's something about painters that when you see a really great painting you feel as if they gave a part of their soul into the creation of the work. Liz's work is like that so I selfishly believe there's a long career for her so I can see a lot more of her inner beauty. She's grown and evolved as a painter since that first oil rose canvas and evolved into different mediums, but the warmth remains. And the great color. All her works have great color in them.

        Right now she's into doing these scrabble tile necklaces which like the one above named aptly enough: "Fire." I encourage you to check out her Etsy shop and maybe take home a piece for yourself. You'll be glad you did. For her latest work, drop by her booth at the holiday show next week. 

PS- And although I know she'd never say this and will probably shoot me for saying this, if you're a gallery owner looking for a promising artist with a great heart and smile, drop her line at:  lizmmoran@yahoo.com. You'll be lucky to work with her.
         

Fall Shows: Craftland and Acorn to Oak Handmade

              I love to watch Nash smile at me. He's got a look just for me, that's mine alone. He has sea eyes that change with his mood, and for me they turn a brilliant shade of green. It's often accompanied by a soft quiet, "I love you." I would probably walk naked barefoot in the snow for ten miles for that look (and we all know I hate cold weather.). Thankfully for the eyes of little children everywhere, that level of sacrifice has not been required. There's an even better version of this whenever I wear lace or leather and he sees me. His eyes get gold flecks of happiness in them.
             This season we are sold out until at least January with a particular client doing private label work in utilitarian fashion which is saving lives. I'm really enjoying it. It has given me some unexpected flexibility to follow Nash's smile and make a collection simply to make people I know happy. And hopefully see some more happy Nash eyes. It is my wish for you too to see you loved one's eyes light up this season.
            We will be showing at two holiday shows as well as posting a small selection online. I want to stress that these will be very limited edition collections with a small sampling of looks and pieces so hopefully people will enjoy their pieces of art as much as I did making them.

Craftland, The  Scrap Exchange, Durham, NC November 16th- January 18th- This is an annual holiday collection of local artists and crafters focusing on reused and recycled items. I will be showing a small collection of handmade accessories there.

Acorn to Oak Handmade Etsy Team Arts and Craft Sale, The Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC- December 8th from 12-6 pm- A one day show of fun looks and custom designers here in the Triangle. I love the variety of this show our team puts on semi-annually. This time we are partnering with the Visual Art Exchange in downtown Raleigh which promises to be a fun new twist.

For Everyone who is local, can't wait to see you at one or both shows. For everyone else, please feel free to follow online. We look forward to seeing you this season.

Yawy: We Will Be At SparkCon!

                          I just heard back from SparkCon and we will be at the BazaarSpark September 13th-16th. Come see us then at the Triangle's large talent call for artists and designers. I can't wait to see you then.

                           This is one of my favorite events to go to as you can really feel the sheer joy and enthusiasm from the crowd. The musical talent is particularly over the top awesome!

                          Yeah! Now to get back to work sewing fun product for the show. :-) Can't wait to surprise everyone in a couple of weeks.

April 21st: Guest Lecturing at the Visual Art Exchange

        This week, I will be downtown speaking at the Visual Art Exchange on Saturday, April 21st at 3:30 pm on selling online, specifically on Etsy and our local Acorn to Oak Handmade Team which is dedicated to helping local artists and craftsmen make a living selling online. A lot of people as me why I created a local team for this purpose and why I mention Etsy repeatedly as a good venue for up and coming artists to get started on making a living.
         Mostly, it gets down to money and time. Of the 24 some places I opened an online shop the first year I had a design company, the only place I ever sold art or crafts online was Etsy. There's a saying that without money, artists disappear. I don't know if it's true, but I do know that hunger is a great driver both into and out of a given field. As a designer, in a wonderful co-op, surrounded by great talent, I feel it is part of my job to help my fellow friends and companions grow. Since 1994, online sales are the only venue that's growing. That means for the last 20 years, the only pie that's growing is the internet pie. Having spent a decade in sales before starting Li Sashay, I can tell you that the internet is having a pervasive, eroding effect on traditional sales outlets. Traditional sales associates are being slashed out of the process as it becomes cheaper and easier to market to the online crowd. Why give 70% of the profit away when you can reduce it to 5-8% online?
        And therein, lies the problem, most artists find when they set up their webpage. You can set-up a store now for under $100 a yr. that will be interesting, well-designed, and protected. It will not however, get you traffic or sales. It is simply too easy and the bar too low for most people to be effectively heard online at this venture. Even with buying advertising on google, facebook, or starting a blog is generally useless for getting direct sales. So where can you be heard? In general there are three main selling platforms: Amazon, eBay, and Etsy for an artist to be heard on from a financial aspect. Of these, Amazon and eBay are so big, they are controlled mostly by larger corporations. 38% of eBay's income comes from a mere 14 companies. That leaves 1 place for an up and coming artist to be heard effectively: Etsy.
      No system is perfect, of the available platforms, this is the best at this time for getting traffic if you make unique or handmade items. Two years ago, a person needed between 25-50 items in their shop to make consistent sales. Today most people have increased the number to 100-300 items in a shop to sell effectively. I would place the number closer to the 200-300 mark if you want daily sales. For many part-time designers...this may represent a year or two of work, but still doable if you are willing to be patient. Etsy is a great place to get started and I highly recommend it. Alright, stop in Sat for the full lecture if you want specifics. I will have hand-outs with websites, names, and contact info for people who are looking for details. Hopefully this will help some of my fellow artists in the area. I won't claim to know it all, but am happy to offer up some wisdom from what has and has not worked for me. Please be aware that there are much more talented designers and artists in the area making a lot more than I am on Etsy at the moment. If you want to know more, I suggest talking to/contacting some of the other forum members if you want to find a good mentor or coming to one of our Tuesday night meetings.

Visual Art Exchange
309 West Martin Street
Raleigh, NC 27601

April Acorn to Oak Team Meetings and Cross-over Events

              Wow, April is fast approaching. This coming month the Acorn to Oak Team is doing a number of cross-over events with the Splat Space and the Visual Art Exchange in downtown Raleigh and Durham. It's nice to get out of the regular comfort zones and stretch the wings a little. I would also like to officially welcome Shannon Talton to our team as a leader. This title is long overdue for all her tireless hard work and contributions over the past year. Thank you, welcome, and we look forward to having you on board. Shannon runs Art'n'Silk (you can see one of her scarves here on a model  at right) as well as sharing office space with me. It's fun to see her work and if you've taken any of her classes I'm sure you've enjoyed painting on fabric with her.

For April we will start focusing on the first half our our look into the Twin Arts (Spinning and Weaving), Etextiles, and How-To-Run-A-Successful Online Storefront. The second half of the month will be several cross-over events with other art communities in the area.We love partnering with other artists and seeing them grown.


April 3rd: Barcodes and Wool

6-7 pm: How to set-up a Barcode Tracking System: A lot of designers get stuck taking their idea successfully to stores and selling it. A great idea needs legs and math. Math, that thing that makes artists run screaming for the hills. Many people are put off with the idea of how barcodes work or how to use them as a tool to leverage. It's too simple and cheap for people not to take advantage of this tool. With Amazon and many major companies requiring barcodes for their tracking systems, we will go over the history of barcodes and a 4 point way to sign up and register for your own barcode or series of barcodes inexpensively.

7-9 pm Beginning Spinning With HooksandEyes: Theresa is going to be feeding my unhealthy obsession with knitting handmade items for a few hours. You addicted to yarn too? Bring out your latest project: knitting, crocheting, loom weaving, you name it for fiber arts and we will spend a couple of hours knitting, crocheting, spinning, and watching her demonstration.

This event is free and open to the public at our Acorn to Oak Studio, 5825 Triangle Drive, Raleigh, NC 27617

April 17th: E-textiles: Cross-over Event with Splat Space

7-9 pm: This week we are having fun hanging out with a fellow design studio in Durham, Splat Space. These great guys are constant DIY tinkers. We will be looking at the new eTextiles Aniomagic, a design system people here are getting into using in their clothing and accessories. Aniomagic has replaced Lilypad for me in the past 6 months and I think it's ease of use is worth sharing.

This event has a $25 supply cost (You take home a kit at the end of the evening.). You can find Splat Space in downtown Durham at: 331 West Main Street, Durham, NC


April 21st: How-To-Sell-Online: Cross-over Event with Visual Art Exchange

3:3-4:30 pm: Acorn to Oak will be a small part of a workshop the Visual Art Exchange is hosting for beginning artists to help educate and help them grow. We are so flattered to be invited and can't wait to see where this leads. The Visual Art Exchange is a wonderful place downtown.

This event is free and open to the public. You can find the Visual Art Exchange in downtown Raleigh at: 309 West Martin Street  Raleigh, NC 27601. Hope to see you there.

I will post more details as each week nears. Have a great week and can't wait to have you drop by.