current art adventures
Take a look at the beautifully colourful world of Chloe Owens, full of 60s flower prints and vibrantly patterned animals. Scrolling through her website is a feast of creativity, and is well worth perusing. But be warned, you’ll come away bursting with inspiration, enthusiasm and oh so many things for your next Christmas present list!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I’ve been working on these delightful papercut crafts. I spent a lot of time working out how to age the pine frame to create an effective rustic charm. It involved hammering dents and chips into the wood, and then using a diluted wood stain to wash over the wood using an old cloth. Although its a time consuming process, I decided to do several shadow box frames at once – some smaller 5 x 5 inch frames I hope to fill and put in my etsy shop soon – and found it takes less time to do a batch than each individually!
The paper cut is made from natural brown card which reveals recycled paint charts underneath, showing a selection of charming earthy tones. Romantic-themed colour names are written underneath each heart in typewriter style lettering, and the title on the top reads ‘Colours of Love’. Since this is for sale in my etsy shop, I decided that I would make a version with the US spelling (‘Colors of Love’) and ask people to leave a note specifying which spelling they would prefer! I am so in love with this little framed paper cut I found it difficult to list it on etsy; it’s so sweet that I wanted to keep it for myself! So I had to promise myself that I would make a bigger version for my studio wall soon!
Also, I recently set up a facebook page and twitter account for my etsy shop, and welcome followers and ‘like’ers! My New Years Resolution was to keep all these social networking outlets up-to-date, and its going fantastically so far, especially since I worked out how to link the accounts together!
A few weeks ago I blogged about and uploaded my Typewriter totes on etsy. When I pressed two different coloured versions of the illustrations onto bags I was interested to see which would be more popular, and whether having different coloured versions was worth the extra time spent taking photos and listing online. As it happens, the two designs are roughly equal in their sales and favourites so far, although the orange version has been slightly more successful than the blue.
I think that having several colours available allows people who like the design to find something in your shop that compliments their colour tastes and usual colour scheme. Since I transfer all the designs onto my tote bags in my studio, rather than sending my designs to be printed wholesale by someone else, it makes it relatively easy to make the same design in different colours, and I can make more of one colour variation easily if it proves to be more popular than the rest!
Following this, when I was drawing my Make Tea Not War design last week, indulging in several wonderful cups of delicious tea for inspiration, I decided to make use two different colours for the totes again. I chose a charming turquoise-y blue and a beautiful shade of slightly burnt red which is very in trend this season. I am very pleased with results, and can’t decide which of the two I prefer! Any thoughts?
Oh, and don’t forget to take a peek at my new facebook page for my etsy shop!
I dug out my typewriter a few weeks ago to type some addresses on my Christmas envelopes and was prompted to draw an ode to the wonderful machine. On one hand, it looks nothing like the typewriter I drew – my one being a weighty, battered, portable machine with a sturdy black leather handle on the case. But on the other hand, it is still a typewriter.
It is not unusual for my typewriter to come out in intervals, staying on the desk in my studio, and experiencing regular use on letters, crafts and journal entries, before retreating back into its case for a fortnight or two, whilst my mind is occupied by other things.
I felt the drawing might translate well into a bag design, like the ones in my etsy shop. I tried out so many colours, and narrowed them down to the orange and the blue. My decision-making quota had been filled for that day, so I decided to make both and see how other people like them! I find lots of feedback comes through my shop facebook page and twitter, which is a great way to connect with customers and keep them up-to-date with exciting stories and new creative adventures!
I finished colouring this in Photoshop a few days ago. A bear, in a library – part of an in-joke which I won’t explain. I was planning on painting it in watercolour but I find I enjoy digitally colouring a little more. Plus, I always decide I want to change the colours at various points during the process, which is considerably easier to correct on a computer than on paper!
