SOTW -- Faerytalewings

Our shop of the week features a match made in Heaven: Lydia and Curtis Kinsey! Lydia is the artist who keeps a shop full of colorful designs to delight young and old alike and also some thoughtfully lovely pen-and-ink sketches. Curtis does some art, but is mainly the background support structure who handles the business end (and also can take a lot of the credit for our ETT website!)

Lydia's designs are very recognizeable. She often uses a softer palette and doesn't draw in an over-complicated manner. From her haunting Undine to her I-can-almost-smell-it Hot Chocolate Cocoa and Marshmallows, her body of work offers something for virtually everyone. Got an idea that you'd love? Just ask! Lydia is open to personalizing a work for you!

"Because we live in Florida," Lydia says "the landscape and weather influences the painting. Take for example Ripe Lemon Yellow Seascape"--it is basically a Gulf Coast sunset!

Lydia has had several inspirational events and people in her life. She was fortunate to travel to Italy at the impressionable age of 14. She was further inspired by Elaine Dubin, her painting instructor for several years. Sticking to her own style, she also admires artist Frank Frazetta for his bold colors and sculptural men and women. Says Lydia, "No little stick ladies!"

Feeling strongly about art, Lydia would put her money to good use if she had $1 million and had to give away every penny. She would donate it to "small school arts programs, because politicians will never, ever, ever understand the importance or need for art in the curriculum."

The following piece by Lydia is an ACEO: "Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards" as defined by wikipedia.

Faerytalewings is offering
Use the code ETTSOTW for
15% off all items in the Etsy Shop
~~~~~~~~~~
Etsy Shop: http://www.faerytalewings.etsy.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/faerytalewings
Facebook: http://www.on.fb.me/faerytalewings
Blog/Portfolio: http://www.faerytalewings.com (not a blog right now, but will point to a portfolio website very soon, with coming attractions!)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/LydiaKinsey
Website: http://www.faerytale-wings.deviantart.com

Written by Judy of WellspringCreations

Shop of the Week - inmyheadstudios

Our Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week is inmyheadstudios featuring altered mixed-media domino and game piece jewelry, microscope slide glass pendants, ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals) by the talented Vickie Porter.

In describing her work, Vickie puts it best "I have a seriously good/bad relationship with perfectionism so my customers can rest assured they are getting top quality materials and artwork. It’s sometimes hard to tell in photos online, but the dominoes and microscope slide glass pendants have real tiny paper collages on them. I work with ridiculously small pieces of paper sometimes.

"My new line of archival prints on my domino jewelry has allowed me to reach new levels of detail for such a tiny canvas. I have been creating larger mixed media collage work in the same proportions as the dominoes. I scan and print them out in wood domino size, which is 1 3/4 inches x 7/8 inches. I usually add another layer of detail to the little collage to make the domino special."

For such a variety of beautiful and intricate results, Vickie gets her inspiration from colors, lines, and shapes (basically everything). "I simply have to create or I’m not happy. It’s like needing air." It follows that Vickie is not confined by rules, but lets her inspiration and creativity have full rein. While she may not stick to one medium, she admits, "Central to almost everything I do is paper. I love paper."

For the upcoming seasons, Vickie plans to show her work at as many shows as she can fit into her schedule. She has big holiday plans, however to add domino Christmas tree ornaments and admits to having a "couple other things up my sleeve"...so we have some holiday surprises to look forward to in her etsy shop!

Vickie is happy to take custom orders and ships internationally, too!

On the business side, Vickie is adept at Twitter (via TweetDeck) and recommends the team to "Engage! Talk. Share! Provide quality content. Comment on links posted. Retweet. Actually, I rarely tweet about my shop. I probably should tweet it more. I get irritated with Etsy sellers who only tweet their shop links. Tell me about you and what is important to you. Let me get to know you. What excites you about your work? I’m way more likely to buy from you that way."

Tweeting links can be time-consuming to research, but Vickie has a tip to share! "One of my tricks is using Google Reader to find quality content to share. I have a feed set up for the keyword “creativity”. So every morning I have a big shiny new list of articles about creativity, which is a subject I really like to read about. When I read really good articles, I tweet them. Providing this kind of content gets me retweeted a lot and that in turn gets my name out there."

For bringing traffic to inmyheadstudios, Vickie has this tip to share: Connect "with people online in a combination of places– Twitter, Facebook, Ning sites. You have to talk about you or no one else will be talking about you. Get out there! All The Universe asks is that you show up."



FREE shipping to anywhere
from August 16-22!
Discount applied through
prompt PayPal refund.
No need for coupons or codes!
~~~~~~~
Etsy Shop: http://inmyheadstudios.etsy.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/inmyheadstudios
Blog: http://inmyheadstudios.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InMyHeadStudios
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inmyheadstudios
Written by Judy of WellspringCreations

Shop of the Week: Tamara Garvey

A sense of humor is something we all could use more of these days and this week’s Shop of the Week delivers! Tamara Garvey, of TamaraGarvey.etsy.com, has some really cute and beautiful illustrations. Her style is quirky and fun! For example, the drawing pictured above, "Burglars and Russian Nesting Dolls", actually made me laugh out loud.

“I draw fun, whimsical, pen-and-ink scenes, usually involving at least one animal and/or tree, as these are my favorite things to study and draw! I sell them as prints in different sizes, including ACEOs, as well as note card sets.

I'm really inspired by the classic pen-and-ink artists Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley. My drawings are made with care in my cute home studio, usually with my dog snoozing on the floor nearby. I'm saving up for a large-format printer of my own so that I can have complete control over my prints (that sounds diabolical! mua ha ha), but in the meantime I have them done at a print shop nearby that does an awesome job. My prints have great color and are printed on nice quality card stock.

My drawings are inspired by my walk to work through Savannah, Georgia's squares, magazines, other artists/crafters on Etsy, color combinations of a stranger's outfit, tattoos, particularly cute dogs at the dog park...anything really!”

Tamara has a degree in Illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design and a B.S. in Biology from Mary Washington College. Her biology background comes through in her piece titled “Enchantment under the Sea” – it’s like looking into a microscope and seeing all sorts of neat little creatures swimming around in the pond water.

When asked about her Twittering: “It took me a while to get used to Twitter, but now I am really into it! I try hard to maintain a mix of promotional (whether self- or other-) tweets with replies or random thoughts, to keep a personal touch to things. I love keeping in touch with my Etsy team members, seeing what they're creating, and what's new with them. I have made some great connections with other artists and crafters especially. One girl in particular, a freelance illustrator, has pretty much become my mentor as I develop my own illustration career! I think it is amazing that a new site can have such an effect.”

She ships everywhere and all her illustrations are shipped wrapped in a waterproof cellophane sleeve, sandwiched between pieces of thick, non-bending cardboard.

Follow her on her blog and on Twitter!

Special for the Week: Put “EtsyTwitter” into the “Messages for the Seller” box and await a revised invoice with a 15% discount off any of her items! (If you forget, just send her a convo.)

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade tamaragarvey.etsy.com