Friday's Featured Artist - Meri GreenLeaf!

One of my favorite parts about being an on-line seller is that I make all sorts of wonderful friends! Susan (who goes by Meri on-line for the most part) has fast become one of those friends. We have many of the same interests and spend a lot of time talking on plurk! So it is my great pleasure to introduce her to you as this week's featured artist :) Click on any of the pictures you see below to be taken to the listing.

1.What type of art work do you do?

Name it, I probably do it. ;) I crochet, make jewelry and chainmaille, sculpt, paint (usually on fabric) and draw, make dreamcatchers, spin (and sometimes dye) yarn, and sew (handsew- I don't know how to use a sewing machine). My main one is the crochet, though; even a lot of my jewelry is crocheted. Most of what I make is fantasy-

related, but I also make things inspired by nature.

2.How did you get started doing art work?

I've always been into art; in elementary school I'd stay in at lunchtime to help in the art room, and in high school I stayed after school almost every day to work in the pottery classroom (pottery was my obsession back then, but I haven't had a chance to work in it since). I also used to make a lot of plastic jewelry when I was a kid. For the things I do now, I started crocheting about four years ago all because I wanted a Hufflepuff scarf from Harry Potter, and I haven't put down my hooks since. The rest of the art I do I've picked up in the few years since, mostly teaching myself

and winging it as I go along.

3.Do you do any other crafts?

I think I already answered this- yes, I do a lot of them. :)

4.Is there a story behind your shop name?

Both “Elfling Creations” and my Etsy shop “Elbit Enterprises” (although I may be changing that one to match at some point- I just haven't done that yet) come from the race of my alias/persona (and old roleplay character) who is a half elf/half halfling (or hobbit); I combined those races and got “Elbit” originally, but lately have switched over to using the combined “Elfling” instead. I go by “Meri Greenleaf” online (and sometimes in real life, as well); that was the name of my old roleplay character that has become my alter-ego (nope, I'm not a Legolas fangirl, just a huge fan of Mirkwood; “Thranduiliell” [the original second part of the name] would have been too hard for people to find me with. Besides, “Greenleaf” fits me well because I'm obsessed with the color green and forests).

5.What's your favorite piece in your shop right now?

Oh geez, that's a hard one! I love making everything I do! I think it may be Wynmaeg, my crocheted renaissance wench plushie.

(featured at the top of the post)

She's one of my older plushies, but I had so much fun making her and coming up with all the accessories for her outfit- and I love dressing up for the Renfaire, so it was fun getting to make a costumed doll.

But then again, my favorite could be this faerie cat, named after my own black kitty Clarabell. (featured to the right)

That doll isn't perfect (it was my first attempt at making an animal pattern), but I think it's adorable. Then again, I may be biased because it's based off my fur-baby. ;)

6.Where do you sell your work?

I'm on a few random online craft selling sites, but my two main ones are Artfire and Etsy:

http://merigreenleaf.artfire.com

http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com

My website is http://elflingcreations.com but I don't actually sell on that site; I use it to link to my other shops.

7.Do you blog?

Yup- I love blogging! My art blog is in two places- the main one is on blogger (http://merigreenleaf.blogspot.com) but I also crosspost most of the entries to my art livejournal (http://elbit-blog.livejournal.com).

8.Are you on any social networks you'd like to share?

I'm on a whole bunch, but Plurk is my favorite. :) These are the ones I use most:

http://twitter.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.plurk.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.ravelry.com/people/merigreenleaf

http://www.myspace.com/merigreenleaf

http://www.facebook.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.flickr.com/photos/merigreenleaf

http://merigreenleaf.deviantart.com

9.Do you watch or listen to anything while you work? If so, what?

A lot of the time when I'm working I'll listen to audiobooks (literature, mostly- I love http://librivox.org because that site has free audiobooks that are in the public domain) or comedy (usually Eddie Izzard- I love him!) on my iPod, but sometimes I'll also try to read at the same time (that one's a bit hard to do, lol) or watch tv (also distracting). When I'm listing and editing photos I'll often listen to music- usually Blackthorn, Enter the Haggis, Hanson, Spin Doctors, Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, and Tonic, as well as the occasional filk or video game song (yeah, my playlist is pretty eclectic). I've recently started streaming Pandora Radio, too, so I get to listen to all sorts of fun Celtic and Celtic rock bands that I hadn't heard of before. :)

10.Tell us one random fact about your self *wink*

Just one? Hmm... well, besides being an artist, my main goal in life is to become a professor of British Literature, hopefully being able to focus on the Renaissance- I have a thing for Renaissance plays. Besides art, books are my obsession.

I recently won a cartilage chain earring like the one you see above from Meri in a blog contest! Pictures will be coming soon :)

Friday's Featured Artist - Spirit Essence Art

This weeks artist is a gal with not only incredibly talent - but a huge heart! Arlene of Spirit Essence Art has been a huge encouragement to me, and I hope that you love her art work as much as I do!

1. What type of art work do you do?

Right now, I am a painter using watercolors and oils. I also enjoy creating pages in my art journal, which sometimes in which I use paints, collage techniques, and the use of markers, pens, and a bit of stamping.

2. How did you get started doing art work?

I started doing crafts many years ago, from macramé to pottery, and stained glass. I even had my own brick and mortar stained glass supply and gift shop for several years. It was during this period that I decided to take a drawing class, so I would feel more secure about drawing up my own custom designed stained glass patterns for clients. The class I took was divided into two sections. The first section, that I was in, consisted of people taking the drawing course. The second one had the students that were taking painting.

I learned a lot about drawing, though I was intrigued with what the painting students were doing and I kept walking over to the easels to see what those people were doing. The following semester, I signed up for the class again, but this time signed up for the painting segment! That’s how I learned to paint with oil paints, and I have loved painting ever since. This past year I have been teaching myself the use of watercolors, and am fascinated with how different they are from oils.

3. Do you do any other crafts?

Well, I still have all my stained glass gear and am actually teaching beginning stained glass at the local community college. I also have spent years creating glass treasures by fusing it in glass kilns, including jewelry and other, larger art pieces. I am not doing any new glass creating these days, though I still have a lot of pieces that I created last year, and that are in my Artfire shop.

4. What's your favorite piece in your shop right now?

Of the glass pieces, I would say it is my Rainbow Border Square Glass Bowl because I just love the spectrum of clear colors or the Red Starfish Dichroic Glass Pendant because of the sparkly glass in it and the starfish is a special symbol to me.

Of the paintings in my shop, my favorite one is my Underworld Fantasy Watercolor because it was so free and spontaneous, and I love the colors in it.

5. Where do you sell your work?

Right now I only have a shop on Artfire.com though I am looking for more venues for my paintings, especially ones that will offer the possibility of prints. http://www.artfire.com/users/SpiritEssenceArt

6. Do you blog?

Yes I do! I love to blog now, though it was difficult at first for me to post regularly, since I couldn’t conceive in the past that anyone would be interested in what I was doing. Now, I especially like to post in my blog since I am creating so often, to share what I have created as well as any of my “process” – both my internal process and some of how and what I use to create the paintings. I realized that I just love reading others’ blogs with this kind of information, so I want to share my own so others might also enjoy what I am learning and experiencing. For me it is a way to reach out to others and share myself, something that I am making more of an effort to do lately. For anyone who is interested, my blog is http://www.SpiritEssenceArt.com and I love to have new viewers as well as comments.

7. Are you on any social networks you'd like to share?

Yes I am: I am on Twitter (www.twitter.com/arlenemh), Facebook (www.facebook.com/arlenemh), Plurk (www.plurk.com/spiritessenceart) and a few other smaller networks.

8. Do you watch or listen to anything while you work? If so, what?

Sometimes I listen to music while I work, often some New Age kind of music or motivational music, but more often than not, I love the silence of my studio and enjoy just hearing the birds singing or my own thoughts in my head.

9. Tell us one random fact about your self *wink*

Though I am a US citizen, I lived for 10 years in New Zealand and am a permanent resident there. I went there because I had met and fell in love with my husband at an international spiritual / personal growth retreat in Australia, and he was from there. I went to join him in the South Island of New Zealand where he lived, and we were married there eventually. They were wonderful years and I grew a lot as an individual and loved the natural surroundings and lovely people there.

Friday's Feature - Robyn's Art!

Last night we had a great show and interview with Robyn of Robyn's Art! If you'd like to hear the show go here. Click on any of the pictures you see in this post to go to their etsy listing. Here's a little bit of what we learned about Robyn last night :)

Robyn is an artist with many talents. She loves photography and said that she always takes her camera with her! Recently she's taken up hiking as both a fun exercise, and a way to find even more incredible photo opportunities.

One thing that was a lot of fun for me in interviewing Robyn is the fact that we're from the same area! So many of her photos are of my favorite places - like the above photo of Multnomah Falls.

Do you ever go searching for the perfect journal - but get frustrated with the over-priced and impersonal selections that can be found in the local stores? Well, Robyn also sells journals! Not only can you find some fantastic one's in her shop now - she told us of her plans to continue to expand and improve her line of journals :)

Want to get to know Robyn better? Here's where you can find her!

Robyn's Shop

Robyn's Blog

Follow Robyn on Twitter!

Robyn is also a part of the Pluggers United Team and the Bookbinders of Etsy Street Team.

12 Days of Christmas - Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday's post, here's the second half of The 12 Days of Christmas - etsy style!

"On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me - seven swans a swimming..." Isn't this swan incredible? Bellacrochet has incredible talent and she's selling the pattern to make this swan for only $6.95!

"On the eight day of Christmas my true love gave to me - eight maids a milking..." I love the detail on this vintage ornament that smalls4utoo is selling for $15 dollars!

"On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - nine ladies dancing..." I saw this card by paulapaula and just knew I had to feature it, not only are the ladies adorable in their whimsy, I love the fact that they aren't skinny! *wicked giggle* And only $3 for such fun? That's a steal!

"On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - ten Lords a leaping..." I'm one of those crazy artists who always loves learning new crafts - and so I love seeing the different "make it yourself" kits that show up on etsy! Isn't this $3.95 card kit by popupcardmaking cute?

"On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me - eleven pipers piping..." Talk about innovative - this piper is painted on an old eyeglass lens!  I don't know where lowercaseg came up with this, but I can't believe it's only $10 for something so detailed!

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - twelve drummers drumming..." Ok, so this drummer is from the "Little Drummer Boy" song...but that's one of my favorite songs...so hey! Who cares right? $65 for this lovely piece by Mysweetpumpkins :)

12 Days of Christmas - Part 1

John Denver - Muppets Christmas - The 12 Days Of Christmas

I heard a version of this song on the radio when I was driving with my Mom the other day and it got me thinking, which as you all probably know by now, can be dangerous! :P You see, Mom had heard people talking on the radio about how much actually doing the 12 days of Christmas would cost in today's dollars, and then someone called in and said, "Well here's a more inventive way to do it cheaper..." And of course my brain immediately said, "How about the ETSY way of doing the 12 days of Christmas?" So, without further ado, here's the first 6 days of Christmas, with an etsy twist :) I'll post the next 6 days tomorrow!

"On the first day of Christmas my true love game to me - a partridge in a pear tree." Here's a lovely mixed media collage of just that! Made with italian Stationary - it's only $6 right now in sushipot's shop!

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me - Two Turtledoves..." These lovely ornaments by GriffinCircle are made with silk, velvet, real feathers, and seed beads! Aren't they gorgeous? And only $25 for such lovely work!

"On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me - Three french hens..." By kikibonan - At $16, this is the perfect shirt to relax in this holiday season :)

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - four calling birds..." Wouldn't you just LOVE to have this ornament by 00sarahelizabeth00 on your tree? I'd gladly pay the $9.95 for such beautiful work...now if only I had a tree...

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - 5 golden rings..." This lovely print by TempestStudios is only $5 - and is part of a larger Christmas series! I love the colors in this piece!

"On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - six geese a laying..." Ok, so there's only one goose on this stocking by devzbagz - but it's so cute! And only $14 for a handmade Christmas stocking? That's a steal!

I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the song!

Bazaar Time!

Yesterday was an exhilarating and frustrating experience. I love the adrenaline of being in a bazaar/fair atmosphere, but I'll admit that my body isn't very happy with me as a result, but more on that later.

My brother (usually referred to as my geek consultant, but yesterday was operating as my jewelry set up slave), asked me yesterday, "Where on earth did the term bazaar come from? Is it because the stuff people sell is so strange?" I thought that was pretty cute, but it also got me curious.  So this is what I found:

"The word bazaar derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Pahlavi word baha-char (بهاچار) meaning "the place of prices".^[1]
During the time of the Crusades, when Europe and the Middle East had
their first major encounters and cultural dissemination took place, the
word was assimilated into Italian as bazzara, before being transferred to English in its current form, bazaar.^[2] While currently the word is most often used to denote outdoor shopping areas, particularly those of Islamic origins, the word is sometimes used loosely to refer to such places and events as flea markets or swap-meets." ~New World Encyclopedia

My wonderful Mom took that picture of me and my table yesterday! if I get healthier again, and I'm able to do more fairs and such, I have a lot of work I want to do on my displays.  This works for now though! I did get some ideas from another jewelry vendor on some cheap ways to create displays :) 

I didn't make very much money yesterday - but I did make some - so that makes me happy! My mother-in-law and I had a lot of fun chatting and working together.  We purposely had our tables next to each other so she could watch mine if I needed it and I could watch hers.  Part of that was because I left for about an hour to make an appearance at a family Christmas party, but an unspoken part of that was the concern that I might not make it through the whole day, and that my asthma would flair.  Fortunately it didn't! Not while I was there at least >_>

One of the amusing things about yesterday was a play on names.  My mother-in-law and I, for those who don't know, are both named Ruth.  So that got a little confusing at times! Usually people call her Ruth and me Ruthie, but some people call her Ruthie as well, and either way hearing "Ruth" called across the room would get both of us turning to respond!

The other really amusing thing was our "shop names."  Ruth doesn't sell as a business, she does it for charity, and she's been doing it since before we met.  I had my shop name in mind long before I opened it, and long before she told me hers.  So yesterday we had "Ma Rose" and "Rose Works Jewelry" right next to each other, and the two "Roses" run by two Ruth's was totally not planned! Well, I mean, we did plan to be next to each other, but the name thing wasn't! People were talking about it all day :P She's "Ma Rose" because, when she was a missionary to the Philippines, they called her Ma Rose because they were unable to pronounce the "th" in Ruth.  I've just always loved the name Rose and loved Roses :)

Now here's the set-back from yesterday.  My asthma has been getting much better, I'm still really weak and all, but I had high hopes for the future.  I still have high hopes, but yesterday showed me I'm not doing quite as well as I thought I was.  I've been having a lot of asthma problems and massive headaches since last night.  While I am getting better as the day goes on - I was pretty non-functional all morning. So, while I was hoping to maybe research and see if there were any winter fairs I could participate in, I'm currently thinking I'll need to wait until spring.  Which is frustrating, but it all balances out!

There have been a lot of good things going on in my business life that I can focus on instead of getting frustrated about not being strong enough to do fairs right now. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to be starting the process this week to set up a consignment account at a local bead store, I'm super-excited about that!  Then I got an e-mail from my mother-in-law today, apparently one of the gals from church who was at the bazaar wants to show some of my jewelry where she works! I have no idea where she works or what this might end up looking like, but that's exciting none-the-less! 

The other two things that I'm super-excited about it are Blockhead Radio and Pluggers United!  As you know if you follow this blog, last Thursday was the premier of my new show on Blockhead Radio co-hosted with the fabulous Lily of Tulips Treasure Box! We've gotten excellent feed-back on the show (Thanks guys!) and it looks like we'll be moving to a prime time slot as a result!

Pluggers United is a new etsy team forming as a result of Blockhead Radio. Rod, the King Plugger Lugger and producer of Blockhead Radio, has always had a focus on "plugging" other artisans.  Thus his title :) That's what the radio station is all about! Helping and supporting artisans.  Now his wife, Annette of Huckleberry Arts, the often unrecognized motivator behind Rod's work, has started this new team to help band together the Blockhead fans and to help organzing the work we love to do!  Here's the info about the new team:

"We are artisans for artisans....working together we can gain more exposure for team members and their shops. This is done through the radio shows, blogs, advertising, guerrilla marketing, entrecard generator, website, etc. We will be doing charity events also.

Only requirements for members:

1. Join the Yahoo Group and add your info to the databases. This is needed for team guerrilla marketing.

2. Place the Pluggers United badge on your blog.

3. Blog about one of your team members at least once a month. You pick them. This is done on the honor system and you do not have to
report it.

4. Try and sell on of your team members item during the month. Blog post, twitter, etc. One item specifically......honor system here too.

We will not allow any calling out, blasting sites, etc. This WILL be a fun and friendly team. We are here to support each other."

So come join the fun!

Thursdays Interview - The Chain Maille Lady!

Yesterday was the first episode of Thursday Spotlight on Artisan, my new radio show with my fabulous co-host Lily, of Tulips Treasure Box! Many thanks go out to Rod, the King Plugger Lugger, for giving us this wonderful opportunity!   Each Friday I'll be doing a short recap of the show, and featuring some of the lovely items from that week's artist :) To listen to yesterday's show go here. It was a blast!

This week's interview was Lauren, of The Chain Maille Lady, and she did a fabulous job!  Lauren creates gorgeous chain maille jewelry.  She's been doing so for about 4 years now, and creates an incredible variety of pieces!  Looking in her shop you'll find bracelets, necklaces, earrings, dream catchers, celtic stars, and more! Quality is key with Lauren, and she works hard to insure that none of her pieces will ever snag your skin or clothes. 

One thing that Lauren is doing that I think is awesome is she's raising money for research to cure Polycystic Kidney Disease.  Here's a little blurb she wrote about that: For
the month of November & December 10% of your purchase from my shop
will be donated to the PKD Foundation (Polycystic Kidney Disease) in
honor of my father and uncle who lost their lives to the disease (I
also have the disease). For more information on the foundation please
visit http://www.pkdcure.org/. Thank you in advance for your support. Donation to date: $71.80

Want to learn more about Lauren and see more of her work? You can find The Chain Maille Lady on Etsy, 1000 Markets, The Maille Market, and on her Blog!

Lauren would tell you that one the best ways to get your work known on etsy, and to find support, is to join teams. She's a part of the California Crafters Club of Etsy, the Etsy Chainmaillers' Guild, and the Fantasy Artists of Etsy. 

Here's a few of my favorite pieces from Lauren's shop!

Large Celtic Star in Pink, Dark Purple, and Silver



Mini coat of Arm(or) II Bracelet



Pink Passion Earrings

On a more personal note - I mentioned last night that I had a friend coming over to teach me some chain maille work.  Oh my goodness! I have so much more respect for chain maille artists - and I always was really impressed by them!  It's a lot of very finicky work.  I've started learning the basic 4 in 1 weave, but I've learned that I can't do it when my hands are shaking, and so I wasn't able to work on it for very long last night.  But I will keep working on it! Because it's fun, and I'm one of those crazy people who wants to learn everything :P

Whew!

I feel like I've been going none stop all day long! I finally have internet access again and I've slowly started catching up on all the blog posts that I missed.  I felt so left out! I'm having fun reading everything, but it's taking me awhile :P So if I haven't been by your blog yet, don't worry, I should be soon!  I've been starting by catching up with my etsybloggers, and I plan on returning to my normal entre card drops tomorrow if at all possible!

Yesterday was really exciting! My dear hubby and I were talking as we drove to the bead store about building a web-site.  He's a geek-extraordinaire, and has offered to build one for me.  My first reaction was, "I'm managing enough sites with etsy and three blogs!"  Then, as I thought about it more, I began to see more and more possibilities for having my own web-site.  One of the things that I'd really like to do in the near future is start working on getting some consignment and wholesale accounts in the local area.  I was thinking I'd try to get cracking on that after the New Year.  So I was thinking that it would be fantastic to have a web-site that I could put in a brochure for consignments and wholesale accounts.  That way I can produce a small brochure, and then say, "for futher examples please see ...."  My dear hubby loved the idea and we talked about the whole to the bead store!

At the bead store I had several things I was looking for specifically, and I ended up in a long conversation with the store owner.  I have a new project I want to try, the patterns from a book, so I was double checking with her that I had the right materials.  As we chatted we ended up talking about many things, and I showed her a macrame piece that I had in my pocket (working on it in the car), she was very impressed! Which surprised me since I've just started working with macrame...  Anyway, next thing I know she was telling me that she loves to support local artisans and if I ever wanted to sell in her shop to let her know! 

I was floored, and super excited! We talked over details and I'll be going back in the next few weeks to set it all up! I couldn't believe that we'd JUST been talking about trying to pursue opportunities like this, and one was handed to me, dropped right in my lap.  Isn't that exciting?

Today was our first radio program on Blockhead Radio! I'll be telling you more about that tomorrow - so stay tuned!  I'll just say for now that I think it really well :)

I wanted to share a blog post with you that a friend of mine put together.  I thought it was really inciteful and I'm looking forward to reading the rest she has to share!  Go here to find the blog post :)

Oh yes, and for anyone who has been wondering, I do plan on resuming my promotions series, hopefully Saturday or Sunday.