Treasure!

I have been included in three treasuries today - this is a record for me and has made me super happy.

The first was called 'Come and open up your folding chair next to me' by LeenGreenBean and included my blue Floating Vivid Pattern Collage print.

The second was titled 'Feeling blue...' by ChiccaBijouxCreations and was decidedly more cheerful than you would imagine! It included my original Vintage Winter Woodland collage.

The third was called 'Creative a Collage' by bbrunophotography and included my Crimson Atlas original collage piece.

Happy Friday everyone - hope you are all looking forward to a great weekend.

Vick.

Swans & Horses & Heroes...

I've started putting my new constellation collection online. I talked about the process over here and now they are up in the shop.

I've done four so far and I am now experimenting with the more dense (artistically, not in physics terms - I didn't do very well in physics at school) groups to see how they will work.

It's also time to think about Christmas. I wish I was kidding but I've already signed up for two Christmas craft fairs. I know I said I was going to be focusing on my online sales but it would be stupid to miss the holiday crafting sales opportunities. They are huge. So, there's that but also Etsy starts really gearing up now. Christmas cards will be going up along with decorations and gift tags, presents etc.etc. Once we are over the Halloween, Thanksgiving, start of Fall (autumn) bump it will be full steam ahead for Christmas.

Exhausting, right? But more on that later. For now I am going back to my stars.

Vick.

Print Preview

Exciting news! Well, I am excited by it and it's news.

I am selling small scale prints of my collages on Etsy. For now it is focused on my 5"x7" original collages. I am looking to sell prints of the larger art works as well but I will need to sort out the details of this, but I expect to be selling 6"x4" prints of the A4 pieces at least by the end of the month.

Obviously by selling them as prints the price has come down so it's a nice way of having a wider range of prices in my shop. All of the new prints will be 6"x4" and will be for sale at $20.00 over in the Collage section of Etsy.

So far there are fourteen of them up there and I am working on getting more on as we speak.

As ever there are lots of things going on with various art projects and other little ideas that I am working on but getting all of these ready and sorting out postage, plus new titles and descriptions has been taking a little while.

Happy weekend everyone,
Vick.

Today #4

A slight delay as the real world fought its way back into my little studio sanctuary. And then lunch.
But back to work now with some backgrounds set up. I think it might be time to brainstorm.

In the long gap I made an A4 collage based on a photograph that I took outside the Free Library of Philadelphia a couple of years back. Starting with some text. If you can't see clearly enough these are sections of text taken from gravestones - one of my favourite materials.

And then added some vintage postage stamps onto the top.

So that eventually it looked a little bit like that.

It fits into the series that I have already started on Etsy. I'll take a picture of it in a frame when the light is better. Still no sunshine over here! Back to brainstorming.

Vick.

Today #3

So I've been playing around with backgrounds. I generally use one of four types of background.

1. A photograph

Photographs can be either old ones that I look with my lovely Nikon FE (yes I still use it, and love it) but haven't made it into albums. Or they can be printed ones. The cards are usually real photos and the collages (because they are larger) and mostly printed.

2. Text from a book

Choosing the book is a long, complicated business. Probably need a whole post on that alone, so I won't go into it. Copyright, font, page size, content, cost. Many factors. I cut or tear the sections that I want and then stick them onto a plain background, which I guess is really a blank paper background. Speaking of which...

3. Blank paper

Either entirely blank or with a basic design sketched out so that I can work around it and see where I want things to end up. I also think I managed the most boring photo ever taken there but really how exciting can a blank piece of paper get? (Honestly - any ideas?)

4. Maps

This is even more complicated than the books as copyright is much harder with maps. But I do just adore atlases and so occasionally I use them, but carefully. Plus you can have great fun with them - moving things around and sticking things in certain places. The geo-politics geek in me comes out whenever I get to do that. 

Now. I have to go and stick some things down for backgrounds. Spray glue not allowed in the studio - need a door to open!

Vick.

Today #2

So. I seem to have chosen a dark and overcast day to do this which means my pictures are not as good as I would like them to be. Even if I don't get a finished piece, or a set of ideas out of today I have already done something useful. When I sell pieces, either cards or art, on Etsy I like to include a picture of the materials that have gone into the piece. It shows a little of the process and helps to let people know that I work with printed materials rather than digital collage.

This is something that I have been working on for a couple of weeks now but haven't posted because I wanted some feedback first. I have mentioned several times before that I started making collages when I wanted a way of combining my poetry with my scrap-books and I thought I would have another go at it now I have been working more on collage and know a bit more what I am doing.

This is the 'finished' product. I am working in very small sizes at the moment so that I can see if I like what it looks like. I've also got some new backgrounds for the words so that I'm not printing straight onto plain white paper. I would really like this to tie into my 3RW poems so I can start using the poems I have written with my random-word contributions in my artwork.

But one step at a time! And now that step is coffee...

Vick.

Today #1

Today I had a plan. I was going to research four websites that I am interested in using to display artworks and cards. I woke up pretty early after a reasonably late night and started looking at said websites. I was pretty much in awe of the other artists I found there and realised that after looking at them I wanted to spend the day doing something creative instead.

One of the Etsy labs recordings was with a non-hippie version (her words!) of a life coach called Michelle Ward who said that it was important to do the business things when you wanted and the creative side when you felt that was important as well.

So today I decided to clear all the bills, receipts, taxes, research books and other rubbish from my desk and fill it with creative things to try and play again and maybe find a direction for my new collection.

I have a series of larger art pieces that have no coherence and I want to know if any of these can be starting points for larger collections or whether I should maybe do a things-I-made-without-thinking collection and see what I end up with in a year. A whole bunch of pieces of art that I make in between the organised collections.

I announced on Twitter that I was going to be playing with art today and said I might include pictures. At that point I thought it might be fun to blog as I went along.

One of the great things about selling online is that people can either see your work and like it and decide to buy it (or not!) or they can dig around deeper and find out more about you as an artist. It just doesn't work like that at craft fairs or art shops. It's a very different way of buying and selling.

So this is a nice thing to have if anyone wants to see how I start ideas for collections. I have a whole bunch of thoughts and scrabble around. Honestly I have no idea what I will end up with at the end of the day. This could very easily be a waste of time with nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

More soon!

Vick.

All Hail Etsy

Etsy has been all change recently. The virtual labs have gone! Now, I read everything that the Etsy admins said about this and I understand, but it still makes me sad, I learnt so much in the Labs. Livestream is great but since they switched I barely ever bother going in to listen - I am going to make more of an effort from now on. There is a wealth of knowledge on that site and one of the best things about it is that almost everyone is willing to help others out.

Everything is changing. I am taking lots of advice, actually that's not new. For people who know me outside of Etsy they might be surprised at how much I seek out advice on Etsy and crafting/art in general. I love hearing other people's ideas and have a new page (called a lens for some bizarre reason) over on Squidoo after taking the advice of a lovely Etsyer.

I am also looking to bulk out my shop. I'm not sure what this will be with but this was the reason behind the 100-100 post a little while back. I'm aiming to be posting much more often, of  course as soon as I determine that I am going to do this a whole host of other things happen to get in the way!

I realise that there is a lot of a mixture on the blog so if people haven't had a poke around Etsy (I'm not trying to drive you to my shop now!) there is an awful lot of amazing stuff on there and it is very well organised. There are so many different ways to find handmade and vintage products, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Vick.

p.s. The pictures I used today are the ones that I used as the background to my latest collages that I was working on over the weekend! See - not entirely random.

100 - 100.

I've set a new goal for myself on Etsy. I want to get 100 pieces in my shop and then get as many as possible with over 100 views. Maybe even one day I can be aiming for 100 hearts as well!
I know that the more items in a shop the better chance you have to stand out from everyone else so this is the new aim.

I'm putting lots of greetings cards on at the moment and once this section is done I'm going to spend a couple of weeks making a whole group of new collages. I've got some fun ideas to play around with so that's pretty exciting too.

I'm still writing the poetry but it felt like too long without an art blog post so here's what I've been doing with this part of my life!

Vick.

Consignment

I'm still collecting great genre quotations over here but here's something a little different for today!
 
This week I've mainly been working on consignment and wholesale packs. This is a whole new world to me. For those not in the know wholesale is when an artist/crafter sells a large amount of work to a retailer for a reduced price. Consignment works on a sale-or-return basis where you draw up a contract and the retailer sells your work and both the shop and the artist take a percentage of the price paid.

Sounds simple, right? Nah of course not. I'm terrified that I've missed something out of the packs or have come across as too flighty and artistic or on the other hand too businessy and therefore cold.
I've read so many articles this past week on the best way to approach shops, what you must and must not do, what each pack needs to have and my head is spinning. 
My consignment pack currently consists of a page of colour photographs of six examples of my cards, an artist CV, a page of information about my cards, my wholesale/consignment policies, my pricing list, environmental policies and my contact details. This is all presented in a clear folder so that it is protected if it is kept on file for later reconsideration.

It's a lot like submitting a manuscript (see examples of plays at the top of the page!) because you only get one shot to make your first impression and if you mess it up then it's unlikely that the shop will be interested in you again. No pressure then! I've spent a lot of time trying to get the balance of everything right, picking the right pictures to represent my work and enough information that people feel that they know enough about my work and my concept. At the same time I am trying to build up a bigger stock of cards both for consignment and also for the Etsy shop. So it's been a full-on week in the world of cards.


The next step is to find as many shops as possible and then research them to find the ones that are the perfect fit for what I am doing. Sometimes I forget how much I still need to learn and then I start doing something like this - it's scary but also exciting and a great way of learning by diving in head-first!

Vick.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
https://twitter.com/vclinde

Today

There's been a hiatus on here while I trotted merrily around the West coast of Ireland, specifically Counties Galway and Mayo. I had a wonderful time and soon there will be pictures.



Whilst away I put my Etsy store in Vacation Mode so that I wasn't inundated with buyers whilst away where I couldn't do anything about it (a girl can dream, right?). I also put the art in 'vacation mode' in my head, I did very little of anything to do with collages; I didn't troll for materials, or come up with new designs or colour combinations, I did take note when I saw some great displays so I've got new ideas on how to present my work but that's about it.

A while a go now I did a whole series of branding posts here and since that point it has become very obvious to me that I want to keep making art and put my jewellery on the back-burner. I am not giving up I am starting over.

 

I may take another silver-smithing course in September but for the next few months I am going to focus on the art side of things. I'm looking for some craft fairs to go to and I might take the jewellery there because I think it would sell better but that's only a 'might' because I would like to give my art a go on markets as well.



My point, eventually, is that even several months later the branding process is still helping me. It has changed how I've been thinking about the business for the better. I tried a whole new approach to my collages yesterday. It was truly horrendous, I did better in primary school (still the smell of poster paint reminds me of the art cupboard at my primary school and occasionally being allowed in to help teachers carry sugar paper back for the display boards) and I was terrible at art in primary school, sadly my parents still have the efforts should I ever need to prove this to you.



The reason that this became so obvious is that my shop is now all art, no jewellery. My final jewellery pieces have gone from Etsy and so I'm focusing the re-branding on my shop announcement.

Apologies for the very heavy-handed business blog today. Normal business will resume soon with pictures, probably more cakes and mountains.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde

Silversmithing

I just completed my silversmith class taught by Jess Noonan who makes amazing jewellery herself and also teaches both day-classes and term-long courses in the Midlands.

We were working from Gallery 18 in Loughborough

I've made a pendant, four rings, a bangle and a chain bracelet. Jess is a fab teacher who gives you a lot of scope for doing the work that you're interested in while learning the techniques.

The space had benches for six people (the maximum on the course) and all of the equipment that you would need. Also at the start of the course you get some pieces of metal and other essentials which you can supplement later as you decide what you're going to make.

This is the plain D-shaped ring that I finished last week and haven't taken off since.

Towards the end of the course I started playing with silver plated forks to try and create some rings and other jewellery out of them. This one is the most successful of the fork jewellery, it's made from nickel silver and I've not found anything to do with the handle yet but the tines were great to work with and have made a lovely ring. The outside two tines can either be twisted as shown below or can be bent backwards to hold a stone.

This is the under-side of the ring with the two inner tines bent around to form the ring itself and then sanded to make it comfortable to wear.

 

Can you tell I like chunky jewellery? I'm going to spend a few months sourcing some more nickel silver forks and hopefully some sterling silver as well (plate did not work well!) and then take another class with Jess to work on them further. I might even get myself a blowtorch. You have been warned!

Vick.

www.vclinde.co.uk