good stuff

dutchdoor

Ah, the pleasure of finding new artists on Etsy. This Christmas the gift guides were my favorite way of stumbling upon artists and their art I had not seen before, although there were also some pretty good treasuries out there too. This has been a feature I've been missing on my blog- going through finds and doing shop reviews... well, welcome back on a little tour of what I see when I go looking for the good stuff in Handmade Land.

I currently work for a company that creates and sells letterpress artwork. I see it all day, every day, from artists all across the world, but still dutchdoor caught my eye. A lot of letterpress artists come out with work that looks overly computer generated, thinking that the precise forms will translate well to the letterpress' unique appeal. I love these designs because they don't give the impression they've been generated in Illustrator beforehand- the old world design is well suited to the media. Their charming Scandinavian style images are clean, simple and exquisitely executed. Read more about dutchdoor here!

holli

Holli is a shop from Argentina, a place that seems to be the home of many a talented Etsy artist. Created by Paola Zakimi, these dolls are breathtaking. They're a little bit creepy, too, but not in an evil way- is that alright to say? More in a surreal way, like something mysterious that appears in a dream you remember while reading a poem scribbled onto a newspaper left behind on the bus. Wait- what am I talking about? Anyway, I've been amazed and struck by her work... read more on her blog, here! :)

Late here, time for bed but I hope you too found some new favorites on Etsy this season!

photo shoot!

Ninja v Big Octo gets his picture taken

More photos that came out very satisfactorily from today's attempts playing around with my camera settings. I'm particularly excited about these because I'm introducing a new card size to my shop as of today. The understated A2 card size, smallest of the mailable card sizes, is now in the shop in a new section here. These will be select designs with smart colored or dark envelopes to match. Since this card size does waste some paper in production (more on that in a later post) I'll be keeping the A2 family pretty small, but they really are quite charming little guys.

Black Umbrellas - small version

You are my...

I love that Etsy has added a Vacation Mode. I'm tempted to go on "Vacation" just to try it out. A lot of shops are temporarily closed right now- and that's wise if you had a busy Christmas. I had a good holiday season this year but will be taking an actual vacation mid-winter. I'll save the learning experience of Vacation Mode for that.

My hope is that today I'll be able to come out with two new cards. I printed them last night & have them prepped and ready to go this morning. I'm even up, drinking my coffee and furiously typing away at 6 a.m. because I'm so giddy about having new items for the shop! Next week I'll introduce new designs, too. Definitely *not* in vacation mode over here.

Other than the drawing, scanning, cropping, printing, cutting, scoring, packaging, mailing that goes into the card making aspect of ouou, I've been changing around my freebies once again. The winter, spring, summer, bunny tags I made last year are perfect little give-aways... and after some awkward packaging phases I think I've found the one I'm sticking with. Now all I need is a new set of Moo cards and I'll be golden.

" Don't look at your form, however ugly or beautiful.
Look at love and at the aim of your quest. ...
O you whose lips are parched, keep looking for water.
Those parched lips are proof that eventually you will reach the source."

~Rumi