My daughter's Etsy shop.

My daughter Dana has her own Etsy shop. The chirping began a bit before the summer, she had hand painted a tshirt and decided she wanted to start a tshirt business on Etsy. Summer was coming and I had planned nothing for her. So I figured we would get creative.

She really took to it wonderfully. I thought she would lose interest after a few weeks, but she didn't. She made so many images I still haven't been able to scan them all to the computer. She designed a business card, and I found a special offer for free cards, just paid shipping. She got into our local newspaper, the headline read "Young entrepreneur combines her love of art with desire to help animals".

The reason for this headline is I also figured I could teach her a valuable lesson about giving back, in particular to her community. I told her to pick something she loved, cared about deeply. She said animals and I suggested our local animal shelter. We both agreed it was a great idea. So we decided to give 1 dollar from each sale to the shelter.

I am very happy with the results so far. She's using her talents to create something people like a lot. She's learning she can make money doing something she enjoys and loves doing, drawing. She's told me she wants to be an artist when she grows up. She has new ideas for other products, soon to be revealed for the holidays. She is even doing a show this weekend! She'll have her very own table at our Block Party in Canton, MA on Sept. 26th.

I could not be more proud of what she is acheiving with such a small, cute idea- an idea which began with her watching me work on my own shop.

Like mother like daughter, I guess!

If you would like to see Dana's designs, go to http://www.scribbyworld.etsy.com/

My new idea/collection is on track!

As I always love to say, I've been chained to my bench lately. Not physically of course, just metaphorically, working away at all my commisions and projects. What I'm also doing is trying to bang out a few new designs.collections for the holiday season, and this is one of them.

I've always loved fluffy fuzzy soft things, whatever they may be, anything in nature that had some sort of tactile feature that made them touchable and fun. Like a rabbit ear- you know, those plants with fuzzy leaves on them. Don't get me wrong actual rabbit ears are cool, but those leaves are SO cool My daughter and I stop and feel everytime we see them.

I also love all the feathers i find on my morning walks. I don't keep them, but i almost always pick them up and feel them. This inspired my new collection. I hought, "how would one actually feel a piece of jewelry?" Now I'm sure many successful artists have pondered this question, and made wonderful pieces, with texture and bumps and whatnot. I wanted fuzzy jewelry that wasn't silly.

So I think I came up with a successful solution and I am very happy with the results. With the thread, I can do any colors that i want, and i hope as I go that they become more elaborate and rich with varying colors, like a Monet, or a Vangoh. I love color too and I've always wanted it to be rich in my work but not with an abundance of beads, and I'm not a very good enameler, so that was out.

:)

C