Friday Thoughts (Ep. 31) (Patreon)

Hello friends and Patrons, and another Happy Friday to you! How are you, how’s it going? 

Is it snowing where you live? It’s not snowing here, but the Seattle grey winter has arrived and smoke from the California wildfires along with it, so it is really starting to feel like winter. I’m combating the grey doldrums with lots of candles, cozy sweaters, leggings, socks, and blankets. I must say, it’s working!

So the past two weeks have been fairly eventful in my little Art Business world. The most exciting was I hosted my second big portrait sale, to awesome results!

Just like my last sale, this was hosted in my instagram acconut and managed through my Etsy store. As usual I had a cap at 20 orders, and tried to keep it simple with only two size/price options and a lot of freedom within that. 

I ended up having a total of 19 portrait orders, a few from people I know in real life, a few from repeat customers in my store, one from someone I met at Geek Girl Con, and many from people who I haven’t met who say they’re big fans of my work! I’m flattered by the large and sweet response, and happy to say this is my biggest bump in etsy sales since my mother’s day Portrait Sale!

With the help of this sale I also reached my milestone of 100 sales on Etsy! 

I already got started in the sketches for my first two commissions, and I’m about to have to spend the next three days wading through the other 17. I’m all set up at my kitchen table to work on at least 6 of those today!

Also very very exciting this year is the arrival of my first ever order of enamel pins! The King Crow pins that I told you all about the past few weeks.

They came out so much  nicer than I imagined, super sturdy, high quality, defined, and shiny!

They’re made out of pretty, shiny gold metal, have to sturdy rubber clasps in the back to prevent this lovely pin from falling off of your coat or bag.

He’s a little bit small so I think it’s perfect for beanies, a subtle pin for work, or as part of a larger collection.

I still have to design and print the backing cards before I will photograph and list them on my Etsy. I’m thinking of listing these for Black Friday or Small Business Saturday at $12. I haven’t posted these anywhere else so you all are getting the real first look! 

You guys are also welcome to preorder these before I list them if you like! Message or email me and I can set up a special listing for you. ❣️

In other mail news I also received another very exciting package... my first bulk packaging order!

This is my very beautiful first bulk order of 100% recycled rigid mailers in 5x7 and 8x10, and bulk recycled chipboard pre-cut backers to support my prints!

File this under the same experience as ordering a bulk order of business cards, and enjoying not having to hand cut and print every single business card. Previously I was buying all of my rigid mailers from Fed Ex or Bartell’s, in quantities of 3 or 4 at a time. I’ve had to make that annoying trip down the street to buy the overpriced envelopes enough times that I allowed myself to buy some in bulk. These should ideally last me a year or more, at 40 cents per envelope rather than $1.50 at the store.

The company is EcoEnclose, the same company that I ordered samples from for free a couple of months ago. I’m very pleased with the quality and appearance of these envelopes, and 100% recycled content can’t be beat!

The mailers from this company are slightly more expensive than from a cpompano like Uline, but I think it’s important for me to start early in upholding my own values in MY company’s values. Supporting a smaller, environmentally focused company that uses entirely recycled material  is entirely inline with my own values.

I also did a few digital illustrations this week to try to ease myself back in to working with my iPad, after a month of marker art for Inktober.

I’ll post an exclusive process video for the above DrawThisInYourStyle illustration this week for you all! It was so fun to do an interpretation of Alex Gold’s character.

One last art comment! The title photo for this update is from last Friday. I had a quick little Pop-Up Art market at my former place of work, Chocolati Cafe in Greenlake, to coincide with my art show that month there. I set up some of my goods, and worked on my portrait sketches, and talked to customers who came over the check it out. It was very quiet, and I only sold one handmade enamel pin. But! I feel like every time I set up my art for sale in public I get a little less nervous, and I think any experience with that is worth it.

NON-ART LIFE:

Zach and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary last week. We were both fairly caught up in work and the mid-term elections (we voted, of course) so we had a pretty last minute plan. 

We visited and walked around the Seattle Arboretum together, something we’d been planning on exploring for a long time. It was beautiful and very large, the autumn leaves so vibrant against the stark ever green trees. We discovered that park of the park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect of Central Park in NYC. We also found that the arboretum continues far enough north to connect to a waterfowl sanctuary and one of the last remaining wetlands within the city, and that you can walk across a series of floating bridges to reach the University District. 

One of my favorite things about cities is discovering areas that are walkable in distance, that you don’t have to take a car everywhere, and that your feet have the power to bring you from location to location.

So I have a full weekend of portrait orders to get working on now, but thanks for stopping in and reading!

What are you all up to this week? Let me know in the comments!

Have an amazing week,

xoxo

Ragon