Queer Etsy Street Team Treasury!

I know I haven't posted much in ages. All I can say is that things have been completely surreal. And not in a good way. I'm going through probably the worst time ever in my life, so please forgive my absence.

But--onwards and upwards! Exciting news for the Queer Etsy Street Team. We got an "Artist's Exposed" treasury on Etsy curated by Etsy seller, VickiDianeDesigns! Be sure and check us out here. We've got a gorgeous and talented bunch of people, if I do say so myself.

If you're not familiar with Etsy, a treasury is a list of special/exceptional items, or itemsa they just like, curated by another Etsy seller. They usually have a theme of some sort, and the best ones get picked to be on the front page of Etsy. The "Artists Exposed" ones are special and a big deal, so we're very excited to have that kind of exposure as a young team. :)

Bizarre Bazaar

I will be a vendor at the 39th Annual Bizarre Bazaar held at the Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center in Pittsfield, MA. The show will be from 9AM-4PM Saturday October 18th. Come see me if you are in Berkshire county!

I still have quite a bit to do to get ready, but I think I will be able to do everything just in the nick of time. I've been busy, busy, busy trying to create new jewelry for this one. It will be my first time vending at an actual arts and crafts SHOW rather than vending at a conference.

I am hoping this means SALES! LOL! Apparently this show gets thousands of visitors each year so I am hopeful.

Whatever doesn't sell will be going into my Etsy shop in the coming weeks. I made tons of really fun new pendants, so be sure and check back soon.

Wish me luck!

nolose

I've been trying to process all my feelings about the nolose conference for the past week. It ended up being an unexpectedly difficult and emotional weekend for me. I thought it was going to be fatopia the way the Femme Con. was femmetopia for me. And it just wasn't.

The vending end of things did not go as I expected. I thought it would be relatively easy to match what I did at the Femme Con. and my goal was to try and do even better. Ha! Well, I realized pretty quickly on that for whatever reason selling was not going to go the way I expected. So that was stressful right off the bat. Don't get me wrong, I am EXTREMELY grateful for everyone who supported me both in their enthusiastic response to my work and in buying a piece or pieces from me. Truly. But it's still difficult when you have put a lot of time and effort into making 50 pendants for a specific event and know that most of your time, money, and effort is going down the tubes before your very eyes.

Then there's the issue of always being tied to your table. During social times, like during meals, when everyone is walking around and talking and eating and getting to know each other--as a vendor you're sitting there alone. I talked way more to the other vendors than anyone else the whole weekend. It was really overwhelming not knowing anyone and kind of feeling disconnected from the whole conference experience. I got to say hi to a lot of people as they came by my table, but I didn't get a chance to make a lot of deeper connections.

That part of things was easier for me at the FC because I went into it knowing a lot of people. I had a huge group of friends to socialize with every night regardless of whether or not I was tied to my vendor table all day. Not something I had thought about. I didn't have 15 people I had known online for years and/or had met in person surrounding me this time.

This conference was also really triggering and difficult for me emotionally. Again, not something I was anticipating. But I realized I have way more internalized shit around being fat and way more unchecked fat-phobia than I do about anything else. I got slapped in the face big time with all of that. I'm not even prepared to go into everything I felt and am still feeling as fall-out from the weekend; suffice it to say that it was really draining and I actually had a major meltdown on Saturday complete with tears and getting mascara all over some innocent butch bystander's hanky.

I came home exhausted and sick and emotionally worn. Which is not to say that it's a bad thing I went. Usually when something is that difficult for you, it means it's probably good for you and it's bringing up important things you need to deal with. But that doesn't make it FUN.

I've been listing lots of the stuff that didn't sell on Etsy and am still waiting to hear back on a craft show in October where I can hopefully sell a bunch of the not-fat-related stuff. I'm going to try and do as many craft shows as I physically can between now and the holidays. I've decided I'm not meant to do other work besides creating. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make a living at it. I think craft shows on a regular basis is a good possibility. It can fill in all the holes bewteen my art and what I'm selling on Etsy.

I'm off to New Mexico starting Wednesday and then it will be a frantic few days trying to get ready for this next show, assuming I get in, which I think I will. That's about it for now.

Etsy Update! & some other stuff

I updated my Etsy shop this afternoon with more art. I will be getting my art back from the Springfield Cultural Council soon and I highly doubt anything is going to sell from their exhibit. And if by some weird coincidence someone makes an inquiry by email for something that has already sold--oh well. So, back into the shop it goes! Along with three new paintings that I am really proud of:





Another exciting thing is that I heard through the grapevine 1000 Artist Journal Pages in now available on Amazon.com! I cannot wait to see this book, seriously. I still haven't ordered a copy. They have been in the publisher's warehouse for like a month and I have had the forms to get my discounted copy for about that long. Ooops! I better do that this week. Or, at least go visit it in Barnes & Noble or something.

Lastly, I am pleased to say that I finally bought two domain names. I am still trying to figure out hosting and how to actually build a web site, but I needed to just go ahead and get my domain names now. Because one of the ones I originally wanted was taken! Boo! Couldn't let that happen again. For 20 bucks it was worth it.

I bought one for an art website which will just be my name (www.julieayotte.com) and another which will be a stationery web site, name to be revealed at a later date. I will be selling brand-name kawaii stationery as well as my own designs. I even registered myself as a business, if you can believe that. I now have an EIN number and a Massachusetts tax ID number which permits me to collect sales tax. I'm all official. I need to call this week and see what other permits I need to be selling things over the interent. Honestly, it will be such a small thing to start that I can't imagine anyone would give me trouble even if I didn't have a resale permit. But I figure better to get it now, right?

I've looked into a few ecommerce options that would get a web site up and running pretty easily and inexpensively. I need to learn more about web design at some point, but there are options for those of us with little knowledge about html and coding and all that other lovely stuff. The problem now is coming up with a little money to buy a few initial products. Oh, and I will need a scanner and printer. This crap about giving me 4 hours a week at my job just isn't going to cut it. I mean, are they really serious? Are they kidding? Are they waiting to see if I will notice and be like, ok I figured out your joke and this has gone far enough!

I'll keep you posted when all of this starts shaping up more. I have been playing around with a logo for my stationery shop already. ;)

My moo cards came today!

For those of you who don't know what moo mini cards are, you should check out the link. They are little mini business card type things. The cool part, though, is that they will print high-quality photos on the front of them. I have seen pictures of other moo cards artists have made and I really like them. They have pics of my art on the front and all my contact info on the back. Usually when I tell people I am an artist they ask what type of work I do. And most people are kind of in the dark about what, exactly, mixed media art is. Plus I feel like my art can be kind of hard to explain. So now I can just whip out my mini cards and show them!

I chose ten different paintings to use. You get 100 cards so I got ten of each one. The photos get cropped, but you get to choose the position of the crop, and still I think people will be able to get a good idea of what I do. When they say mini cards, they really mean mini! They were a lot smaller than I had even expected. But something people will remember, I think. The cards are kind of expensive at $19.99 for 100. Especially when you consider you can get business cards made at vistaprint for free. I really like how unique they are, though!

I figure I can start including them in swaps and send them to my pen pals and things like that. And hand them out to people I meet. Just to get the word out about my art a little bit more. I will probably end up having to order more soon because I suspect I will run through them quicker than I originally thought.

I Finally Got Inspired!

It only took a few months! I am finally creating again. Partially it is getting closer to the time of year when I am most active creatively. Partially I think I was not just uninspired, but depressed. I'm feeling a bit better mentally, which has been helping with my creative output. I have new paintings, new journal pages, and lots of new little projects going on. I joined a web site called atcsforall.com. You can join swaps to trade homemade art with other artists. I've started making artist trading cards and chunky book pages for a few swaps I joined there. My etsy shop is finally up and running. So, lots of exciting things going on.

Some of my favorite images of what I have been doing lately (you can see more photos on my flickr page):


A page from my journal. I've been really obsessed with mermaids lately, and this is my favorite.


A journal page with a paper doll in a pocket. Isn't she cute? I spent an entire afternoon creating her and then my rabbit ate a piece of her crown!


A mixed media painting on canvas. I collaged magazine pages, phone book pages, and tissue paper, then painted over it all with acrylics. It's available in my etsy shop.


A mixed media painting on art board. Also available in my etsy shop.

I recently hosted a post card exchange. My theme was, you guessed it, mermaids! I used a combination of collage, acrylic and watercolor paints, and altered magazine photos. Here are a few of my favorites:







And finally, my favorite artist trading card I made for a swap called "Whimsey Girls Cupcakes and Crowns" on atcsforall.com:



There's actually a lot more where this came from! I am going to try and update the blog more regularly with pictures of my artwork and not let as much time go by between posts. It feels really good to be creating again. Hopefully I can keep it up.