November...An Update
Hello!
Well it's nearly the end of November and my oh my the weather has turned! Dark nights beginning at 3pm, heating on at 6am. Tea on an endless loop to keep warm, always wanting to just order groceries online but forcing baby and myself out into the drizzling rain to trudge around two supermarkets (trying to stick to a budget means a cheap supermarket and a treat supermarket, such is life).
On the whole however, autumn has treated us very well. I am always thankful for being able to work from home nowadays instead of rushing out on a dark morning for a hair-raising ride to work down Yorkshire's twistiest 60mph country lane.
I spent this month opening my new online shop (hurrah!) and reading back through my diaries realising this was a New Year's resolution of mine for the past 3 years running but also happy in the knowledge that most artists are expert procrastinators.
Incidentally you can find my shop here - www.etsy.com/shop/elidillon
It inhabits a quiet corner of Etsy and we are very welcoming and grateful when you stop by so please pop in!
I also created a set of 4 Christmas Cards all lovingly designed and inked by myself when baby was napping. It's quite strange getting all festive in mid October but I threw myself into it and I'm really proud of the results! I shall post them here (you lucky things)...
The theme was Christmas Songs, my favourites from the Christmas Albums of the Rat Pack and Bing Crosby.
You can buy a pack of 8 for £10. Pricing is quite tricky when you are starting an art shop I think. You have the double edged sword of wanting to entice customers with a fair and relatively low price however you also want a fair profit from making them all yourself and having to cover the print costs and the time it's taken to design them.
You have to hope that people will recognise that these cards (and any cards by independent artists/illustrators) are obviously going to be a little more than those they could buy in the shops as the shops can buy cards by the thousands and very little goes to the creators whereas when you buy from a small business you are supporting that artists creativity so that they can go on to create more beautiful and pretty things.
I think I found this idea pretty easy to align myself to when I started using Etsy as a customer being from a creative background myself however I have definitely spoken to others who cannot comprehend a price point that is any higher than rock bottom. The low price is king idea is tricky. I just hope that more and more people vote with their £ and support small businesses (especially me! ;-) this Christmas and not the top 1% who own all these giant Christmas spirit sucker shops. Anywho...off I go to draw some more! (Not really - I have to make a lasagna and the husband is home in 20 minutes...there is a whole world of mess to clear up to convince him I'm bossing this working mum/stay at home mum thing).
Well it's nearly the end of November and my oh my the weather has turned! Dark nights beginning at 3pm, heating on at 6am. Tea on an endless loop to keep warm, always wanting to just order groceries online but forcing baby and myself out into the drizzling rain to trudge around two supermarkets (trying to stick to a budget means a cheap supermarket and a treat supermarket, such is life).
On the whole however, autumn has treated us very well. I am always thankful for being able to work from home nowadays instead of rushing out on a dark morning for a hair-raising ride to work down Yorkshire's twistiest 60mph country lane.
I spent this month opening my new online shop (hurrah!) and reading back through my diaries realising this was a New Year's resolution of mine for the past 3 years running but also happy in the knowledge that most artists are expert procrastinators.
Incidentally you can find my shop here - www.etsy.com/shop/elidillon
It inhabits a quiet corner of Etsy and we are very welcoming and grateful when you stop by so please pop in!
I also created a set of 4 Christmas Cards all lovingly designed and inked by myself when baby was napping. It's quite strange getting all festive in mid October but I threw myself into it and I'm really proud of the results! I shall post them here (you lucky things)...
The theme was Christmas Songs, my favourites from the Christmas Albums of the Rat Pack and Bing Crosby.
You can buy a pack of 8 for £10. Pricing is quite tricky when you are starting an art shop I think. You have the double edged sword of wanting to entice customers with a fair and relatively low price however you also want a fair profit from making them all yourself and having to cover the print costs and the time it's taken to design them.
You have to hope that people will recognise that these cards (and any cards by independent artists/illustrators) are obviously going to be a little more than those they could buy in the shops as the shops can buy cards by the thousands and very little goes to the creators whereas when you buy from a small business you are supporting that artists creativity so that they can go on to create more beautiful and pretty things.
I think I found this idea pretty easy to align myself to when I started using Etsy as a customer being from a creative background myself however I have definitely spoken to others who cannot comprehend a price point that is any higher than rock bottom. The low price is king idea is tricky. I just hope that more and more people vote with their £ and support small businesses (especially me! ;-) this Christmas and not the top 1% who own all these giant Christmas spirit sucker shops. Anywho...off I go to draw some more! (Not really - I have to make a lasagna and the husband is home in 20 minutes...there is a whole world of mess to clear up to convince him I'm bossing this working mum/stay at home mum thing).
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