Plastic Pumpkin Designs

Ren Adams of Plastic Pumpkin Designs draws and paints with an intriguing mix of both Eastern and Western influence evident in her work. From bright and bold to impressionistic gesture-type renderings of bamboo and other traditional Chinese images, she has two distinctly different styles. In addition to Chinese Brush Painting she works in watercolor, oil pastel, pen and ink, pencil, marker, and a variety of other mediums, with close attention to detail through each. Each of her paintings is rich with symbolism.

Interestingly, her Chinese Brush Paintings are signed under the name An Rui Ning which is her Chinese name.

Being a Taoist, and practicing Qi Gong, a form of meditation, her art fits this spiritual path. Creating art is essential to her total fulfillment and she would not feel at harmony without it; it comes as naturally as a fish to water.

In her original Chinese Brush Painting on rice paper, “Trio of Sea Nettles” the dualities of danger and delicateness, a recurring theme of yin and the yang, are manifest within the same creatures able to sting, yet at the same time soft, streamlined, and pliable to the touch. This contradiction reflects our own quest to stay connected, man’s oneness with (and possibly his struggle with) the Universe.

In her painting, “It will Be OK” a soothing sky blue background creates an ambiance of comfort rising up from the very earth itself, with the traditional Chinese symbols of strength, uprightness, reliability, and flexibility in the sheltering arms of bamboo branches. A tree speckled with Plum Blossoms seems to be reaching outward like a hand, opening, striving toward light.

In contrast to the previous gentle strength exhibited in “It Will Be OK”, is the exuberant power of the oil pastel original, entitled, “Red Persimmons”, its intensity commanding your attention, rotund, fiery red orbs nearly brimming, as though it might burst out of its skin at any moment.

Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ren is a member of the Duke City Renegades Art Guild, the New Mexico Watercolor Society and the New Mexico Pastel Society.

She accepts custom orders, ships worldwide, and is willing to arrange layaway on purchases of $100 or more. This vibrant collection is a feast for the eyes, and for the soul. To see and/or purchase more of this artist's work, go to her Etsy online store at: Plastic Pumpkin Designs.

Article written by Pippit.

Earmark Personalized Cards

Make Your Mark With Handcrafted Personalized Greeting Cards!LOOKING FOR A PERSONALIZED CARD? San Diego-based Earmark creates handcrafted printed and/or personalized greeting cards, note cards and sets. Most of their individual cards retail for about $3.00 apiece while custom birthday cards can be commissioned for $7.50 per card, using the names, any text, colors or images that you might like! They also can create wedding invitations.

From the Whimsical, to the comical, to the romantic of paisley, Earmark's versatility and artistic talent is evident as soon as you go to their Etsy online store; Earmark. There is also their blog: EI Greetings where you can find out what else might be in the works for their wonderful Etsy shop!

Pictured above is a lovely notecard called "Orangy Bird" silkscreened on a double thick charcoal grey column paper. Paper is duplexed, meaning it has a second color, white, smooth paper inside making it easy to write on!

Article written by Pippit.

Taking on Another Challenge...

90 Features in 90 Days-Press Release

Get your art or fine craft featured 90 times in 90 days! Want to know how? Here’s the deal; post on Etsy’s messageboard on this thread; http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5251490&page=5 (if you don’t have an account you can easily open a free buyer or seller account at http://etsy.com in order to post there), and agree to swap features with me and however many others also post on that thread there as you want. If you have either a blog or a website that you can use to post pictures and 1-2 paragraphs complete with link to that person’s online store on each feature you swap, you can do this! If not, and you would like to participate, you can easily start a simple and user-friendly blog by going to; https://www.blogger.com/start and set one up in a matter of just a few minutes. I was well into my 40’s before I ever knew what a blog was and I picked it up very quickly.

For those readers who don’t know me, my name is Pippit Carlington, owner and jewelry artist of Giftbearer, and Street Team Leader of The Art Jewelry Collective, a group of jewelry artists from Etsy who collaborate in our marketing efforts with the goal of educating the public about the value of art jewelry, supporting a living wage for jewelry artists, and upholding standards of high quality and innovation in the jewelry industry.

The 90 Features in 90 Days Challenge came about as a way to increase sales in my own business, but it occurred to me that the group and even others outside the AJC could utilize the same method to increase their number of sales, based on the law of averages. Just imagine being front page news every day until Christmas, the biggest gift-buying time of the year!

I figured if I could swap features with 90 people and do one feature per day between the time I get 90 participants and Christmas, that should create a large enough internet splash to have a noticeable impact on number of sales. The results of many blogs reciprocating, when combined, would be like advertising in a much bigger venue. The impact of such a marketing challenge will make whichever sellers do this extremely visible all over the web; the more people you swap with, the more visible both you and they are. You can also increase this exposure two-fold by linking to your feature stories.

The end result should eventually be increased sales because you have reached a larger number of potential buyers of your work, and because not all the participants are working in the same medium, there is great potential for cross-promotion, such as handbags with jewelry, or clothing with jewelry, and with only about 10 minutes a day invested in posting your features. So this holiday season not only raise a glass, why not raise your odds, and maybe even… your income!

I thought I would be a part of this in hopes of driving more traffic to my shop and more interest in the bead art I love...beadweaving! I will post the first featured seller later today.

And The Winner Is...

HELENA of Manek Lady for her piece "Show Your Colors" beaded bead necklace!

EBW September Challenge

Here are the entries in this month's Etsy BeadWeaver Challenge. Voting is open until midnight tonight (Saturday, September 29). The entries are gorgeous, go check them out and VOTE!

EBW September Challenge

Here is my entry into this month's Etsy BeadWeaver Challenge themed "Show Your Colors". I wish I could have truly captured the "stained glass" effect that the gemtones have. Oh, and it's called "Geometric Gemtones". I thought about using pyramids, but since some are upside-down, I thought I'd just go with geometric.

Two Others

Here's the silver and sapphire one as previously mentioned. I also have this one in lilac AB, but it's not in the shop as yet. I showed it to a friend and yeah! she wants me to set it aside for her! Let me know what you think!I am currently working on my September Challenge piece for the Etsy Bead Weaver Group, but I haven't come up with a clasp for it yet. The challenge theme is "Show Your Colors" and I have nine colors plus silver! I've used jewel-tone colors and I think it looks gorgeous, but then, I'm prejudice! :)

Remember

Elizabethan Beauty

I first made this bracelet some time ago. It is the only type of piece I've sold on Etsy (3 slightly different versions of this bracelet to be precise). I really love the richness of it and it appears that it has the same appeal to others. I decided to put another version of it up for sale and it will be followed by a silver and sapphire version shortly.

School Girl Plaid

This just really reminded me of a skirt I had as a young girl "back in the day". I really like how it turned out. Now, if I can just get some interested party to buy it!