Working holiday

As it appears to be raining almost all the time here, I have been getting on with some work.... These fellas will be in my shop next week. I like working on watercolour blocks , it saves the tedium of stretching paper and I often work on two paintings at a time on the same sheet. It wasn't deliberate but the owl has his eye on the shrews- they look nice and plump, just right for  a tasty owl snack!

Busy days

I had a big list of "things to do today" and for once I have managed to tick off the lot!
1- post office run
2- be nice to grumpy postmaster
3- design greetings cards
4- order greetings cards
5- check I have enough cash to cover order (got that the wrong way round, but it was ok!)
6- order art supplies
7- order packaging supplies
8 -photograph some new pieces
9 -catch upon e-mails
10- update some details on etsy
11- new post on blog

and as an added bonus I have gained a new follower today, Yah!

Owl and talismans

Short eared owl

On Sunday we went hill walking which was uneventful and very wet but we saw this beautiful short eared owl on the way home. We watched it for quarter of an hour gliding above the fields quite close by. The markings are so striking, even more so in flight.


Work in the studio has taken a back seat lately, but things are starting to move along again. I've spent the morning making prototype drawstring pouches for my animal talisman pottery shards. They're not quite perfected yet but a few more tweaks and we're there I think.

A few days away and new business cards

 I won't be posting for the next ten days as I'm away from civilisation for a bit, off to the wilds of the West Coast, north of Poolewe. I'm looking forward to it sooooo much, beautiful beaches, sea birds and rock pooling. Mmmmmm.

 I hope I'll have lots of photos and sketches to share with you when I get back. In the meantime here are a couple from last years trip.

 Work wise I made myself some new business cards last night using old card and rubber stamp kits, easy to do and really quick. I'd like to get hold of a lower case alphabet set but all the ones that are small enough seem to be upper case, I'll keep searching though and if you know of where I can get one, please let me know.

In the studio today...

I've been busy today, first of all tidying the studio so that I can actually see the floor, I like to work in a tidy(ish) space but I have a tendency to create clutter when I'm painting, so many bits of reference material and scrunched up pieces of paper, I couldn't get into work until I sorted it. So when I did get down to work this fella appeared.

He needs a bit of tidying up, re photographed and then I'll put him in the shop tomorrow or Friday, along with this little birdie.

   

Some new pieces

I've done a few new pieces , ospreys, which we see locally, a fox and a golden hare who looks a bit ancient and wise. Golden hares are the most fantastic looking creatures don't you think? One day I will go to Ireland to see them - they really do exist, blue eyes and all!

I need to decide which to put in Imogen's Attic and which to keep for the show, at least two of them will be appearing in the shop over the next couple of days. Some days work just flows, I'm pleased this was one of those days, plus I took lots of breaks in the sunshine, it's been a while since we had any so I just had to make the most of it.

Thanks Pia!

Illustration by Pia

A big thank you to my lovely friend Pia who kindly selected me for a Liebster award. The Liebster Award takes its name from the German word meaning Beloved, Dearest or Favorite. It is given to bloggers who have a small following - under 200 followers.

Pia is a multi talented illustrator, biologist, mother and blogger. I'd recommend a look at her blog for some bright and quirky illustrations...... and she also runs an etsy shop which you can access from the blog. You can find her post about the award here.

SPRING SALE!

FOR YOU LOVELY READERS- I'm having a SPRING SALE in Imogen's Attic 20% OFF everything!

To use your 20% discount all you have to do is-
At the checkout click on "Apply shop coupon code " and type in  SPRINGSALE12
the discount applys to the item price or the total price for multiple items but not to shipping.

The Sale will run for one week from now and then I will open it for a the following week to everyone, so if there is something you have had your eye on..........
I'm thinking about changing a few things around, it's been very quiet on the sales front so I'm having a clear out and have big plans for when I have some free time again to devote to Etsy.
Which will be soon!

I'm on the etsy blog!



http://www.etsy.com/blog/de/2012/schnipp-schnapp-scherenschnitt/

I've getting lots of views on etsy since yesterday so I did a bit of detective work to find out why ...... sooo

I'm super excited to have one of my pieces make it onto the etsy blog, ok it's the German etsy blog, and I'm one of the" you might also like" type of items ( if you click on the link you have to go to the end of the article to find me);  but hey, thats ok by me ! Thanks etsy blog people!

Etsy conversations

I've just had a lovely conversation on Etsy with Georgianne Holland of Nestle and Soar, she included my chaffinch painting in her Top Ten blog. How lovely! I still find it truly amazing to be able to make connections with other artists who live half way round the world with just a couple of taps on the keyboard. Please click on the links to see Georgianne's shop and check out her blog. 

 

One of Georgianne's handcrafted pillows



New sea pottery talisman

I just added a couple of sea pottery pieces to my etsy shop and will be adding this one tomorrow.I've already had a few views and four people have" favourited" the first ones to go into the shop, it's so nice to know that people like them! I'm hoping to spend more time near the sea this year and will be hunting for more to add to my collection.

Yesterday G and I went for a winter walk in the mountains. We tried out snowshoes for the first time, they're great.  I did take a tumble on the way down though, a classic faceplant, luckily between two rocks with a nice soft hollow of snow for my face. I came up laughing much to G's relief! The picture bellow is of where we got too, it wasn't quite as cold as it looks......

Looking back and keeping track

This drawing is my latest ETSY sale. As I walked through the snow down to the post office I had a bit of a think about how things have been going with the shop and just my art in general. I'm a full time artist and Imogens Attic is one strand of what I do.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened my ETSY shop back in Febuary. I'd spent quite a bit of time trawling the site before I took the plunge and was aware that there are a fair number of shops out there that never make a sale so I'm really pleased that the hedgehog is sale no25. Some of my sales have been to family and friends and I'm loving the support they've given me. I especially enjoy packaging up my works for sending overseas- so far I've sent things to France, USA and Australia. I think when you spend most of the time working on your own it's essential to celebrate every little success, so I have had the idea to put a World map up on my studio wall and stick pins in all the places an Imogen Greene original has landed. A way of keeping track of the migration of my little creatures.( I've been buying little things from fellow etsians aswell as a wee treat!) I hope that if I devote a bit more time to making new work and blogging more regularly the sales will continue.......... that's the plan anyway.

New work on Etsy

Saw my first frog spawn of the season last weekend and spent yesterday doing this.

I used pen, watercolour and pencil.

 It's in my etsy shop now.

New shop on ETSY

I've just opened my shop etsy. 

I posted the first couple of items last night and someone had hearted an item by this morning.

 It's great to have instant feedback! 

www.etsy.com/shop/imogensattic