Summer in Maine

Haven't been posting much for awhile. I've been working a few shifts a week at a second job (my old full time job - the Kennebec Tavern on the waterfront in Bath Maine). Great food. Fun, fun place!



It's tourist season in Maine and this restaurant on the water is hopping this time of year. So one full time job and a second job with 10-14 hours per week. I love the extra cash - but it leaves me little time for artwork or writing posts.

One thing I have found a little time for is going picking with my daughter. No not strawberries...I'm talking junk. As in flea market, vintage, rusty, old, etc. We have both fallen in love with picking at flea markets, antique and junk shops.

Between the two of us we have begun quite a little collection of items. We both love things like antique keys, old jars, wooden boxes, vintage handles - things that can be repurposed - or simply displayed.

Sara just opened her shop on Etsy. It's called Picked In Maine. She has already sold her first item! There will be more items listed daily.

Picking in New England, and especially in Maine is great fun because there are so many old places here - barns, homes, tons of 'antique' shops. An endless supply of junk! Do you like to go picking? Are there certain types of vintage things that you love? Here are some of the items in Sara's shop;
 

 

why 'papermill girl'?

Wow - what a week!  I've had so many visitors to my blog, and to my etsy shop, and forwarding my info on facebook - thank you everybody. (Thank you especially Nancy for your generosity). If you are wondering why I call myself 'papermill girl' - you can go back and read my very first blog post here, where I explain about the early connection I have with paper, and feeling creative.

Also - am trying, today, to add the link to my etsy shop right here on my blog page. I'm sure its easy to do - but this is all new to me - so give me a minute (or a few hours, or half a day) to get that done.

Is anybody out there a real techie, internet savvy, nerd helpful person? If so I'd love to hear anything you have to say about how I am going about this new venture. What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? What else should I be doing? I am open to any comments.

As far as that goes - anybody can comment on any of my posts. Just click the comment button at the bottom of each post. 

Taking the leap...

So today I finally put several items up on my etsy shop (creekart). I also posted info. about my etsy shop on facebook, and put some of my artwork on facebook. I let everybody know how to find my blog. And then I sent out emails to my closest friends and family letting them know about etsy and my blog.

This is scary stuff putting myself 'out there' like this. Sharing my artwork with the world, (well perhaps a small part of the world...hehe). Opening myself up to comments, possibly criticism. It feels good to finally take the leap though. And so many of you have already contacted me with encouragement and support, emails, phone calls, and comments on facebook - thank you all!

Here's a piece (another girlie!) that I am still working on - I had so much fun with her hair! I think I'll do a few more like this.

Hope you have a creative day!

Got my digital images

Real quick post...

Here are some of my (professionally reproduced) images of my original works.

I should have these available as prints on Etsy soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you like?  Leave me a message...

that's all for now! Bye

 

 



 

Learning

I've been working on some new art, while trying to figure out how to finally get good print reproductions of some of my pieces so that I can put some prints for sale on Etsy. I have found a few places that can reproduce my artwork, and then give me the digital image on disk. I've found (I think) the right place, or at least 'a' place to start.

So off I go to Portland, (ME) to drop off six of my canvas originals. They will scan and/or photograph the artwork and I will get my digitalized versions on a disc. Then I can upload them so that I can make prints. Sounds easy. Took me awhile to get to this point, and I can see that this is going to get expensive quickly. ($30 for photographed reproductions, and $3 each scanned item). Then I still need to get prints made on appropriate paper, and put them into mats. Long term -  I need to buy my own scanner and photoprinter to made good, economical prints for resale. That's step two.
For now - step one - get some prints made, at whatever cost, and get them up on Etsy for sale, along with some original canvases

All this and I don't even know if anybody will want my stuff. Does anybody like it? Is anybody out there? I'm sure you are, and I hope I can find a market for my creations - I just need to get a little further along this path of creating, blogging, linking and learning.

Got back from Portland just hours before the snow started ( I think they are calling it the Blizzard of 2013). This is what our back door looked like the next morning. That's the door handle there that the snow is up to, and our gas grill outside -


 - and it continued to snow all day! Winter in Maine - glad I've got plenty of stuff to do indoors!