Merry-go-Round: How to Care for My Art - Information for Buyers

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 7 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is:" How to Care for My Art - Information for Buyers".

 Order the Glass Pendant

 I have several products: Original Paintings, Small Print, Large Laminated Prints (LLP), Laminated Print Mounted on Wood Block (LPWB), Glass Pendants and Magnets.

1. Original Paintings. For most of the original paintings, they are watercolor or acrylic paintings. For watercolor, it is framed inside a glass frame to protect it. For acrylic paintings, you can use wet towel to clean it if it is dusty.
2. LLP: For LLP, most of them will be mounted on a hard-board. It is very easy to take care of them. The only thing you need to do is to clean it if it gets dusty. You can use wet towel to clean it. It can be hang on anywhere even under sun and rain.
3. LPWB: It is same to LLP except it cannot be hang under rain as the print is mounted on wood.
4. Glass Pendants: The glass pendant are made with glass tiles and sealed with water resistant sealant. It may get dirty after wearing it for a while. You can use a wet towel lightly to rub away the dirt. Don't wear it when you are taking shower or swimming.
5. Magnets: Magnets are magnets mounted with prints and sealed with water resistant sealant. You can use wet towel to clean it as well if they are dirty. Just don't rub it too hard.

Order the Glass Pendant

If you have bought something from the others or just would like to find from others how to care about their art, please read their posts:
Mitsy at ArtMin

Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 
Kim at My Textile Adventures

Merry-go-Round: Favorite Color and How It Comes into Your Work

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 7 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: Favorite color and how it comes into your work .

I have no single favorite color. My favorite colors are in delicate, gentle and dreamy tones such as beige, pink, light green or blue. See the examples below:

 Order the Print

Order the Print

Order the Print

Order the Print

Order the Print

Order the Print

I like people using sharp strong colors in their work such as bright red, green and blue. One day I may also use these colors. I like every color and want to try to see the how they will turn out in a painting.

I would also like to try mysterious black, gray and white or silver. They are modern and attractive to me. Colors are so magical.

Find out more about color and work:
Mitsy at ArtMin

Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 
Kim at My Textile Adventures

Merry-go-Round: Precious Gift from Fabinenne at Easterya

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

From Easterya

We had gift exchange among the merry group members this month. I am so lucky that I got a beautiful pendant from Fabinenne at Easterya. I am long time admirer of Fabinenne's work. I like her intricate, beautiful, elegant and delicate jewelries. They are mystery as well because she uses many natural stones that are old and have many stories to tell.

The pendant is just nice with my gold chain. The wire is silver plated wire that is very skillfully curved. Fabinenne has worked on jewelry for many years and you can see how skillful the work is. The pearls are fresh water pearls and the stone is rose quartz.

Fabinenne told me how she thought when she made the pendant: "I am so happy you like it!! It tried to make something dainty for you because your art is just like that, dainty and precious! I am so glad it arrived quickly too :)"

How sweet she is and I just want to say thank you very much Fabinnene for this precious gift.

Want to know what I gave to Misty at Art Mind?  Please drop by her blog.

Also, find out what others are getting:

Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation  
Alison at Tweed Thoughts
Kim at My Textile Adventures

Merry-go-Round: Inspirational Photo Challenge

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.
This month topic is: Inspirational Photo Challenge. We take a photo of something that inspires you and show what you make from this as your inspiration.

I took the above photo near my house. It is a very old tree facing the sea. It reminds me of the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude". The paintings for the photo is thus named as "Solitude".

 

I made two versions of the painting. One is original watercolor and another is computer illustration.

 

 Order the Original Painting

I like pen and ink drawing with watercolor very much and this is one of the first few of the watercolor paintings with pen and ink. I would like to explore more on this type of painting in future.

 Order the Print

The print allows me to incorporate some flower patters in the grass. I like the effect.

I hope you enjoy reading this post. Please do visit other merry-go-around blogger to find out more about the topic.

Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation  
Alison at Tweed Thoughts
Misty at Art Mind
Kim at My Textile Adventures

Merry-go-Round: What do we hope to learn/achieve this year?

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.
This month topic is: "What do we hope to learn/achieve this year?".

I have being thinking of learning print making for a long time. I think this is the major skill that I want to acquire this year.

I am thinking of enroll myself at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. I like the school. It was there that I picked up my basic painting skill such as watercolor, oil and sketching.

The course of print making will start on July this year and the enrollment is on May. They usually take only few people for the class. You must apply for it early. I hope I don't miss the date to enroll myself.

Another thing is that the figurative painting. One of my friends invited me to a figurative painting class. But I always find myself busy with this and that and never attended it. I think I should  make myself go there regularly.

 

Magnolia and Bird Laptop Skin

Of course, apart from these two major goals are the goal to improve my art skill in whatever I am doing right now.

Please do visit other merry-go-around blogger for their goals this year:

Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation  
Alison at Tweed Thoughts
Misty at Art Mind
Kim at My Textile Adventures

Merry-go-Round: My Favorite Fellow Artists

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 6 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: "My Favorite Fellow Artists".

The is a very easy topic to me because there are so many artists whose work that I admire very much. Also, I discover work that makes me "wow" every day. I hope to put all of them here to share with you. Some are from Etsy and some from Dawanda and many from Redbubble. If you go to each site and check my favorites, there are so many that I collected.

I put a few of them and you will get the idea of what type of style and work that I love.

Please also visit others:

Wendren at Wren
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 

Merry-go-Round: A Few of My Favorite Things

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: "A Few of My Favorite Things".

To celebrate one year of merry-go-round blogging, I present you with a few of my favorite things from our talented merry-go-round group. Just click each one and you will go to each site to find more of it.

Merry-go-Round: What's Your Purple Cow?

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: "What's your purple cow".

This is a very interesting question. The meaning of the question refers to Seth Godin who said:  "that the key to success is to find a way to stand out and be remarkable - to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins".

In this post, I'll talk a bit about my purple cow and later I'll introduce the purple cow from my fellow merry-go-round author Mariana from Florcita's Art.

Actually I am not so sure on my purple cows. All the time when I created something, I always ask my husband what he thinks and try to get some idea if it is good or bad. My husband as a pure mathematician who studies something on symmetric always points out something very funny such as this is too long and this is too over there.

I only get the confirmation that something is good when someone bought the thing that I created. But the interesting thing is that people like different things. There are pieces in terms of my prints that people buy more than the others. Does it mean that these pieces are better than the others?

Spring - Order the Print

I like the Spring very much. I like the green and the flowers. You feel the sunny spring days with the flower and wet green smell all over the mountain. We were so free at that time. There were so much poetic feelings in you. We were day dreaming a lot and easily moved by small little things. I think this painting depict the feeling very well. This is my favorite and I want it to be a purple cow, but it doesn't sell well as others.

Order the Print

 

Order the Print

 Order the Print

The above are my best sellers.

Order the Print

One of the best sellers is the Relaxing Near a Pond. This is one of my favorites as well. The beauty of this print is that it is much more beautiful when you look at the prints then on the screen. It is very dreamy and the whites are shine among the rest of the objects.

I guess the purple for me or for everyone is something very distinct and unique. I am not sure how my art is dinstinct and unique. But I always keep thinking on this and hope one day I'll truely achieve this goal. One thing is definitly sure for me is that I'll try my best to work on it.

Now let me introduce the wonderful work from Florcita's Art. Mariana's speciality is felt and ceremic art. I love the flow of lines and the inoccent feeling of her art. The unique styles are all over her products such as felted bags, ceremic tiles and felted wraps. I think the best is to show you some of her creations for you to see how distinct her work is:

 

 

 

 

Please also visit other blogs for the topic:

Jenny at Jenny Karlsson design
Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 

Merry-go-Round: Failure sucks: but Instructs.

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: "Failure sucks, but instructs".

Recently I received a message from a fellow seller  in Dawanda, she asked me how to know what customers want and how to make sales.

I think the major failure to all of the sellers is that we cannot make sales. This especially sucks when you just start your business.

I haven't answer the question to the fellow seller yet. The main reason is that I really don't know how to answer it. I think it over and over in my mind and try to make a good answer when I drive or do some other things.

But all I can say is that you try to perfect what you are doing, don't worry too much on sales and customer likes. If you really have wonderful products, people will come to buy from you.

If you enjoy what you are doing and you don't need to worry about money, you can try to put all your effort to make beautiful and unique products. Something that people will say "wow" when they see it.

One thing I believe that in the Internet world, if you work hard, your products are unique and excellent, there are plenty of lovely people somewhere out there will notice them and buy from you.

Order the Earrings

One excellent example is one of the friends that I get to know from Dawanda. She closed her shop a year ago and recently she just opened her shop in Dawanda again. She sells mainly watercolor paintings and prints. In about only a few weeks, she already sold many items. She has improved her products so much during the time she closed her shop and every item makes me feel so excited. You can visit her shop at:
http://en.dawanda.com/shop/Morgenlicht-Kunst

I want to learn from her as well.
That's all from me. There are many other lessons to learn as small business owners. It would be very valuable for you to visit others to find out more about it:

Jenny at Jenny Karlsson design
Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 

Merry-go-Round: What's Your Next Chapter?

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.
 
This month topic is: What's Your Next Chapter?

This is a really excellent question. I am also always asking myself what is my next chapter? I have been producing and selling art for about 3 years. I am very happy that I did produce some pieces of art that I love and some prints that are selling very well. But there is so much need to be improved and to learn.

 

Reading in the Library

Our family have moved to an apartment and my baby daughter is going to go  to a nursery school soon. She is going to have a new chapter in her life and so am I. I will spend more time with her and chauffeur her around. This is the most most important thing for me currently.

As for my art, I'll concentrate more on experimenting on new ways of expressing. Recently I have been using soften ways of creating dreamy romantic birds paintings. I also would like to try to create a character such as the ones in Spring and Girl and Peony. Of course, I'll continue to work on the things that are well accepted.

That's all from mine. Please do read from the following to find out more about others on what their next chapter.

Jenny at Jenny Karlsson design
Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation 

Merry-go-Round: Summer

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 10 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month topic is: Summer

I am living in a tropical small island country of Singapore. It is always summer through out the year. The tree is green all the year and it is hot and sunny all the time.

I remember when I was in China, summer is the season that I like very much. I can wear pretty dresses and feel so flexible with my arms that they are not inhibited by heavy jackets.

But in Singapore, all these surprises and different feelings brought by seasons are lost. I feel the same all the time. It is good and bad. The good is that it is so simple, we just wear the same set of clothes all the time. The bad is that we lack the experiences of seeing snow, ice and falling leaves of trees. But, nothing is perfect in life anyway.

For those who love summer, I brought you my laptop skin "Late Summer Collection".




Please do visit others to find more about the topic:
Jenny at Jenny Karlsson design
Wendren at Wren
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts
Charlotte at Fancy Picnic
Marian, Florcita's Art
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Fabienne at Easterya
Ruth at Birdland Creation