I love Horses-Interview with Texas Artist HossLass

I love horses. My mother says the first word out of my mouth was "foifee" which was how I pronounced "horsey". I've been talking, dreaming and for a short while, owning horses ever since. Last winter when I was participating in a Marketing Exchange I found this great Etsy shop that features horse art. She does original fine art and functional art designs featuring horses, wildlife, the Southwest and western Americana. I fell in love. Recently I ran across her again as part of my EtsyTx team. So I decided it was about time to do an interview with her and find out how and when she started crafting. I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did and be sure to check out her shop HossLass. If you love horses or western things you'll fall in love, too.
1. When and why did you start crafting?
Well, as a young child I started drawing and painting, mostly horses. As I was a horse crazy girl from a non horse crazy rural poor farm family! So my first horse didn't come along until I was old enough to get a job and pay for the upkeep myself at age 16. Until then, I painted many imaginary horse friends! As I got older I wound up leaving my art world behind to make my way in life like most people. Then about three years ago I think I hit my mid life crisis and reached out to art again as a fresh start! Somehow watercolor pencil painting appealed to me, very new and different to me than the oils/acrylics I used in my youth, so that's the medium I focus on. I decided my next career move is to become a full time self supporting artist!
2. What do you enjoy most about your crafting?
I really enjoy the creative journey, from the excitement of the new idea, deciding on the design, colors and composition, the actual work in progress and the final product. I often have at least two or three other projects lined up in my head while I'm working on the current one! I really enjoy creating a series of paintings or functional art, for instance the series of Prancing Horse small format paintings, and I have two other southwest wildlife series sets I'm working on. The eagle beaded bookmark is one of a set of southwest wildlife bookmarks, planning on a cougar and bear also. Right now, I'm in the process of making a series of three small hiking or trail riding journals which are beaded with semi precious stones and each journal cover will have an original miniature painting of another set of southwest wildlife (mustangs, elk and buffalo).
3. How did you find out about Etsy and why did you start selling there?
Etsy peaked my interest from an artist forum I was on (a lot). Many artists there kept mentioning Etsy as their store so I checked it out! I liked what I found on Etsy very much and decided this was the way to begin to sell my art online on my budget. I started my store in October of 2007. I have learned so much, my Etsy shop is a work in progress, I'm getting more the hang of what I want visitors to experience when they visit my shop and look at the artwork.
4. What is the hardest thing to do for your shop or you dislike the most about selling online?
I think the hardest thing for me in my shop now, besides building new inventory, is promoting. Especially online networking and promoting. Like most artists, I just want to devote all my time to making my art as best as I can. Which for me, requires quite a bit of mental energy, and I'm the type of artist who needs to be in that creative zone. Otherwise if I make myself work on my art everyday, that's what it looks like, to me, as if the piece was worked on and not naturally flowing with color and feel. I have discovered I feel the same way about promoting online. I have gotten better about spending time promoting at least one to two days a week. If I had the budget, I'd hire someone to promote my art for me!!
5. Do you rely on Etsy to help pay bills or is it mainly for fun & extra spending money?
My goal is to rely on sales through Etsy to pay my bills and be part of my full time financial support from online sources (like Artfire and Ebay). And the sales I have made do go toward bills, seems like as soon as the money is in my paypal account, I've got it going out to pay for something else! I would like to have several sales a month, but it's not that way yet. I have faith that time will pay off for me! My Etsy shop is fun for me anyway!!
6. Have you tried or do you sell in offline shops? Do you enjoy that more or less than Etsy & why?
No, I'm in the process of building more inventory, creating more art so I'm just focusing on online sales right now. However, my goal is to have my own website, also to be more in depth about my art and then use all the online shops to showcase my art to anyone. Then I can go out to brick and mortar shops locally with a great portfolio and a big Texas smile!!
7. Where else can you be found online?
I have an Artfire store, http://hosslassart.artfire.com , on Twitter http://twitter.com/hosslass , my blog http://hosslass.blogspot.com and I now Plurk http://plurk.com/hosslass and one day my own website, name to be determined!
Thanks for the great interview HossLass. Be sure to check out the box to the right for a few of her great Etsy items, and then visit her other shops, too.

For all the Hippies out there-Hippie Art and JustGiveMePeace

Welcome to the hippie parade...We believe in peace and love. Everything in between is just a road trip....

So starts the announcement in this Hippie Art shop. I met JustGiveMePeace in a thread killer. She loves art, drawing and great old music. So I asked her for an interview and she graciously accepted. Hope you enjoy her answers to my questions and for her art, check out her shop: JustGiveMePeace on Etsy.

1. When and why did you start crafting?

LOL! That’s easy. Our Mama allowed us to color on the walls. I think she was the original hippie…she had us casting sand mummies at the beach by the time I was three, collecting wood from old houses to paint on by the time I was five. I still color on the walls!

2. What do you enjoy most about your crafting?

For the most part I paint, color, draw. It’s a peace drug…It’s starts with one thought and once I begin, I’m lost in it.

3. How did you find out about Etsy and why did you start selling there?

Funny, but I learned of Etsy about three years ago when a fellow blogger introduced me to all the cool items she was collecting. I bookmarked it as a really awesome place to visit and suddenly last August, pop! I decided to join.

4. What is the hardest thing to do for your shop or you dislike the most about selling online?

I’m a little spoiled. We began selling on the other E and my only contribution was to draw. My skinny little sister, Paigey, did all the listings, the techno stuff, and well, all I had to do was color. I’m sort of on my own with Etsy and it’s been a learning experience, but over all, there really isn’t anything I don’t like about it. I’ve met some incredible people and it’s like being at a 24 hour, 7 day a week art show. I live in a house with no clocks, so it’s a perfect lifestyle for me…

5. Do you rely on Etsy to help pay bills or is it mainly for fun & extra spending money?

Funny, but when I needed help with the bills, it helped, when I was just hearting some wonderful hippie stuff for myself, it paid for those. It sort of just fits my needs. And goes with the flow…

6. Have you tried or do you sell in offline shops? Do you enjoy that more or less than Etsy & why?

We transitioned from the auction site and even a check out on our web to Etsy only. It’s slowly working…and so far, I’ve found it to be the easiest and far friendliest on line avenue.

7. Where else can you be found online?

www.justgivemepeace.com and www.justgivemepeace.blogspot and twitter, of course www.twitter.com/justgivemepeace

Much Peace,Sing

Interview with Etsy's Inkwear99

I first met Stacey of Inkwear99 on Etsy through the forums. We were both on a threadkiller thread, trying to win a prize. There are several of those floating around Etsy so check them out. But she had a threadkiler of her own and I ended up winning an adorable tattooed bag for being a certain number poster. It's great. You can check it out at her shop. I have also fallen in love with these tattooed shoes. May have to get them for myself. So I asked her for an interview. I hope you enjoy it.

1. When and why did you start crafting?

We started making silkscreen tshirts and totes last summer when my stepdaughter who is 12 decided she wanted to be a fashion designer. Eric, my husband had done some silkscreening in high school. So we bought the equipment and started making shirts. It also made sense to make the shirts for our tattoo shop as well. It would be much cheaper.

2. What do you enjoy most about your crafting?
I really like making new designs and putting the thoughts in our head onto a shirt or shoe.

3. How did you find out about Etsy and why did you start selling there?

I found out about etsy from Karla at heartsizedcrush.etsy. She makes tattoo inspired jewelry and we have some of her pieces on consignment at the tattoo shop.

4.. What is the hardest thing to do for your shop or you dislike the most about selling online?

I wasn't sure how well we would do, but figured our items may as well be displayed on the internet, and have more people see them. They may as well be displayed other places, rather than just in boxes in our basement.

5. Do you rely on Etsy to help pay bills or is it mainly for fun & extra spending money?

We don't really rely on Etsy for our main source of income. It is mostly just for fun. I am a Comptroller at an auto broker in the day, we own a tattoo shop, do Inkwear at nights and in my "spare" time, I am a mom and a wife.

6. Have you tried or do you sell in offline shops? Do you enjoy that more or less than Etsy & why?

We have some items at a boutique in Colorado Springs. We have about 20 items there. It is a handmade boutique, called Kabbibi Mei. It just opened last month and has been doing ok so far. We have only sold one item, but are still very hopeful.

7.Where else can you be found online?

I can also be found online at: inkwear99.artfire.com, twitter.com/inkwear99 and myspace.com/inkwear99

You can check out some more of her favorites in the web ring box to the right.

Feeding my Blog and Etsy shop to Twitter--Purple Glass vase

Yay, I think I figured out how to get my Etsy feed and my Blog feed to Twitter. Thanks to Timothy Adam Designs. I should know if I did it right in about an hour. Had a nice afternoon, taking some pictures of some more candle holders I have made up and a nice small purple vase I'm hoping to get listed in the next day or two. Also found my Bud Lite Beer Bottle windchime, so I need to get some pictures of it and list it. I love those windchimes.

My husband spent the day redoing our road. We were able to buy some road base and have it delivered yesterday (3, 18-24 yd belly dump trucks full). So he spent the whole day on his tractor moving it around and smoothing it out, filling in the potholes we had and building it up where it keeps washing out when it rains. LOL Hasn't rained in months (at least not enough to measure), but when it does we're ready! Anyway here's a pic of the purple vase and check my flickr for pictures of his tractor. http://flickr.com/photos/kayzkreationz And my twitter channel is http://twitter.com/KayzKreationz Come follow me.

Finally Getting all this

Well, I think I'm finally getting all this. Got my blog posted on twitter, plumdrop and got my etsy mini posted here.

For some neat jewelry check out my daughter-in-law's etsy shop:
http://STRINGandSTONES.etsy.com