Etsy Artists Help Fellow Etsy Artists

Visiting blogs is often like going on a treasure hunt. This past weekend, while checking out others’ blogs I found a wonderful, inspiring and uplifting nugget on a blog called “Bags by Melanie.” In the right hand sidebar, Melanie, who has an Etsy store also called Bags by Melanie, has a short write-up that Introduces H.O.S.T.

H.O.S.T. is the Etsy “Helping Others Street Team”, which is comprised of over 100 Esty artists who share the virtuous quality of compassion. HOST has its origins in a discussion thread started by Heather, of Heather R. Lange Art, at 3:15pm on December 20, 2007 entitled “Is Anyone in Need This Season?”

The response was overwhelming—almost 3000 posts in only 7 days. There were a lot of sad stories relating the need of Etsians and their families, but each sad story was answered by an outpouring of posts with words of encouragement, freewill gifts and donations, and leads on resources that might help meet a specific need.

Approximately five hours after the thread began, an Etsy buyer of handmade who goes by GeauxOrganic, commented “I think there needs to be an Etsy gives back street team.” Many participating in the discussion, agreed and 3 days later HOST became an official street team on Etsy.

I think Melanie’s mention of the HOST team caught my eye, because I recently wrote an article for HanmadeNews.org which was published in their Guild and Team Department. “Virtual Strangers Offer Surprise Support to Team Member with Cancer” tells the story of Etsy Artist Joyce Richards of Wild Orchid’s Beads of Glass who was recently diagnosed with Cancer and how members of her Etsy Twitter Team (ETT) reached out with the same kind of compassion that members of HOST show their fellow Etsians.

“Hosties”, as they call themselves, offer friendship, emotional support, help with shop promotion, and basic financial assistance. If you’d like to help the Hosties help others, you can become a member, go to their team blog and make a monetary donation, purchase an item from their team store or donate an item to their store. Below is a glimpse into the HOST Etsy Store.

I do believe that when we have compassion and act on our compassion, we make the world a better place. I also believe, that in a time when so many in our country are struggling, it’s wonderful, inspiring and uplifting to hear and share good news. I hope this brief article, warms your heart and stirs up even more compassion in all of us.

Writing for HandmadeNews.org

I highly recommend HandmadeNews.org as a great resource for both buyers and sellers in the world of handmade. It's a comprehensive site, with a dynamic staff of columnists and editors writing for 14 sections or departments including:

Main Feature
Craft Techniques
Guild & Teams
Just for Fun
Craft Trends
Marketing
Business Tips
Inspiration
Green Wise
Featured Artisan
Item of the Day
Crafty Kids
Front Page
Most Popular

This site was launched on June 8th and is quickly growing in popularity. Some of the articles I've found most interesting include:

Create Your Own Seed Paper
An article about making seed paper that you can write a note on and
then the recipient can plant it rather that put it in the trash

Vetrazzo-The Ultimate Example of Trash to Treasure
An article about a company who makes gorgeous counter tops out of recycled glass
that competing as an elegant alternative to more expensive granite

Snow Globes For Any Occasion
These would be a great craft project for kids--even teens, a fabulous table decoration for a fundraiser or as a wedding favor or a get well present for someone stuck in bed.

Sock Coffee Cozy: A Craft Supply Challenge Project
You don't even have to be crafty to do this project. All you need are a stash of lonely socks who lost their partner to the hungry monster in the washing machine or dryer.

Recrafting Yourself in the Second Half of Life

Some of you may not be there, but at 50+ and in the second half of my life, all I can say is, "Amen!"

That's a sampling just to whet your appetite. New articles are published every day in each department. Now that I'm a columnist in the Guild & Teams department, I don't have as much time for perusing. So, why don't you go to HandmadeNews.org and read an article for me. If you really like it, use the comments below to recommend it to the rest of us.

Enjoy!

Is Life Art?

I have no clue which Ernst Fisher gave us this art quote of the day, but his words could have been my words:

“I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.”--Ernst Fischer

I believe there is an art to enjoying life. No one ever gets to live a fairytale life, for each of our lives is full of “curve balls” and every once in a while we are dealt a bad hand. I’ve come to realize that the secret to life is not in getting the right cards, or even the best cards, but it’s in how we play our hand.

A good poker player can beat three of a kind with a pair of deuces. I saw that happen once. And, I’ve heard a friend who lost their job tell me that he and his wife decided to take an evening stroll instead of their usual Friday night dinner at a fancy restaurant, and ended up having a wonderful time. They took lemons and artfully made lemonade.

Life is art, when we enjoy the people we love and the beauty that surrounds us. My life is living art when I take the time to sit with my husband at the edge of a lake, and we open our senses to the natural beauty that is before us just waiting to be noticed.


As we sit there, we soak in the beautiful changing colors of the sunset. The dazzling diamond like sparkles of light bouncing on the rippling water mesmerizes us. We are lulled into a relaxed peacefulness by the soft lapping sound of baby waves. A hint of pine from the forest just behind us fills our nostrils as we breathe in slowly and purposefully. We are caressed by the feathery touch of the gentle breeze. Two birds frolicking in the air just above our heads provide entertainment, and we giggle over the frog that has perched himself on a nearby log and watches us with curiosity. We share the secrets from our day intermittently with moments of intimate silence. We experience life as a taste of heaven and life becomes art.

Unfortunately we can’t stay at the edge of the lake forever. But we can continue to live our life in an artful way. A good artist uses their medium to create a piece of art that stirs our souls into seeing something in a new and appealing way. We become the artist of our lives when we not only look for beauty in every person and situation but when we open ourselves to really take in that beauty and experience it in a new way.

Please leave a comment about a time when you experienced life as art…

Artists are Explorers and Pioneers

Never thought I’d have anything in common with Picasso, but I too can say, “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

Today’s Art Quote

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso

Some of the people I’m closest to have referred to it as a disorder. I can’t tell you how many times throughout my life I’ve fielded the question, “When are you going to settle into one art form?” But I somehow manage to brush off their comments because little brings me as much satisfaction as learning how to do something new.

Pablo Picasso is probably best known for his paintings and his sculpture, though he also left the world with a collection of ceramics, drawings, prints, tapestries, and rugs. Right now, I specialize in stained glass and Bauernmalerei from different regions. Over the years, I’ve also caned chairs, made cut and carve candles, sewn clothes and home décor, refinished furniture, laid tile, sculpted figures out of both salt dough and polymer clay, dabbled in ceramics and photography, and recently have been learning taxidermy. I may even have forgotten a few…

What about you…

Leave a comment and tell us what you’ve dabbled in and what you specialize in and leave a link to your online store if you have one.

What does it mean to appreciate the unnecessary?

I’m glad you asked. Many of us are pinching pennies during this time of economic struggle. But if we focus solely on what is necessary for our survival, we can become so pre-occupied with satisfying our hungers (and the hungers of our loved ones) that we become weighed down with practicality. I know that when I slip into this “all work and no play” mentality, I become stuck in a downward spiral of anxiety and miss out on much of the beauty that surrounds me.
Remembering to appreciate the unnecessary in life is the way I become unstuck and the way I reopen myself to enjoying life’s little freebies. For example, eating food is a necessary part of living. It satisfies my hunger and fuels my body so I can accomplish the work I need to do. However savoring the flavor of a bite before swallowing is an act of appreciating the unnecessary that elevates my experience of eating by adding enjoyment to my satisfaction.
Other examples of appreciating the unnecessary might include stopping for a second on my way to the car to listen to the birds sing, or waving back to the child in the rear window of the school bus ahead of me in traffic, or inhaling the aroma of a cup of coffee before taking a sip.
Art is all about appreciating the unnecessary in life. Artists are extraordinarily sensitive to the beauty that surrounds them, whether a physical beauty or the beauty of human experience. They see something beautiful, then they try to depict it in such a way that others will experience a heightened connection to that beauty.
Auguste Rodin, one of the greatest sculptors the world has ever seen, depicted the ordinary everyday act of thinking as something beautiful and noble when he created “The Thinker.” When I saw this piece in person, I was struck with awe at the magnificence of a man pondering his thoughts. Yes, this piece of art pointed to a simple truth that I probably already knew, but I had never before given it a conscious thought. As I circled around “The Thinker” in the garden of the Rodin Museum, I remember marveling at how at man’s ability to think and how that really elevated us above all other animals. The longer I gazed at this statue the more clearly I saw the dignity of every human person. That is an example of how an exceptional artist and one of his masterpieces was a catalyst that triggered a life-altering moment for me.
But what about art that we can enjoy everyday, like the pictures that hang on the walls of our home, the knick knacks on our shelves that remind us of special people and events in our lives, the jewelry and accessories we use to complete an outfit, and other ways we enhance our experience of the ordinary.
All of us can use our creativity to help others appreciate the unnecessary by highlighting the lagniappe in life. Maybe it’s as simple as singing songs with the kids on the way to school, or lighting candles so dinner becomes a dining experience, or leaving a “love” note in your spouse’s pocket where they will find it in the middle of their workday. Maybe it’s taking that old but still functional table and giving it a new coat of paint, or making an arrangement of fresh flowers from the garden for the coffee table. And all of us can pay even closer attention to the beauty that already surrounds us. Making a habit of appreciating the unnecessary (the extras) in life can lift us out of survival mode and give us a general sense abundance.
How do you appreciate the unnecessary? Share your answer with us in the comment section below.

A Two Penny Post

Today’s Art quote is credited to Wilson (“Bill”) Mizner, who was quite the character and dilettante. Born in 1876, he was one of 8 children and spent part of his childhood in Guatemala. As an adult, he covered a lot of ground from Alaska, to New York, to Florida to California often taking advantage of the unsuspecting in his varied entrepreneurial endeavors. One might even consider him a scoundrel. However he is best known as a playwright and for his clever sayings and witticisms.
Today, Mr. Mizner is cited as having said, “It is not in life, but in art that self-fulfillment is to be found.” Immediately, I want to disagree because I find self-fulfillment in my close relationships with family and friends, and in and through living a faith-filled and faithful life. So, my experience tells me that self-fulfillment can indeed be found in the everyday living of life.
However, after reflecting on his sentiment a little longer, I have to say that creating something artistic in my shop does make me come alive inside in a way that nothing else does. Even being able to gaze at a particularly appealing work of art from another artist can cause a joy to bubble up in my soul that satisfies a longing I didn’t even know I had. So there is most definitely a special type of fulfillment that comes from both the creation and appreciation of art.
I dare say that our ability as humans to create art and to appreciate its creation by others is a distinctive human quality, much like our free will, that separates us from the other animals and connects us in a special way with the divine.
Well that’s my two cents worth. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below.

Not an Ansel Adams

"The Long Long Tracks of Life"
by Coco Watkin

Which One Would You Rather Be?

Ansel Adams, a world renown photographer, author and conservationist, is best known for his ability to capture the natural grandeur of our environment. He is quoted (in today's art quote) as having said, "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." And that got me wondering which end of the camera I'd rather be on. Right off I'd say I'd rather be the photographer, but when I view a family photograph that captured one of life's special moments, just seeing that picture brings back all the joy of that moment.
How about you? Would you rather be the photographer or the viewer and why?
Leave your answer in the comment section below.

Excellence vs. Perfection

Today’s art quote: “Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it,” brings back terrible memories of my childhood and young adulthood when I was a perfectionist.
Have you ever been afraid you weren’t good enough? I grew up with that constant fear and lived moment to moment always doubting myself. It was an oppressive attitude that kept me from reaching my potential.
It wasn’t until I began to see my value as a unique person, that my compulsion to be perfect began to subside. And the more I realized and came to believe “that I am fearfully, wonderfully made” by God (Psalm 139:14) the more free I became to reach my potential.
But in giving up my need for perfection, I never gave up striving for excellence. I’m always in hot pursuit of self-improvement.
As a person, that means ever taking time to consciously recognize my vices and replace them with good habits. As a wife, it means choosing to honor and cherish my husband even when I don’t “feel” like it. As a Mom, it means learning to listen better and to accept my children right where they are even when it’s not where I want them to be. And as an artisan, it means striving to master the tools and materials of my craft. And how do I do that…
I do that by asking questions…
Some would refer to me as “over the hill”, and I have to admit that white hairs are quickly replacing my dark brown ones. My body may be getting older, but I’m young at heart, because despite the wisdom of my years, I’m still eager and ever ready to learn and to grow.
Earlier I said that gaining confidence in my own goodness, freed me to reach my potential. But there’s a funny thing about my potential--I’ll never really reach it either. However, I’m having a good time in the process, and I just keep on getting better and better.
So, do you have a question for me. Just leave it in the comments below.
And enjoy today!
Coco