I’m not sure if it’s a bit pretentious to have a page called ‘Art Studio’ on one’s blog if one has never actually been to art school before. It may even be worse than that…’one’ only began painting about ten months ago. Oh, and ‘one’s art studio’ measures 1 meter by 2 meters. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s practically a broom cupboard…and yet it has two doors (one is a very cool stable door) and a window. Oh, and it has a table. Everything one needs to be an artist. Ahem.
That said, I definitely naturally romanticise my life. I think that is why I am so incredibly happy all the time. I honestly would not change my teeny tiny art studio for all the space in the world. My incredible husband built everything with his own hands. The shelves were cut, sanded and stained by him. He basically made all my art studio dreams come true. So much love went into this tiny space…I guess that means more to me than anything else. He sanded down walls, repainted them, hung curtains (which by the way match my favourite autumnal cardigan!), put up shelves. So much love and time and care. I LOVE my new space ❤️
Why Did I Ask for an Art Studio (for my birthday)?
At the beginning of this year, I decided to try to do things which took me out of my comfort zone. I had already joined a choir the September before, and there was so much goodness that came out of that, I wanted more. One of the things I did was to begin painting. I’ve always known I was creative but being artistic is a whole different thing. I have historically found drawing and painting really hard.
In fact, my art teacher at school discouraged me from taking it at A level because she said I wasn’t good enough. Now, I don’t totally disagree with her! I know I am not terribly talented, but that is why Picasso exists. Picasso? Yes. I love me a Picasso, although I can’t say that was always the case. It took me studying him alongside Becca and seeing his art through her eyes. In fact, when I looked into his art and how it changed over time, I slowly began to fall in love.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, just like beauty.
And isn’t that just so wonderful and exciting? We each get to define what art is to us, and whether we prefer abstract over realism…or religious works over cubism…it actually doesn’t matter. How we enjoy art is personal.
This is fantastic news for any of us wannabe artists! It means someone out there is bound to like our art (ever the optimist!!). Joking aside, it offers hope…that there is room for every type of artist in the world.
My Small Art Business
I’m not sure why I (almost straight away) made a move from casual painter of all things nature, to (very) small business owner. I think a few friends asked me if I had thought about selling my pictures on greeting cards, and I figured, why not? You know me…act now, think later. But sometimes this works out for me! I mean, I am LOVING every single thing about this small business thing. Sure, it takes me (sometimes waaaaaay) out of my comfort zone. And I can’t honestly say it’s been a roaring success, but somehow this doesn’t matter.
Monday’s Art Studio Day
Monday is my art studio day. I spend one whole glorious day small businessing. Actually, it’s better than that. I get to spend one whole day small art businessing. Does life get any more fun than this? Every Monday, I get to play around with designs, add another product to my Etsy shop, write a small business related post for Angelicscalliwags and generally just have lots (and lots) of fun designing and creating products.
Almost immediately after deciding to make greeting cards, I was encouraged to ask a local shop to stock them. I did what now?! Yes, I did. I was so anxious about it that I (quoting Pretty Woman) almost peed my pants! But I needn’t have worried, They liked what they saw and became my first stockists.
Things moved pretty quickly after that as I created a business logo, using Angelicscalliwags as my business name, had a wooden stamp made with the design and created five greeting card designs. I also looked into the possibility of creating some seeded business cards that could be planted and grown into wild flowers.
Creating Products in my Art Studio
Journals
The local gift shop owner made the comment that once I had a design, I could use it for many things. I took this to heart, and went down the KDP route to create some journals with my design on the front. It was here I made the first (of many) business mistakes. I doggedly continued on however, learning as I went along, until I had created some Sea-life Journals and some Cottage Garden Journals.
Things were looking good, until my first batch of cards came through in the post and I realised I had made my second business mistake. Sigh. This was probably the biggest learning adventure of my life!
Stickers
The next product I designed was sticker sheets. Using Procreate, I isolated each individual image within each art journal page, resized them and created themed sheets…Meadow Sticker Sheet, Safari Sticker Sheet, Woodland Sticker Sheet and a Sea-life Sticker Sheet. I was delighted with these and they came out perfectly! At last, I had created something first time without any mistakes.
My goal for the future is to create larger stickers which can be sold one at a time. And as I’ll be printing them from home, I’ll be able to offer personalisation as well.
My Etsy Shop
Right now, I am selling out of Etsy at my Angelicscalliwags Art Shop. In the future, I’d like to own an online shop from my blog. However, there is a huge learning curve to figuring out how to do this re taxes etc to other countries. At the moment, Etsy sorts all this stuff out for me, but I’ll need to do it myself if I had a separate shop.
I will also be showing my process and progress on my new YouTube channel Angelicscalliwags Art.
Home Business Log
Another thing I’ve started doing is my monthly Small Business Log. I shall leave them below as I write them:
- Small Business Log #001
- Small Business Log #002
This page is under construction.