Treasury Tuesday: Growing and Glowing

It's spring, or very near to it, and my neighborhood, most days now, is warm and bright and filled with sunshine.  We have been having seventy degree days and the Bradford pears and dogwoods are all starting to bloom.  The linten roses in my backyard are in full flower as well.  It's an amazing early spring and here is a treasury to celebrate the brightness of it.

'Glowing and Growing....' by cursiveart

A bright and warm treasury representative of spring.

Beautiful red rose thre... themadplanter $60.00	Silver Four Leaf Clover... stringofjewels $16.99	Bracelet Spring Celebra... CraftUnikat $11.00
Accordion Sea Print thelittlecanoe $23.00	Spring Break SALE Fat Q... laurl $9.25	Lemon yellow jade earri... CrashingBison $45.00
Green and Blue Bon Bons TheMadStamper $3.00	Fern Green Teardrop Lac... chainofbeads $19.00	Peridot Green Hand-Knot... beeankha $21.00
Green Babushka Strawber... tetabina $29.00	New.. Set of 9, 11-12 m... FabulousRocks $13.50	Strong Sock - Leprechau... anothercraftyg... $20.00
Early Spring Witchhazel... ArboriCards $15.75	KEIRA - SWD Classic Day... SherriWeeseDes... $60.00	Spring Forward SPECIAL ... theaircastle $15.00
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF... nocoro $11.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Monday Spotlight On: Brooke Weeber of TheLittleCanoe

Sorry that this is going up a bit later than usual, guys. With my wedding in less than three weeks, I tend to get a little distracted.  Today, when I should have been posting, I was off with my future mother-in-law helping her pick out a dress to wear to the wedding.

Brooke Weeber is an awesome illustrator I came across in the Etsy Entrepreneurs Team forums.  She draws these amazing images comprised of items that shoudln't seem to go together, but in her art, ultimately fit perfectly.  I also love her work because she works in the same medium I do when I'm not doing linocut printing.  More about Brooke in her own words:


Tell us about yourself, anything you think is worth knowing.
I'm a bicycle commuter, baker and illustrator living in Portland, OR. I've lived here for over 2 years now. Although I'm originally from Oregon, I spent 4 years living in Brooklyn, NY, soaking up the culture and the chaos while attending culinary school. Even though I was able to really thrive there, refining my cake decorating skills (you can see some of my cakes here: http://citybirdcakes.blogspot.com/), I really missed the greenery and the wide open spaces of the Northwest. That's what drew me back to Oregon. Once I arrived here, I finally had the time and energy to put into my passion for illustrating, which I've been concentrating on ever since.

What is your medium and how did you get into it?My medium is watercolor and ink. I originally got my degree in oil painting from the University of Oregon, but when I moved to New York I was extremely limited by the space I had to work in. Since oils and paint thinners are fairly toxic and difficult to keep clean, I hesitantly switched over to watercolor. They're conveniently small, portable, and easy to tidy up when you're finished. It took me a long time to feel comfortable using watercolor, being so drastically different from oil paints, but eventually, with a lot of practice, I felt right at home, and it really ended up shaping my style. I'd always been a big fan of illustration, and I've drawn with ink pens since I can remember. Now I was finally able to combine the two mediums to make something that I really loved.

Where do you take your inspiration from?
I've always been inspired by other artists. I feel really lucky to have the ease of the internet at my fingertips to direct me to artists from all over the world' one's I would never have met without the help of social/art networking sites like Society6, Etsy, Flickr, Facebook and Tumblr. I'm finding new artists and new inspiration on a daily basis, which is extremely motivating. Aside from that, on a more personal basis, I draw a lot of artistic influence from Greek and Native American art and pattern, as well as from old textbook illustration that I find on the New York Public Library Digital Archives Website (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm). 

When creating, do you have more "Aha!" moments or do you slowly figure things out? What's your process?  I wouldn't say I have many "Aha!" moments. I rarely go in to a piece with much of a plan. I might have a few basic ideas floating around in my mind, but things often change as they take shape in each painting. Normally, I start drawing something out, then I look around the internet for pictures or patterns, then I go back to the artwork, and so on and so on. There's a lot of erasing involved.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65573497/accordion-sea-print

Giveaway Wednesday: Magnolia or Sway Cards

It's that time of the month again...no, the other time, the one people actually like.  It's Giveaway Wednesday.   This time the winner will have the pick of either a set of four of my new magnolia cards (which come in turquoise and orange):

Or a set of my new Sway cards, which come in dark yellow and blue.

The rules are as follows, and are a lot like last month:

1.  Go to my Etsy store here, find your favorite listing and copy the link for it into a comment at the bottom of this post.   Also comment as to whether, if you won, you would prefer Sway or Magnolia cards.

2.  Wait.  This time you have until Monday, March 14th at midnight.  I will announce the winner next Wednesday.

3.  Only one comment per entrant please.

4.  I will once again tally up the number of comments and use a random number generator to determine the winner.  If I cannot contact the winner within 24 hours, I will select another winner the same way. 

Let the commenting begin!

NOTE: I have decided to extend the opportunity to win these cards until NEXT Monday at midnight, so please, send your friends this way!

Treasury Tuesday: Form Meets Function

There are so many beautiful things on Etsy, but let's be honest, not a whole lot of them are needed. You have a hard time justifying the purchase of those pearl earrings or that one-of-a-kind painting.  Well, everything in this treasury is usable.  Bowls for storing and eating, chests and chairs, a rucksack and so much more.  It will be so much easier to convince yourself to buy when you can tell yourself how useful it will be.

'To Have and To Hold Things' by cursiveart

Form meets function in this treasury, with every item capable of storing something, whether it be food, flowers, shoes or you.

Clam Shell Bowl elementclaystu... $125.00	Chopsticks Noodle Bowl ... yevgenia $40.00	84 inch Veronica floati... jwhitney100 $160.00
Ben Seibel Iroquois pit... hppy2gatha $17.00	Consoul (with frame) SPDivision $2400.00	Sage green creamer by M... jawaddel $6.00
The Origin Family claynfiber $225.00	Cast Iron Bowl StudioHR $65.00	Propeller Coffee Table AnthonyGrayFur... $1600.00
2 Glass Plates in Fuchi... glassgifts $24.00	Black and White Scroll ... GlazedOver $46.00	Curved Bay Window Bench jeremiahcollec... $300.00
The Rucksack in Cinnamo... infusion $162.00	Kart Chair HarBenger2 $350.00	IN STOCK...Nesting Trio... clearmountainc... $90.00
Primitive 64 Drawer Apo... redroosterbab $899.99

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.