Remember me?



Have you missed me?



I have been up to my big brown eyes in loads of very busy things which is why you haven't heard from me in soooooooooo long! But here I am and guess what?



It's FFFFRRRRIIIIDDDAAAAAAYYYY?



Yep, Friday Feature day, for those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, every Friday I choose a shop with 0 sales and do a feature on them. Some shops have even had a sale!



So, who have I got for you this week I hear you all yell?



Well, actually my husband found this shop and insisted I feature it. It didn't take much persuasion as you will see it's a great little shop.



The name in question is EmmieBean. She makes these delightful digital illustrations inspired by vintage 1960s photographs. They are full of colour and each one seems to tell a story or maybe two. Check out my favourite...

I think this one would look particularly nice hanging in my lounge!

Lets hear from the artist,

Who are you? My name is Sadie Raber. I run the etsy shop EmmieBean, which was named after my kitty, Emma. She is a sweet feline companion who prefers very strange foods, including cantaloupe, yogurt, and pad thai noodles!

Where are you from? I was born in Hawaii, but I was raised in Thousand Oaks and now live in Santa Barbara, California!

What do you do? The work I promote on etsy are my illustrations that are based on quirky 1960s vintage photographs. For my day job, I am a graphic designer who specializes in editorial design and I also instruct a class at the University of California Santa Barbara about how to design a magazine.

What else do you do? For fun, I love to take road trips along Highway 1, drink wine, peruse magazines, make sock monsters and other crafty things, walk around the neighborhood, and watch movies.

What/Who influences you? I have always been fascinated with vintage family photographs, and can often be found sifting through my relatives' old 1960s and 70s albums looking for potential material for my illustrations (They aren't always that keen on me painting them when they had afros and dolphin shorts, but I think they are flattered nonetheless). I also love anything whimsical, anything Swiss, and anything white!

What is your favourite colour? It all depends on what the project is. Red and pastels for illustrations, and white for interior design, clothing design, and craft projects!

What music are you currently listening to? Fleetwood Mac is back on tour in the U.S. so I have been a little obsessed lately. When I illustrate, I generally listen to The Sea and Cake or Iron & Wine because they relax me.

Who is your favourite Etsy shop? I find new favorites by the hour. Today I stumbled upon an illustrator named ashleyg whose work is fantastic.

So there you have it, go and check her out, she even does requests! How cool is that?

See ya!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Friday Feature Number Six!

Morning Campers!



It's Friday, it's Feature time, it's another shop with 0 sales!!



Let's see what we have got today.....



Today's shop is bizarro. The shop is full of 18th-19th century vintage prints that have been long lost or forgotten about and most of which haven't even seen the light of day in the past 100 years until now. The prints are wierd, wonderful and sometimes slightly disturbing. Either way I love this shop, I love the feel of this shop and the strange world it takes you to.




Let's see what they have to say

Who are you? A caveman in a spaceship!

Where are you from? Born and raised in The Pacific Northwest of the United States.

What do you do? I'm an artist and animator. I make things fly around on TV screens for a living. I also like collecting and discovering weird things. With the exception of the one time I was at the beach and thought I had found a really interesting rock when a friend informed me that it was actually an old piece of dog poop!

What else do you do? I like building terrariums. It's very relaxing. I can imagine myself living inside one someday once shrink rays are invented.

What/Who influences you? I love anyone who has the ability to conjure up strange, magical world's and make them a reality. There are so many. Jim Henson is a good example.

What is your favourite colour? Turquoise has always grabbed my eye for some reason but I almost only ever wear black or neutral tones. I paint or color mostly in pastel colors. I don't think I have a favorite. I think more about what colors look best for the subject.

What music are you currently listening to? Mostly ABBA and Black Sabbath interchangeably. Sometimes simultaneously for maximum effect.

Who is your favourite Etsy shop? I really like misanthrope.etsy.com and his custom portraits that are purposefully unflattering.

So there you have it. Check out Bizarro's shop and have a nose, it's strangely addictive.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Friday Feature Number Two!!

Watcha,

Well it's that time of week again when I feature a shop with 0 sales!

As I searched through the lonely, cold and forgotten shops of Etsy, it didn't take me long to find this hidden treasure. The shop is called Zando. They make gift cards and button badge sets. They are fun and quirky with cleverly thought out designs.

Here are my favourites!

Lets hear from Zando herself! -

Who are you? Zando is myself, Zoe, and my partner Dan, although at the moment it is only my work appearing on Etsy.

Where are you from? I'm from Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) originally, and have returned here via a 13 year detour in Melbourne! Dan is from Ballarat, in country Victoria (an hour or so from Melbourne) but is now in the clutches of Tasmania as well!

What do you do? For the moment, I am mostly a full-time parent to our 1yr son, though I come from a mongrel background of illustration and graphic art, linguistics and Spanish and odd-jobbing. Dan is a librarian-turned-furniture designer, and is studying full-time to that end. If by what do you do, you mean, what do I make for Etsy, well for the moment it is just a range of original handmade button badges and some handmade cards of my own photos. The photos are rather close to my heart. The character, Stella, is a bit of a pint-sized alter ego for me, who asks the questions from the existential to the utterly vacuous that I ask myself on a regular basis! However, there are handmade bibs coming up soon, inspired by my son's copious reflux as a younger tot! We have loads of ideas, it is mostly a matter of negotiating child-free time to make and fine-tune things.

What else do you do? Outside of parenting and making, I am a life model, a pram-walker, a reader, and can be seen regularly haunting my local library!

What/who influences you? I really like the work of Sloane Tanen (http://sloanetanen.com/), who I first came across way after I had developed Stella, but who I feel is definitely a kindred spirit. I also love the work of Melbourne artist Lara Cameron (http://kirinote.blogspot.com/), who designs gorgeous prints for fabric.

What is your favourite colour? Blue. A very specific shade of blue. The blue of the shallows of the sea on a hot summer day. I guess a kind of turquoise colour. It's just a colour I love to both wear and look at.

What music are you currently listening to? The last thing I listened to was a compilation CD this afternoon in the car called Manteca World Music...something, something. Can't remember the exact name, but it had lots of bluegrass and folk/country on it.

Who is your favourite Etsy shop? An acquaintance of mine, fellow Tasmanian Pippilangstrumpf, has a shop called Under the Shade of a Bonsai Tree, where she sells beautiful products using Japanese chiyogami paper. I don't tend to browse around Etsy too often because I don't have the means to go shopping at the moment, and there is so much fantastic stuff it's kind of torture to look and not touch!

Check out Zando's shop, go on, treat yourself......

xxxx