Belated updates

It's been a long time - I know.
Since I last wrote I have opened a store and that was nearly a month ago.

Gabriel turned 3, he now tells everyone who looks at him "Me Gabriel, three years old" *holding up three fingers* and if he has his birthday present scooter with him he will stop scooting, hold it up and say "My cool scooter!"... basically everything you need to know about him I guess?

In a week or so my little Samurai will be 1. ONE. I swear I was just blogging about leaving the hospital after having him. Time goes by faster and faster.

So a lot of things have happened.

At the moment I have no interest in writing about any of it though. 
I haven't sat down and done anything arty for ages so in that sense there isn't that much to tell.

Kyle was able to put together this awesome video of our shop for those of you who live away and won't be able to see it.
For those living close by who haven't come to see us yet. Shame on you. 

Come visit us - I'll talk to you in person. It'll be great.

Postal loving

On my mum's side of the family there is a cluster of cousins who are all the same age. Like five of us within six months. One of those cousins was born exactly a week before me, the Boxing Day to my New Years day.

We neither of us like our birthdays so much.

That's not the point that I was trying to get at.

This cousin of mine, Tom, he married this amazing girl called Jess. I'm confident that he agrees with me when I say that it is probably one of the best things he's ever done. I think so for totally different reasons I'm sure, but I'm very glad that she's part of my family now. She has a blog called A Heart Full of Frost.

She's having a competition on her blog at the moment where you can win some of my art. Mailable art. In the form of a six month subscription (there are two up for grabs and every month they include work that you can't get anywhere else) so you should go and have a look and get into it. 

Yes. That envelope is addressed to YOU at YOUR HOUSE!

It all came about because of my affection for what I call the 'LOST ARTS'. That sounds really kind of witchy and magical, but it's far more mundane than that. I mean things like letter writing, conversation, and other old school things that are under-appreciated these days.  I mentioned this earlier ... several times in fact.
I enjoy digital mail too, don't get me wrong, but nothing really compares to a letter.
It represents thought and effort well beyond that of an email or facebook message, and lasts longer than a phone call.

I get wistful while watching Jane Austin films not only because of the restrained romance of the whole thing, but because conversation was an art form. An art form which has, in large part, been lost. People thought for longer before they spoke and the more well spoken they were the better it seemed to reflect onto them. Somehow this has flipped around and despite the often high levels of intelligence contained within people's skulls, only slang, cuss, and heavily abbreviated nonsense comes out of people's mouths.

"Oh em gee Eleanor, it's IRONIC"

Get. Out. 

My mourning over the laziness of the written word in communication is even more profound. For speed and ease we have sacrificed beautiful words for abbreviations, txt, and bastardised spelling.
 (I am a terrible speller so I have to call myself out on hypocrisy here... in fact I just spelled 'hypocrisy' wrong until I checked the suggested spelling. Thanks Right Click.)

I'm not a great writer, but I am a prolific reader and I love reading well put together phrases. Especially when they are put together just for me, then wrapped up in envelopes and delivered into my real life in-box.

That's why I started subscriptions. To motivate some postal loving.

So check out Jess's blog, and check out my etsy store.

Photo magic

Selling things online can be challenging because people don't get to wander through your shop touching things, trying things on, or testing for quality.
I sell art, so you don't really 'try it on' but everyone likes to know what things would look like on the walls of their house - in context.

My cousin Analiese is a talented photographer (she did my sister's wedding last year) and so I asked her if she would take some photos for me.

She's a magician. Seeing my work in her photos actually makes me feel like an actual artist, instead of the fraud I feel like most of the time.

I have them up on my website { http://www.theelmtree.com.au }

Here are some.

And you can see her blog post with more photos here. I totally recommend looking through the whole blog, there are some really lovely photos - and as Analiese travels to Queensland fairly regularly you don't have to live in Sydney to hire her. Check her out!

Tree Antlers and Blossom

The April edition of The ELM Tree subscription is out now, and included in it is this reduction lino print.

Strictly speaking, I don't actually use lino, I use rubber blocks because they are easier to cut (by a mile) and much easier to print. But it's still a reduction print.

Reduction prints are made with the one block of lino (rubber) and cutting away and printing the image in stages - as many as you want really.  I have never made one, so I tried to keep it simple.

This is black and white (as you can see) and so first I cut away what I wanted to be the colour of the paper - I planned for this image to be printed on coloured paper - and then printed a whole lot of them in white.

While they dried I cut away what I wanted to stay white, leaving only the small areas that I wanted to be black.
Then I reprinted them, being careful to align the papers with the prints already on the paper.

Ta-da!

There are only 30 of these prints IN THE WHOLE WORLD, and they are only available as a subscription to The ELM Tree. Because I have set the system up as a way to help me to buy materials to keep making art, there will be exclusive art in each month of the subscription - just to say thank you to those who are supporting me make the art that I love to make.

Subscribe to the elm tree!!

I love getting mail. I think my mail box gets hungry for real mail though, and by that I mean not bills, and not advertising material.

I used to have a subscription to New Scientist (because I'm like - nerdy or something) and Better Homes and Gardens (which always used to make me covetous of people with houses) but they both expired and in the end I had a whole lot of magazines that I didn't know what to do with... so I have come up with a way to feed the hungry mail boxes of the world.

Now you can subscribe to The ELM Tree. 

No, it's not a magazine. 
It's art. It's prints, stickers, postcards, illustrations, paintings, drawings, and all sorts of other creative goodies delivered direct to your mail box every month.         

Pick you own 3, 6, or 12 month subscription over at my etsy store, or even just get a one off delivery of artiness for you or as a gift. 

There will be some specials related to this coming up so keep your eyes peeled. 

                                                                    

Saving Memories

Being self-employed is terrifying in it's inconsistency.

So I have been dropping flyers around the place for number 2 of 3 business. VHS to DVD conversion. You can't be an artist all the time I suppose.

There is something very satisfying about seeing your work in print.
Also its very nice to not have to get someone else to design things for us.

Here's our flyer.
And our website (matchy matchy)

So hit me up if you need any kind of advertising material put together.
... or you know, if you have videos that need converting let me know. You have my number now...