Welcome, happy Thursday blog post! Today I going to give you a bit of a pictorial sneak peak into my lino printing process.

1. These two photos show some of the tools I use, pencils, rulers, stanley knife, lino and lino carving tools.

2. I take one of my sketches and trace it onto tracing paper. Then I use carbon paper to transfer my sketch directly onto a piece of lino.

3. I usually try to keep the transferred sketch as a line drawing, this keeps it simple and often I add more detail in as I begin the carving process.

4. I like carve the outlines of my image first, using a small v shaped carving tool. I then carve out all the negative space using a small u shaped carving tool, and keep carving until the lino plate is ready for printing. I often think that the carved plate is as beautiful as the print itself.

I will post a part two of this post, the printing process, soon.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

Well to finish up the promotion of my trio of new mini prints today I am sharing a cute little kitty with you all.

Thanks for looking! I am always designing new prints so check back again soon!

I have been pretty busy lately drawing, designing, carving, printing and experimenting. So this week I decided I would share another of my new prints.

I hope you enjoyed looking a my new mini print, inspired by my Mum’s cheeky chickens.

Oh man, when I first started on this creative business journey was I ever scared about putting my work out there! Crazy right, trying to build a business on my art but being too scared to actually show anyone or talk to anyone about it! I know this is something many creative’s struggle with so I thought I might share a bit of my story with you…

Not so long ago I applied to do my very first craft market, wow, this was going to be fun, hard work , exciting, rewarding all of those things, but mostly it was going to be SCARY!

Oh my, what if people don’t like my work, what if they laugh at me, what if the other stall holders laugh at me! Oh man I can’t do this….. But you know what I did do it, and I have been too many markets since.

So how have I overcome this anxiety and fear of public judgement? In a word, slowly

But there have been a few tricks that have helped me along the way:

·         Be prepared (well I was a Girl Guide); if you are prepared you have less to worry about.

·         Invite your friends and family to your markets, they will always say nice things about your work and as an added bonus will hang around your stall and attract others to your stall

·         Share your stall with a crafty friend, I do, my friend loves my work and is great at selling it for me! (As an added bonus you have a built in toilet break friend!)

·         Talk to the people visiting your stall they were attracted to your stall for a reason, and it’s probably because they like your work.

·         Relax, enjoy the show, confidence will come!

Whilst I am getting better with my pre market nerves, I can’t confidently say that I have mastered this fear, so if you have any advice for me I would love for you to share it with me.

Hello! Another little bit of shameless self promotion tonight, well if I can’t do it here where can I do it?

This is a new mini print I designed, printed and decorated last weekend.

When I first started on my creative business path, like most of us I had this foggy idea that it might be nice to sell my stuff and maybe even make a little bit of money, but beyond that my imagination hadn’t probed.  Well not anymore, now I have a clear vision, it’s almost a mantra, of what the future of my creative business future looks like.

I have identified the areas of my business I would like to grow and develop, I have thought about what the individual products will look like, who I will sell them to and where I can sell them, I know what sort of workshop I want to deliver and when, I have envisioned my future growth (yes that’s right I have conquered that fear!) step by step. I even know what I want my future studio to look like, yep that’s right! I actually use it as a relaxation technique when I can’t sleep, I imagine where all my print making equipment will go, how big the wet area will be, where my lovely new computer will sit, in-fact I have even thought about the chair I will sit in (it’s going to be wooden with a nice fluffy cushion, that I made myself) and of course where I will put Shaggy’s day bed!

So for me the fog has lifted, the wispy clouds surrounding my elusive idea of success have blown away to leave me in the bright sunshine and clarity of my vision.

You see, to be able to achieve your goals you have to know exactly what they are, the clearer they are the easier it is to plan for them and ultimately achieve them!

So what is your vision, are you going to sweep that fog away? How will you envision your future, will you write a list, draw a picture maybe even compose a song? Let me know, sharing your vision helps to clarify your vision!

This hot little topic has been playing on my mind a lot lately.

You see, after much hard work I have found myself in the position of making a profit, albeit as small one for the last three months (positive cash flow) and I have found myself seriously considering some pretty big (well, big for me) investments to help my business to continue to grow (positive growth).

But before I talk about this fear of growth let’s take a quick step back.

For those of you that don’t know I have only been taking myself seriously as a micro creative business owner for about six months, and like everyone I have grand ideas. I understand that to turn these grand ideas into a reality not only do I have to take risks and spend some of my hard earned dollars, I have to overcome my fear of growth, that’s right I’m scared of growing my business.

Because for me growth means lots of things: expanding my product lines, expanding my exposure, building my blog, building the workshop side of my business, investing more of my time into my business, and scariest of all investing more money into my business.

I have been plagued by doubts about spending my hard earned dollars and using my 9-5 salary to fund these investments, it’s been keeping me awake at nights.

This is a seriously big fear for me and if I really stop and let this fear take over, I question everything, the whole she-bang. I start to think I am just kidding myself, spending all my time and money on a creative business, sh*t Emma, get out now while you can, you are going to regret all this in the future!

Does this sound familiar to you? Do you have the four a.m. terrors too?

You know what I do to overcome these terrors?

I take stock: I go back and look at my financial records for the last six months, I smile on the inside as I look at the green column slowly outweighing the red column; I think of all the great people I have met since I started this journey; I look at my work and feel pride as I see how it is improving; I feed my imagination with my vision of the future of my creative business.

And you know what, it always works, a little bit of reassurance goes a long way, I feel renewed in my ambition and know that my decision to continue to invest in my business is the right one- that’s right, I start to embrace growth!

How do you overcome your fears? I would love to know, because maybe your tricks would help me too!

Daily Photo no 58/366: I love this action shot

Daily Photo no: 57/366: What great patterns this old wharf makes.

I did something fun and a little bit different last Saturday night; I hosted a stall at the West End Twilight Markets. Held every Saturday evening from 4-9pm these markets promote a vision of sustain, engage and create and I think they do just that, by providing a wonderful variety of stalls and entertainment.

Held in a shed (great for wet weather emergencies) with entry points on both Wilson and Merivale Streets these markets really do achieve a great sense of community through the friendly atmosphere created by the hosts. Supported by great music, great food and great stalls the markets attracted the diverse and laid back crowd that has become synonymous with West End. Busy before and after dinner time there was a constant stream of happy people visiting the market and stopping to browse the stalls and stay awhile to enjoy the tunes and tasty food.

The market stalls are diverse and comprise a selection of vintage clothes and collectables, new fashions, handmade art and craft styling’s from local artists topped off by a fabulous array of food with a masseuse and psychic healer thrown in for good measure. I loved it, though I think my favourite part of the market was the people, everyone was so friendly; stall holders and shoppers alike that I can’t wait to return next Saturday.

So why don’t you head down to the West End Twilight Markets next Saturday, I am sure you will enjoy it!