Etsy Shop on caleigh-ill.com

So I have been planning to have a proper shop on my own website for ever now. Tom is currently trying to work out the kinks, but it's a super long process and a bit of a pain in the ass. For ages I had an under construction note on the holding page for the shop, then I updated with some links and images. Etsy has some really great tools for you to use, such as Etsy mini... which is just some basic code for Etsy users to use. So I have replaced my under construction note with some actual products. I think it looks really good and hopefully will bring more people to my Etsy shop.

caleigh-ill.com/shop screen shot

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All about me! Etsy

I have finally got around to creating the about page on my Etsy shop. It didn't take long once I started, obviously, as it is just a couple of paragraphs; I just find it incredibly difficult to write paragraphs on the topic of myself or my art. So procrastination was key in it never getting done until now.

Anyways its all done and I'm pleased. A little image of my face and a link to the page now appears on all my listings.

Etsy Listing Screen Shot

Here's the text if you don't fancy clicking the link to the page.

There's Always Time to Eat Cake

I have been drawing and painting as far back as I can remember and always told my parents I wanted to be an Artist. After leaving University I moved to the UK and acquired a full time job working in print. One day I started hand painting robots onto a set of wooden coasters that had been damaged at my job. I created a few of these sets before my cousin asked why I didn't print them instead. Light bulb. I began printing my artwork and designs onto the printable coasters. This gave me a product that was easily re-produced, which led me to start selling at craft markets. Since then I have expanded to phone cases, prints, and mugs. All of which I print and assemble myself.

The products are great and can be sold at an affordable price which allows my art to reach many more people than I ever could have previously. I now sometimes find myself creating artwork specifically for coasters in mind.

A lot of my original illustrations had many 10s of hours put in to them and I felt the asking price was a little too high for markets and fairs, but I still wanted to sell original items instead of just reproductions. I began painting small wooden boxes, ceramic owl figures, then sets or Russian Dolls as owls, and thus Russian Owls were born.

To this date I have created 24 individual and unique sets of my Russian Owls, some of which were custom requests.

I am still a drawer/painted at heart and I enjoy nothing more than spending an entire weekend starting and finishing a new painting or drawing. Having the ability to create other products from originals and selling them through Etsy or markets is just icing on the cake. 

Etsy About Page - Screen Shot

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Custom Stacking Dolls - Russian Owls - Behance Feature!

I received my first custom etsy purchase last month for some Russian Owls. The customer preferred larger owls than the ones I had listed, so I tracked down these ones. The largest is about 17cm high. It was nice to be able to get some more detail into the owls. 

Today I also received an email from Behance notifying me that these owls were selected for the Toy Design Behance Gallery.

Click image for website

View project here.

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