ART QUESTIONS
DID YOU GO TO ART SCHOOL?
Sort of, I took art all throughout high school and some studio art classes in college, but I never got a full degree in it. I was educated in the basics, the rest I figured out through online tutorials, trial and error, and audacity.
DO YOU EVER USE AI?
No. AI is not art. "AI" is a catch-all term for a lot of different kinds of computer technology and coding that are good at doing the things computers and coding have always been good at like spotting cancer cells and writing more coding. And if it stuck to doing just those things, it probably wouldn't be the environmental nightmare it is.
Something I always tell people who tell me they "can't" be an artist or that they're a "bad" artist is that there's no such thing. If you're making a mark on a piece of paper or a stitch in a piece of fabric or a lump of clay, you've by definition made art. All an artist like me is is someone who's practiced enough and studied enough to do those things in a way that's visually pleasing to other people and allows them to see things the way I see them. And if you think you're a "bad" artist, what you're actually describing is that you haven't learned to translate the image in your head into physical reality or into something you find pleasing. But a computer doesn't have an imagination. A computer doesn't see the things the way humans do which is filtered through emotion. And so a computer can never understand how to do what all artists do which is deliberately mess up. Humans as a rule don't like perfection - to us it reads as emotionless and therefore uncanny. Like most artists I trace and use references you can probably find by Google searching, but if you compare them, I've deliberately messed up and allowed for imperfections. I've changed the angle, or the color, or lighting, or left out certain details and added others in. I know how to do that thanks to years of experience, developing my own intuition, learning from what other people do, and being a person who feels emotion. That's not something that can be done by computer, and so I'll never, ever use AI to do it no matter how good AI gets. Not for my art, not for anything I write, not for anything in my personal life, nothing. It's not a technology that has any application to me.
WHAT MEDIUM DO YOU USE FOR YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS?
For illustration all my work is digital. I use Procreate on an iPad pro and pretty exclusively use the brushes that come with it. There are elements of my art that are watercolors I've done using watercolor inks (I strongly recommend these over other types of watercolor and then for white using the stuff that comes in a tube - it's much easier to get the right consistency that way) that I've then taken picture of. For some reason, scanners and watercolors don't mix. I prefer digital because it's easier to turn into a product, it allows me to mix the look of different mediums in a way I couldn't in real life, and it gives me much more control when it comes to erasing or comparing two different things to decide what I like better.
WHAT FONT DID YOU USE FOR ?
I didn't, that's my writing. If you see something like my logo that looks like a font, what I've usually done in that case is found a free to use font as a base to work from (in the case of my logo, I used Bodoni), traced it, and then altered and fussed with it until I liked it and it looks more organic.
PURCHASING QUESTIONS
CAN I BUY YOUR WORK DIRECTLY?
Currently no, it's only available through wholesale and finding me at crafts fairs. I'm a one-woman operation and shipping and a storefront are both time consuming and expensive to set up. I'm willing to consider shipping orders on a case-by-case basis and can always be contacted for commission either by email or Instagram DM.
ARE YOUR CRAFTS AVAILABLE FOR WHOLESALE?
No, those are exclusively things I sell at crafts fairs, it's illustrated products only for wholesale. Again, I'm a one-woman operation, so mass producing embroidery or hand-stamped pieces or whatever else isn't really feasible for me.
WHAT ARE YOUR COMMISSION PRICES?
That depends on a lot of things, namely what you want and how quickly you want it done by. You should contact me to get quoted a price.
ARE YOUR PRODUCTS AVAILABLE ON FAIRE? WHY ARE YOUR WHOLESALERS ONLY IN MASSACHUSETTS?
Currently, the only way to buy wholesale currently is by emailing me directly. Again, I'm a one-woman operation and I had to start somewhere. I started with stores that I could easily get to in person to show them my products and where shipping would be cheapest. If you're a retailer who's somehow stumbled across my products and are from out of state, though, shoot me an email. I'd be delighted to ship to you.
WHO ARE YOUR SUPPLIERS?
I use TPI for paper printing, Death By Stickers for stickers, and Clear Bags for my envelopes and packaging. Crafting supplies I source from all over, and my favorite materials are free ones or ones other people are throwing away and therefore willing to sell me for super cheap. If you're looking for cloth to start practicing embroidery on, for example, you're going to get amazing discounts by simply going to your nearest thrift store and look in the tabelcloths and bed sheets section.