Tuesday, February 22, 2011

EMELE, AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER AND ART BLOGGER

Emele is Emily Goodwin. Emily uses the name Emele, a combination of her first and middle names, on her ‘online venues’. Emily was born in Cambridgeshire in the UK. She moved, with her family, to Crete, Greece for 7 years when she was 18. Now she splits her time between the UK to be with her partner with extended vacations to Greece!


Emily is a cat lover, bookworm, Sunday afternoon baker, lover of art, design and crafts, and an avid bargain hunter. She loves to learn new things, one of which is knitting. She says she isn’t very good at it yet, but she works away at it. She also works on a cross stitch project that she has been working on for 10 years.


Emily is arty, crafty, and creative and she makes her living online. She says a 9 to 5 job is just not for her! Emily blogs, writes articles, designs and creates physical art through her photography. She started her online creative ventures with handmade cards and gifts. When she bought a digital camera so she could photograph the items she had made, in order to upload them for sale on her website, she discovered the joys of photography and realized that she could make money from it, she's never looked back!


The next adventure for Emily is to venture into the world of paintings. She has gathered all the materials and supplies and is waiting for her muse to inspire her to put brush to canvas! (It never happened, the materials are still unused!!!)


Subject matter for Emily’s photography can be pretty much anything! Emily is self-taught and enjoys taking photos of flowers, especially macro shots; cats and other animals; scenic views and anything else that catches her eye. Her photos often end up as prints or featured on home décor/gift items in her online Print on Demand sites. Emily also shoots photos of tiled floors, rusty padlocks, and other similar types of photos and sells these as micro stock online.


Emily is a self-taught photographer. She tends to shy away from the technical side of things and tinker on her own. Gradually, using books, websites and tutorials, Emily is learning the ins and outs of her camera, what it can do, and more about photographic techniques and possibilities in general.


Some business goals Emily has are to place her prints in brick and mortar shops for sale and also to license her photography. As well she plans to introduce cards and calendars to her ETSY shop.


Currently Emily is working on more ‘Nine Square’ photo designs similar to some she now offers in her shops. Eventually she will introduce a new Nine Squares print monthly. She has also developed a line of digital downloads of her floral images which other artists can use in their product designs. Some are currently being offered in her ETSY shop and more will be coming soon!


Emily offers products and designs on several sites. She sells prints through her ETSY shop. In her Cafepress shop, she sells keepsake boxes, clocks, coasters, and journals which feature her photography on them. Her Zazzle store also features products with her photography on them. These products include cards, magnets, mouse pads, prints and more.


While working on her various online shops and blogs and marketing on twitter and facebook, Emily meets many, many talented, creative people. Although she wants to collect all of their work, it is not possible, so Emily came up with another way to ‘collect’ their work and support these artists.

Since Emily is a web designer and an SEO girl (search engine optimization) she developed a blog where she features the artist’s she supports. She focuses on getting people who are searching online to the blog, and then, hopefully, to purchase some of the artist’s work whether that art be on a poster, print, mug, tshirt or something else!

CREATIVE ARTIST’S BLOG is a Blog for Artists, Photographers, Designers as well as Art lovers and Shoppers. Find new artists and artwork, Be inspired, Learn & Support the Creativity!”


Visit Emily Goodwin’s Personal Blog

EMELE, Emily Goodwin on ETSY

EMELE, Emily Goodwin on Cafepress

EMELE, Emily Goodwin on Zazzle

EMELE, Emily Goodwin on Redbubble

FOLLOW EMELE ON TWITTER

LIKE EMELE ON FACEBOOK

All Images Copyright Emily Goodwin, All Rights Reserved

Written by Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

Monday, February 21, 2011

INTRODUCING CREATIVE ZAZZLER HELENA PION

Zazzle designer Helena Pion was born and lives in Portugal. She and her family are moving to British Columbia, Canada, where her better half hails from. Helena always loved languages, studied them in University and qualified to be a translator with Post Graduate studies. She has been a translator for over 12 years.


Helena loves music, photography and art. She sings a little and loves to listen to music. Helena’s camera is her constant companion and she takes photos at every opportunity. Design was an interest early on and as a teen Helena subscribed to design magazines rather than the teen magazines her friends read. Cinema, theater and traveling are Helena’s other favorite activities.


Helena has always felt strange about the term ‘artist’ in reference to herself. She prefers to call the things she makes ‘creative’and says she has always been a ‘creative’. Helena liked to write from an early age, she crochets and knits lovely things and has always been into photography and design.


A little over a year ago, a dear friend and fellow Zazzler suggested Helena open a shop on Zazzle as a creative outlet for her photography. It wasn’t long before Helena started delving into design as well and her little shop took on a whole new meaning for her. Helena enjoys the creative process immensely and she has met wonderful people through Zazzle.


Helena draws her inspiration from life, nature and emotions. She says ideas flow constantly for her and she has endless TO DO lists of things to create.


As Helena leaned more towards design, she felt her photography getting put on hold. These days she is in the process of getting more of it published on products in her Zazzle store. She is also considering opening another specialized shop for her photography, but hasn’t done so yet.


Helena also participates in Celebrity Gift Lounges at various media award events. Currently she is working on some crochet goodies to accompany some of her products that will be in the IndiExibit’s gift bags at the MTV Movie Awards in June 2011.


Currently Helena sells her work exclusively at Zazzle. She has her original main store and a Christmas store that is still small. She offers her designs and photography on all sorts of products from cards, invitations, and stationery to shoes, mugs, necklaces, key chains, posters and more. Her favourite products to design for right now are iPhone and iPad cases. She likes that Zazzle offers customers so many customization options, from sizes, models, colors and paper types to custom text and more, and it never costs the customer more to customize.



VISIT HELENA PION AT THESE LINKS:

Helena Pion on Zazzle

Helena Pion Christmas on Zazzle

Like Helena Pion on Facebook

Follow Helena Pion on Twitter

Visit Helena Pion on Tumblr

All Images Copyright Helena Pion, All Rights Reserved

Written by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

Friday, February 11, 2011

IN MEMORY OF BARBARA KLOCKE, ZAZZLER AND FRIEND


Barbara Klocke. Passed February 8, 2011

I first met Barbara, whom I now call Sunshine, on March 22, 2007, in my first days as a Gallery owner at Zazzle.com. She was my third fan!

We became friends and cheerleaders to each other. As I slogged through the learning process of setting up the Gallery, learning posting protocols, Zazzle etiquette, etc, Barb always cheered me on, and encouraged me.

Barb was insightful, tremendously funny, and caring and giving to others. Her fans and friends spanned all age groups, art styles and genres. She was a delightful woman who saw the divine in all and in everyone she knew.

When not creating, Barbara spent time with her family and friends, read, gardened, knit and crocheted and practiced the healing practice of Qigong.

I had the honor of interviewing her in 2009 for my blog. I'd like to share that interview with you now.

Barb, how did you come to be an artist?

Art has always been a part of my life. It has always been a source of joy and expression for me. Having others enjoy my work is the highest form of success for me."


I suppose that my love of art began with my first coloring book. I decided that I wanted to be an artist at a young age. I was fortunate enough to have an artist neighbor as a child. I would visit her often and ask her what I needed to do to become an artist and then I taught myself how to do it.


And what media do you work in?

I used to work in oils, but now I work in acrylic and sometimes watercolor. I work on canvas or paper, but I worked extensively on rocks for some time. Recently I began experimenting with colored pencils.


Over the years, I entered numerous art shows, both amateur and Juried. My work was accepted for shows in Sofia, Bulgaria and Athens, Greece. The prestigious Clossens in Cincinnati, featured my rock art for six months.


The Cincinnati Enquirer, Tempo-art section, featured two articles about my Rock art. I also appeared on a local TV show with some of my rock art. My Granddaughter was permitted to go on with me, so that was great fun!

Two local Cincinnati galleries featured my work for several years.


Has your work changed over the years?

I paint a wide variety of subject matter, including wildlife and floral. A number of years ago though, I began researching the Native American culture in an effort to learn more about my own heritage. As a result I painted many Native American inspired paintings as a tribute to that Culture.


What motivates you to create?

I see the expression of God's love all around me, in Nature, Animals and people. I suppose that is my main motivation, to try and capture some of that beauty and love. The Native American art is more spiritual in nature, and many of those paintings came to me in dreams. To Native Americans, nurturing one's Spiritual side is as important as nurturing the physical side. They feel that true happiness can only be found by having balance between the two.


GOOD BYE DEAR FRIEND, YOU ARE REMEMBERED WITH LOVE.


See Barbara's artwork at her Zazzle gallery: Barbara K Gallery


Copyright Ruth J Jamieson 2009/2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

MEET ANGEL PAINTER, WHO PAINTS THE WORLD OF HER IMAGINATION

Angel Painter is an artist and a dreamer, who lives and works in the United States. In addition to painting pictures, Angela says she also likes to paint with words in the form of poetry.


Angela loves nature. In her words, “animals are close to my heart; every little flower, or Autumnal leaf, makes my heart sing. I love the silveryness of Night and the radiant face of the Moon and her beautiful stars.” She also loves teddy bears, candles, pretty clocks and teapots. Historical eras are also of interest to Angela, she says she would very much like to be able to travel to ancient Rome, Medieval France or Victorian U.S.A.


I asked Angela how she came to be an artist. She said she just always was. Whenever she had a pencil and a scrap of paper she drew and the way she drew evolved organically and once she began to paint the same process occurred. There was no conscious effort to become an artist, it was an organic process.


The exception to this was horses. Angela wanted her horses to look more ‘horsey’, so she studied pictures of them until as she says, ‘their likeness became stamped upon her brain” She found that after she did this study, her horses did in fact look ‘horsier’


The strangest things inspire Angela. Fragrances, colours or even certain sounds cause her to set brush to paper. Her love of animals, expecially horses also inspires her.


Angela’s body of work is quite varied as her imagination is full of beautiful ideas. Watercolor and acrylic are the two mediums she uses most, but she also dabbles in oils. She is looking forward to doing more work in oils.


Angela has a natural and intuitive style. Her techniques vary as she interprets her inspiration with the paint. She says she wrestles with the watercolors as she has very specific intentions of how she wishes it to look.


Something that Angela has recently learned about is the technique of underpainting. She has not done this in the past, but says she plans to experiment with them and see where that takes her artwork. Plans for future work includes more paintings of Angela’s beloved horses, fantasy or Goth artwork, and more experimentation with digital vector art. Currently Angela is designing some very pretty mugs for Valentine's Day, and will soon be creating some for Easter.


Angele Painter markets her work in online galleries on Zazzle.com and on Redbubble.com

Visit Angel Painter on Zazzle

Visit Angel Painter on Redbubble

Visit Angel Painter on Facebook

Follow Angel Painter on Twitter


All Images Copyright AngelPainter, All Rights Reserved

Written by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson