Owly inspiration at Charles Street Artists' Market on 29/05

I have to admit to having been blown away at the Charles Street Artists’ Market last month. Setting up took, no surprise here, ages and I was still going around 1.30 (started at 10.30!) when I noticed the graffiti artists at work. These guys were painting owls! -- a fitting complement to my Kitchen Owls.

Fantastic wall art created during the Charles Street Artists’ Market on 29/05/11.

Wonder which of my owls gave them particular inspiration? This guy was there.

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Kitchen Owl #347 ‘William of Orange’

I later found out that they were inspired by my little guys. Wooo hoooot! I presumed they had come prepared with pre-planned designs of what they were going to paint but, no, they were doing it ‘on the fly’!

Thanks to Charles Street Artists’ Market for the photo and Deams & Itch from the ‘awol crew’ for the paintings. ;o)

1000 Facebook Likers giveaway!

WOW.

It's hard to believe that my little business has over 1000 likers. How did that happen?

Well, it certainly didn't happen overnight. While Facebook is an exponential marketing tool, it doesn't work without some serious input. My husband can attest to the fact that I'm on it a lot: sometimes just browsing, but more often than not, networking. Visiting other pages and liking them so that their 100, 500, 2000 fans are exposed to my products. What's that saying: 'it's a hard job but someone has to do it'! At the end of the day, the more sites you introduce your products to, the more fans will eventually come your way.

And they have! An enormous 'thank you' to all of my likers, and followers, and to everyone who has posted a 'shout out' for me over the past 18 months -- especially to those who posted regular, full-of-praise, shout outs. You know who you are. I am indebted to you all.

As an indication of my gratitude, I'm giving away Kitchen Owl #339 'Music maker' (his eyes include tambourine jingles) to one of my regular visitors. To be in it you just need to say that you'd like it by posting a comment at the bottom of this post.

This year is flying by so fast I'm not sure how many of the new ideas I'd like to try will be possible but please keep your eyes out for some diversifying in the latter half of this year. Inspiration abounds and I'm surrounded by it through this online community. Thanks.

Please continue to support my fledgling business -- it's much appreciated!

Your humble Owl lady. ;o)
R

Small print:

If for any reason you have difficulty posting here, I'll accept a comment below my FB link to this blog post as an entry. Overseas fans shall not be excluded, but I beg for your patience as shipping overseas would be per sea mail. i.e. painfully SLOW.

One door closes & another one opens...

My motto in life is 'you need to be prepared for anything' and that's pretty much what's happened: ‘anything’. A planned display of my work which was to be in place at the Sydney Opera House in the Avant Card 'We love 3D' stand from March 12 to April 12 sadly didn't go ahead but there's still hope that something will work out through Avant Card whose stand it was that was to house my owls. I had set aside a number of owls to place in its lovely perspex space on the top of the stand so as they're not going to end up there I thought I'd arrange a selection of them here for your online enjoyment.

'Shock, horror!' -- Kitchen Owl Series #263 **AUD$65 15 x 21cm

'Golden girl' -- Kitchen Owl Series #247 **AUD$55 9cm

'Pixie' -- Kitchen Owl Series #222 **NFS 5.8cm

'Frank' -- Kitchen Owl Series #266 **AUD$55 11 x 35cm

'Little sweetie' -- Kitchen Owl Series #269 **AUD$55 8cm

'Faithful?' -- Kitchen Owl Series #271 **AUD$70 ~17.5 x 15.5cm

'Blush' -- Kitchen Owl Series #272 **AUD$65 ~15cm

So, the door that opened, although not quite as illustrious, was in the form of an exhibition of a number of artists from MREAM (Maribyrnong River Edge Art Movement) held at NMIT Preston Campus' 'A Space Gallery'. The exhibition opening event on Facebook has all the requisite details if you can manage to swing by. Displayed en mass my selection of Kitchen Owls looked fabulous (and, yes, I say so myself!) A number of those intended for the Avant Card stand at the Opera House made it to here, but not all. I can see Frank, I can see...

If you have time, the exhibition is on until Friday 29 April 2011 and is open from 9-4pm.

Where to begin?

Child 1 to school. Check. Child 2 to Kinder. Check. Go to gym. Check. What now?

The 'to do' list is always so long and prioritising is not a strong point of mine. I've had some great creative ideas for new products milling around for ages -- perhaps today's the day for something to materialise.

Love these:

'Even robots get the blues' by ultrajunk

Well, won't get anything done if I'm on here for long!

To blog or not to blog, that is the question...

I think this says it all.

Thanks to Kelly at 74 Lime Lane for the link from Pinterest, originally from here.

A productive week (back in September!)

Thinking about what I've achieved this week for my business, I feel that I can sit back and smile.

Those cards (6 types x 10 cards each) that I dropped in last week are now gracing the shelves at Readings in Lygon St, Carlton. I need to get my own barcodes printed on the back so they can put them out as soon as they get them, rather than having to sort out the barcodes for me, however, I've found out that each barcode number costs about $100 so it will be a while before I'm doing that! I'd need to employ a sweatshop in a small Asian country to make enough money to make that worthwhile. :o\

'Life amidst decay' -- View to the mainland from Alcatraz Island, USA
Cards shown flat: end product is folded vertically in centre and is 15cm square.

'Endless track' -- Völklingen Ironworks, Germany. UNESCO World Heritage site.

'Fireworks' – Munich, Germany. Flower, colour manipulated.

'Magic pathways' – Munich, Germany. Tree branches, colour manipulated.

'Spokes, magnified' – Nasturtium leaf, Melbourne, Australia

'After the rain' – San Jose, California, USA

'Natural buttons' – Yarraville, Australia.

'Wood king' – Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne, Australia

'Charcoal tree' – 2009 Bushfires memorial, Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne, Australia

'Homage to the sun' – Melbourne Zoo, Australia

'Countdown to launch' – Yarraville, Australia

Focus on Art's five 2011 calendars will also be in all Readings stores in Melbourne by the end of November: keep an eye out for them, too! There's bound to be one near you:

• CARLTON - Open until 11pm today
• HAWTHORN - Open until 8pm today
• MALVERN - Open 9am-6pm tomorrow
• MELBOURNE WRITERS FESTIVAL
• PORT MELBOURNE - Open until 7pm today
• ST KILDA - Open until 10pm today
• STATE LIBRARY - Open 10am-6pm tomorrow

Focus on Art cards soon to be in Readings, Lygon St, Carlton.

The selection of 10 art cards that Readings have ordered will be in their Lygon St store as of next week. The calendars they ordered will be delivered by the end of October, which isn't that far away. Of course, buying direct from the manufacturer has distinct advantages: namely price! Some of my time in the next week or so will be spent trying to sell more calendars around Melbourne. Wish me luck!

I'm also sending out feelers to see if anyone wants to put in orders for any one (or more!) of my 5 different 2011 calendars -- they make a fabulous Christmas gift. ;o) They are: Kitchen Owls, 2 photos of my assemblage sculpture owls per month; Vibrant Colours, a mix of strong colour shots and colour adjusted images; Sand and sea, a combination of beach scenes at Mornington with beach boxes, beach sunsets, marine objects/creatures; Details in Nature I, mainly macro images of natures details; and Details in Nature II, as with Details in Nature I but with a focus on Australian plants (taken at Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary).

Those interested in ordering a calendar (or two!), please contact me at focus at stewardson dot net I would be more than happy to email samples of the calendars for those who need convincing. ;o)

How on earth did we get to September without me noticing??

(I have posted the 2 photos above to give you an idea of what the calendars will look like. The Kitchen Owls calendar days have much more space for planning than the other 4 calendars. I'll post some more photos in the next little while to give more of an idea what the inside looks like in all other calendars.)