Showing posts with label paintings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paintings. Show all posts

Support unique artists: say no to mass produced!!

Dear Batlings,

Today's missive may be nothing more than a feverish rant, but i do believe it has some merit: say no to mass produced tawdry trinkets, and start supporting the artisans who put heart and soul into producing beautiful hand crafted items! We will lose our artisans, the skills to create and the option to obtain unique work if we do not support the hand crafts industry!

  • Mass produced is cheap
  • everyone has one
  • plastic
  • poorly manufactured
  • Land fill
  • Lacking original thought
  • Heartless and soulless
Even those websites advertising themselves as places to buy and sell handmade goods have become prey to sellers offering mass produced, made in timbuctoo, plasticky rubbish!

Personally i love hand crafted things. Unique, quality made, creative items made by those whose joy of imagining and creating shines through the finished product.

I buy many hand crafted things from a variety of artisans from all over the world, and i am the proud owner of such a gorgeous selection of unique accessories as a result of this. I also make a lot of things myself, from jewelery, to clothes, to toys, to bags... I keep some things for myself, i give some away, i sell some.... Beautifully made handcrafted items are rich with the souls of their creators.

  • What happens if we stop supporting handcraft artists?
  • What happens if we want the world Andy Warhol sartired in his famous pop art?
Many artisans rely on the sales of their wares to purchase more raw materials to keep creating wonderous things. Others rely soley on sales to make a living and put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Nothing kills a muse of creativity faster than the stress of not being able to pay the bills!

There is a place for mass produced, yes indeed batlings, it has its place, but not at the expense and ultimate death of hand made quality!

Artisans! Stand up for your rights to be heard and to have a place in the merchandise of the 21st century! Support each other. Motivate each other.

Spread the word that not supporting artisans ultimately means that one day the world will be a sterile plastic environment where nobody recalls how to make anything anymore.

I would really like to hear other's views on this.

Please feel free to post your comments!

<end rant>

ACEOS: have you dabbled in making them?

Yes I know, I have blogged about them before, but these things fascinate me. They are art miniatures without all that formal arty constraint stuff put on official art miniatures. You can do so much with them!

Some of the members of the etsy team Goth n Gorgeous have also been making ACEO, and the results are great.


Sassysteampunk has this great Halloween ACEO which is fun, would make a great Halloween TREAT or card, and is also a great ACEO collectible.








Another Goth n Gorgeous team member Madscientist designs  also has ACEOS, featuring altered art, and includes Alice in Wonderland themed artwork That being my fave book of all time, makes me really like those ACEOS! Note these ACEOS are ALTERED ART, the artist has NOT merely stuck a printed piece of paper on a card... this has real creativity and heart in it.


As I mentioned  I am also venturing into the exciting fun creative world of ACEO creating. Currently I am working on Ancient Egyptian and also Vintage Garden themed ones.  Below is a pic of the scarab ACEO i made, as part of my Egyptian ACEO series. I have listed this for sale in my etsy store just to see if there is any interest. 

I am also  interested in locating other ACEO makers who want to be part of an ACEO swap, to build a lovely collection of hand crafted art.  If you are interested in an ACEO swap thing, please let me know in the blog comment section!!

I think ACEOS would make great little tokens of appreciation to give to someone, a hand crafted ACEO is a real keepsake that can be framed, put in a scrapbook, added to an album, glued to a notebook cover, used as decoration on a trinket box, the uses go on and on... as do i...

There are many web pages that provide assistance in how to create ACES, but i think one of the best ways to create them.. is just get yourself some card stock, and some supplies, paint, ink pens, glue, embellishments, whatever.. and make something!!

If however you really want to read instructions on how to create ACEO please see the link below: