It was 2016 I was a stay at home mum with a house renovation project that was slowed due to lack of funds and my creative energies were going into sewing clothes. I was happy with the clothes I made but to sell them I felt I couldn’t compete with Primark so I didn’t. Instead I started going to a local art class with Paint Box, at the time it was Jemma Derbyshire and Lyndsey Connachan renting a room in Portobello Washhouse.
This was my favorite time of the week, they used to make amazing bakes and provide all the materials. It was a haven of coffee, cake, music, great chat and art making with no negative feedback. I dreamed vaguely of going to to art school one day. But I just needed that space for my sanity at the time. I knew art school would not be so forgiving. And my husband wasn’t a hands on dad and my energy was taken up with the house renovation and the babies. Fast forward a few years we moved to a larger home with no renovations to do, with a garden and got a dog. The kids were less needy and I could start making art for profit. I was making some pet portraits thinking, ok, I’ve figured this out. I now have come to terms with the fact that some people will not frame my delicate pastel portraits and there is nothing I can do about that. On the other hand some people are happy to pay hundreds for amazing frames because they love my portrait. I decided to lean into prints and greetings cards because of the cost of framing.
I found Bare Branding through a friend and they have been great. They allowed me to sell my work at the market in Leith on Saturdays, they print at cost at a very high quality and I will be continuing to use them for prints. I do not like selling, that’s why I make art and don’t work in sales. It’s not about feeling silly taking money or being down on my art. The wonderful thing about having prints made is that the artwork becomes a collaborative product with the printer and is easier to sell.
I do love to talk to people about my personal interests or theirs – animals, gardening, art making, myth and legend, magic, local politics, the benefits of organic apples, the history of all sorts of things. The problem is being forced to stay in a small space for a whole day. That’s all it is. So the fact that my children need taxing at weekends is my get out for markets at the moment.
My fellow market stall sellers in the Bare Branding house were very professional and I quickly invested in a banner, card stand, vintage wooden display box, sum up card reader. Now that I have all that I should not let it go to waste.
so…
There is always going to be the odd pop up or market.
Especially a christmas market
I do love a Christmas Market, there is this feeling in the air of impending rest, feasting and it seems well earned too no guilty summer holiday vibes, as the cold weather makes cosy sofa’s so much more appealing. I will be shopping too. So much prefer to gift an artisanal bespoke piece of unique gorgeousness at Christmas.
Buy Local Gift Happy
Local Councils around Britain
My Printers
The first cards I had made were with Redcliffe Print which is based down south. The beauty of them is I was utterly clueless about CMYK, pixels, everything and I was treated over the phone like this was fine. Even though I was only getting a few cards printed. For this I will always be grateful to them. The only reason I don’t always use them is because it is too easy to have bad images printed. As it’s now a bigger operation and they don’t check if you don’t ask them to. And ok I have been impatient, tired, distracted and hit that order button on some rubbish designs, blurry images and cropped wrongly paintings.
https://www.redcliffeprint.co.uk/greeting-cards.html
To combat this I decided to go to a bricks and mortar shop who would scan my paintings for me. Malcolm of Dunbar High Streets Lothian Printers https://lothianprinters.co.uk/ very kindly scanned and helped me format the images for some of my early cards. And I have just ordered just more from him as there were some images I had scanned but was unsure of. As I sell with the Leith Collective at Fort Kinnaird which has a No Plastic ethos the fact that Lothian Printers doesn’t supply plastic bags is good. The paper quality is very high. My hen notecards, kingfisher card, candle card, squirrel card , seal card, among others were made by him. It’s a very small old fashioned Shoppe, the kind that wont last to much longer.
Look at that orange shirt stealing the show. One of the best things about Leith Market, apart from the baking is the clothes people wear. I live in a rural market town with an elderly population and lots of primary school kids and their parents. The demographic that is missing is young, international, cool, interesting and flamboyant people. I spend some part of everyday in the woods with my dog so my clothes are very much suited to that. I grew up in Edinburgh though and I have that dress sense of wear what you want as long as it’s not high street fashion. So I would like top return to markets in the future.
Bare branding made my prints as I said earlier and I have another new batch made by Doricmor, They are based in Edinburgh and can provide me with the whole range including magnets, mugs, tea towels. I do not have those just some Fox magnets.
Doricmor product and the image that is available as a fridge magnet also.
Check it out if you want
