Etsy Artist Feature: Knee Deep Originals

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell?

KneeDeepOriginals is my shop at Etsy, but my business name, and my other website, is Knee Deep Studio. I sell original oil paintings and one-of-a-kind handbeaded gemstone and glass jewelry. I sometimes list notecards made from my photographs and paintings.

2. What is your shop URL?

http://kneedeeporiginals.etsy.com

http://www.kneedeepstudio.com

3. What is your blog URL?

http://kneedeepstudio.blogspot.com

4. When did you start selling on Etsy?

I opened my shop at the end of January of this year. An artist friend told me about Etsy, and although I already had my own website, I decided to sell on Etsy too... greater exposure is always a good thing!

5. What is your favorite thing about Etsy?

The on-line community and teams, the support you get from other artists, and getting to know, though long distance, other artists and sellers, and buyers too, who've become friends. And I also love the treasuries!

6. What is your favorite thing about what you create?

I love putting paint to canvas. Sometimes I have a clear view of what I want to see as a final painting, and sometimes it just evolves into its own being. It's very exciting and inspiring when that happens. One of my more recent paintings, Morning Has Broken ( http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32966637 ), began a couple years ago with the background, and then it sat buried in a corner of the studio for a long, long time. I did not know what to do with it at the time, but when I found it a couple weeks ago, I took one look and it came to me. That in-between time was very important; it was almost like the canvas told me how to complete it, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It pays to wait and not force a painting. The forced ones don't turn out too well, I think.

7. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why?

That's a tough question... it kind of changes with the seasons, which definitely affect my mood. Right now, I guess I'd have to say Waxwing Memories, Morning Has Broken, and October Fire... all paintings.

8. What teams do you belong to?

Etsyveg Team, Team EFA (Artists Helping Animals), Etsy for Autism, and TeamEPE (Etsy Project Embrace). These are all teams that support and promote causes which are personally important to me.

9. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop?

The treasuries... I'm fairly addicted to them! I love promoting the work of other artists, sometimes ones on my teams, and sometimes just other Etsians whose work I love and admire, and in this way, my shop gets noticed as well. And I really, really like it when items I've featured in my treasuries get sold during the treasury duration. That's so cool! Being on teams gets me featured in other treasuries too, and three times recently I've been in a treasury featured on the Front Page. It took several months of being on Etsy for that to happen, but it was very exciting for me!! I'm still waiting for one of my curated treasuries to make FP.

10. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy?

Gosh, there are so, so many. Typically, each Tuesday in my shop I feature Five Fabulous Finds by other sellers on Etsy, so weekly you can always check there. I really like the work of Art2ArtColorado, barefootweaver, and formydarling, but I could fill several pages with other favorite sellers! There is so much fabulous art and creative talent out there!

11. What do you do in your spare time?

I can tell you what I don't like to do... and that's housework! Right now I need to do some cleaning, but it's low on the list! I am also a musician, so when I'm not creating visual art or jewelry, I write songs and am currently working on recording my first CD of my originals. I'm very, very excited about that! I sing and play rhythm guitar in a band, so a lot of my spare time is spent practicing, and when we're lucky, performing!! I also volunteer in my community... I visit the local skilled nursing care facility a couple times a month and sing with and for the old folks there, and I also do adult literacy tutoring. I enjoying hiking with my dogs (we live in the woods with mountains around us), photography, gardening, and reading.

12. What blogs do you follow?

There are several of those, so I'll give you a few. EtsyVeg, Barefootweaver, LaTouchables, ArtAfterDark, LotusOutLoud, StayTuned, peaceofpi studio, Studio ArtOcrat ... other than the Etsyveg team blog, these are all individual sellers on Etsy whose work I admire.

13. Do you sell anywhere else (websites, stores, etc)?

I have my website at www.kneedeepstudiocom and I sell and exhibit through two local art organizations that I belong to.

14. Do you have anything else you would like to share?

A big ol' thankyou for featuring me here! Artists supporting artists is so very important, especially right now when so many of us are struggling to survive and to continue to create in this economy!