Vintage honeycomb paper balls

I was so excited when I found these at a weekend yard sale. A dozen large, old, honeycomb paper balls. They are quite faded but mostly in pretty good shape. I think they are probably from the 50s. They will make such great decoration for a market tent or a store window or just hanging as a group in the studio. And they really are big - about 15 inches across.

Cartolina Market update

I've been collecting misc. vintage, wooden boxes since last summer when I decided that we should have the Cartolina market tent. I've been quite successful in finding great old wooden, tool boxes and file drawers to use as card displays over the last few months and I think the Cartolina Big Top will look fabulously vintage. I'm not sure when we will debut - I have a feeling it won't be at our local Wednesday market here in Nelson because it doesn't start until June but I think we might launch at the Kelowna farmers market which is a very vibrant and thriving Saturday morning market in the Okanagan - I'll keep you posted. Here are some fine examples of the kind of boxes I've been coveting - from Sadie Olive.

I can't remember if I told you all ready but one of the things I have up my sleeve for this year is to reconnect with some of the wonderful people who buy our Cartolina products. Because we are wholesalers we tend not to talk to the end consumer very often and I kind of miss chatting to the people who actually buy our stuff in the stores. So as part of my reconnecting plan we are going to have a super fun market stall in our local market and hopefully travel to some of the other Pacific Northwest markets - to meet some people and have some fun weekend road trips - can't wait!

We are also going to open an Etsy store to sell some exclusive Cartolina products including some limited edition art prints - to frame for your walls. I'm really excited about this! I get asked all the time for frame-able versions of our designs and finally we are going to do it! probably in the next 2 weeks!

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a very successful Etsy seller and she reminded me to use watermarks on our images when we post them in our shop. I know that I should, but I think it's such a shame :-(

Today I just wanted to touch base with you about the problem of 'right click copiers'. I know that lots of you have had to deal with this problem online but, if you haven't, a 'right click copier' is someone who doesn't understand the implications of using copyrighted imagery without permission and randomly swipes other people images online and uses them to create art and crafts that they sell commercially either on Etsy or another e-commerce site. I recently had this happen here at the Cafe when an artist, who I had featured here a couple of times, started swiping images from other posts here and using the imagery in her jewelry - fortunately I noticed and put a stop to it - but I was horrified!

There are lots of legal sources to acquire the rights to use beautiful vintage imagery. Artists and crafts people should familiarize themselves with the process and the copyright laws so that they are confident that the images they are using are legal. It's a shame that a few people have to ruin it for everyone else. Have you had this problem - how did you deal with it?

I'm looking forward to opening our Cartolina Etsy shop but I probably will have to put big watermarks on the sample images - sorry! This week I would love you all to help me pick which designs we will produce as art prints. They will be printed professionally. They'll be 11 x 17 and I think you'll love them! So I'll put the selection together tomorrow or the next day and I hope together we can come up with a great collection!

P.S. A good piece of advice when you are using vintage imagery or anything that's rare, but in the public domain, is to restore the image and make a few obvious changes to the image so you recognize it as your work. That's what we do - do you have any tricks? :-)

Reconnecting in 2011

One of the things that is getting me through our rather dreary winter here in BC is my big plans for our Cartolina market stall this summer. You may or may not know that at Cartolina we only sell to wholesale accounts - and because we work with distributors we only deal with a handful of buyers around the world(and then they take it from there.)

So I've decided that in 2011 I am going to reconnect with our end consumers - that would be you and your friends who buy our products in the shops. We are planning an awesome market tent for our local market(and beyond) and also we are planning to introduce a few new products that we will sell exclusively in our Cartolina Etsy shop. I love Etsy and purchase lots of great stuff from amazing shops.

I really want us to be involved in selling Cartolina in a more grass roots way. I'm thrilled that some of the most beautiful stores in the world carry Cartolina but to get out of the studio and connect with people, one on one, is my goal this year. It's all about balance - right?

I saw this vintage hanger on Etsy yesterday and it fits right in with my vintage design plans for the Cartolina market tent. By the time I had got my act together it was all ready sold but I'm on a mission to collect the coolest display props - stay tuned!