My Etsy Journey - Eight Years

First sale on Etsy in 2008
My first sale on Etsy was June 27 of 2008. I sold a few things on Ebay before discovering Etsy. But once I found Etsy, I stopped selling on Ebay. It took a month or so before I made my first sale, but I was very excited to sell this Pink Flamingo ACEO in colored pencil. It was purchased by a customer in Greece! Not only was this my first Etsy sale, it was an International sale!
I'm surprised that I sold anything back then. I did zero marketing. But back then...way back in 2008...Etsy was much smaller, Facebook was still pretty new and much less evolved. Instagram was not invented yet. But somehow, I was found by at least a few people.


From Fish to Houses of the Whimsical Variety

Textured Tiles
One of the first things that I created and sold on eBay, back in 2007, was a clay tile. I'm not sure why, but fish was my common theme back then. (Actually Fish and Baseballs. But that is another story.) You can read about that first tile here: First Clay Tile. And another set of 2 tiles here: Fish Tiles. And a textured colored pencil drawing here: Two Fish in Colored Pencil. There were others but I'll leave it there. You get the idea. And you can certainly go back and read more about them, if you like.


Whimsical Houses
As I said, in 2008, I opened my first Etsy shop. It was slow going. Etsy was new and I was teaching full time and working on a few things in my free time. My first sale was the Flamingo ACEO, but my 2nd sale, a couple of weeks later, was a custom tile. I had one of my fish tiles listed and another Etsy seller saw it and approached me about creating a custom tile for her. She wanted a tile with her two dogs, as shown in the photos she sent to me. The dogs were on the front porch of her house. So I created this tile (in the photo). You can read more about it here, First House Tile. I really liked how it turned out, so I made more house tiles. A few sold here and there. I was also doing some custom home illustrations in pen and ink at the time. Houses were often the subject of much of my art. But I decided that I needed another type of house to add to the mix. I decided to open a second Etsy shop for my clay works and leave the first for my pen and ink illustrations (I eventually combined them again in the new shop). I had seen some freestanding crooked houses in an Art Education magazine. They were houses and they were whimsical. So I decided to try to make my own version of little whimsical houses. I saw some little tiny houses online, but I wanted mine to have their own unique brand. So I decided to add little hearts to the front, just under the roofline. I decided to call them HeartHomes.

Name Change from HeartHomes to Beth S Macre

Fast forward to 2016 and many whimsical tiles and whimsical houses later, I am still selling them on Etsy. I am still creating the HeartHome line, but I have recently changed the name of my Etsy shop from HeartHomes to Beth S Macre. With all the new social media platforms that I have started using, I wanted everything to be the same to make it easier for my customers to find everything. And my name covers everything I create, not just the HeartHomes.
Here is a link to my shop: 
Beth S Macre Studio

Only in the last year have I really started to market myself. Marketing is not my specialty. I am always learning. But sales have really started to pick up since November of 2015, so I guess I am doing something right. I have also expanded my line of works to include lace textured bowls, ornaments, and some custom bowls, custom houses, and custom name tags. I will share more about these items in the near future.

I just finished another set of custom tiles for a customer. (See a portion of it in the photo to the right.) Next week I will post photos of the results of that custom order. I'll post a link here, when I get it posted. (Update: Link to Tiles)

I have enjoyed my 8 years on Etsy. I have seen many changes on Etsy, in a positive way. I hope that my little shop will continue to grow! As things change, I will too. You must continually learn and grow along with everyone else.

Soon I will be sharing some photos of my HeartHomes and how they have evolved. I have plans for new and exciting things to come and I hope you will come back and see what I am up to!

Thank you for stopping by! 

HeartHome Love...

I've been working on a custom clay Hearthome and I was excited to take it out of the kiln today! This special Hearthome is a going to Newlyweds. It has been personalized with their last name over the door (I blurred out the name for privacy and because they haven't received it yet!)  and their names and date of their wedding on the bottom.  It also can be used as a bank! It has a slot on the roof and a plug in the bottom to remove their savings, hopefully when its full!  So this house will soon be on its way to a home full of love and hope for the future. I've included photos of the progression of the hand built house bank made of clay, so you can see why the process can take a while. Lots of waiting for drying, then firing, then glazing, more firing...sometimes more glazing and more firing.

What a special wedding gift. Thanks to my customer for the story behind it and the idea and ordering such a special gift for her loved ones!

If you would like to order a custom house, you can look at this listing on Etsy:  Custom House Large

Bottom of house
with the plug for the bank. 

Beth ♥

Happy Customers and Colored Pencil Artists

Recently I've completed a few custom clay house orders and I am working on another.  Even though I post a lot of examples of my clay houses and my owl paintings lately, I am also a colored pencil artist.  I have had the pleasure of meeting some excellent, award winning, artists through the CPSA national organization.  Recently, Ranjini Venkatachari, a colored pencil artist ordered this custom clay house (Art Studio) from me.  I've been familiar with Ranjini's work through an online forum for a few years, but got to meet her last year at the CPSA convention.  She is a very nice person, as are most colored pencil artists!   Anyway, she wanted a little house that looked like an art studio, like the one in my Etsy shop, but personalized and in her colors. I also added the Heart Magnet with her initial, because she just celebrated a birthday.  So she received them in the mail the other day and she blogged about it and posted a picture of them in her blog. I added an easel with a sign with 'Ranjini V's" studio on the tiny painting, where I used the primary colors that she used in one of her colored pencil paintings that she had posted online.  After I mailed the package to her, I found out that the painting that I was looking at had been featured in an article in a Professional artist magazine!  I thought that was so cool! And she is, not only featured in one magazine this month, but two!  Her art is also on the cover of the June 2012 issue of Ann Kullberg's CP magazine.
So, I just wanted to give Ranjini a big thank you for both, ordering one of my HeartHomes and for blogging about it!

Beth ♥

Adding Watercolor to Pen and Ink...fun!

Hearts and Flowers

Mixed Media
Watercolor + Ink

After spending time looking at a lot of inspiration on Pinterest, I got the urge to work with watercolor and pen and ink. I recently ordered some new Grumbacher pan watercolor paints. So I played around with a pen sketch using my Sakura Ink Drawing Pens and added some watercolor. (I love to do creative doodles!) I just purchased some Strathmore mixed media paper, so I wanted to try it out. I was given some samples last year and I really liked it. What I really liked is how it took both the pen and ink and the watercolor.  So I will be ordering more of that paper. I like that it comes in a wide range of sizes from small tablets up to large tablets. I also want to purchase more pan watercolors. The Strathmore paper held up much better than the second image shown here.
.
Mixed Media Paper

The second image was done with the same pen and ink and watercolor but on a different paper.  It was done on bristol paper, which is good for pen and ink, but it did not hold up as well to the watercolor. The paper ended up wrinkling up while it was wet, which cause the paint to run in places. But I already had the pen and ink sketch on the paper and thought I would give it a try. But this just reminded me that the paper choice is very important when using a water media.  

HeartHomes by the Sea

I really had fun playing with it and will definitely buy some good watercolors and more mixed media paper.

Beth♥ 

Wine Tasting

...deserves some art too, don't you think?

Wine Stopper with a Heart Home

Beth♥ 

Hands in Clay

Its been awhile since I've had time to work with clay, so it was nice to get back into it.  If I didn't have a full time job, I would probably have to schedule a day each week to work in each of my favorite media...clay, colored pencils, pen and ink, and acrylic paints...Because I love working with them all! I could probably get involved with other media as well, but there are only so many hours in a day.  And, for now, 8 hours a day (plus planning, meetings, etc) goes to my day job.  Fortunately, since I am an art teacher, I get to work with all of them some.  My dream job would be to have my own art studio/gallery and work to my hearts content with whatever materials I want to.
Shown here is an Art Studio HeartHome that I recently created.  I've had a few requests for Custom Clay houses with Business Signs on them. So I decided to create an Art Studio. This will be listed in my Etsy Shop soon.


Beth♥ 

Looking forward to Thanksgiving Break!

Only 2 more days of work until Thanksgiving break! I am so ready! It has been one of those weeks!  I'm looking forward to spending time with family and having our traditional family Thanksgiving dinner.  After Thanksgiving my daughter will be here to help put up the Christmas tree.  She loves to decorate for Christmas and has already decorated her tree.  She sent this photo of an ornament that I made for her.  She is a big Razorback fan, so she would probably decorate her whole tree with Razorback decorations, if she had enough!  Guess I need to work on some different ideas for next year.

I have spent some time this week working on another pen and ink commission after finishing the last one. I won't be able to share the current pen and ink until after Christmas.  So I will just share some of the house ornaments that I have made recently, some of which are for sale in my Etsy shop.  Sooo...if you need a new handmade ornament for your Christmas tree, feel free to check out my Etsy shop.

Have a great weekend! 

Beth♥ 

Creating my own Mini Art Gallery...

Miniature Clay Art Galleries

One of these days I would like to have an art gallery/studio...but for now, I'll have to just create my own mini ones. Here is a photo of a couple that I have created.  I need to get busy creating a lot of new houses. I recently sold quite a few houses and need to restock...which is a good thing!  Now I just need to make the time to create.

Hope you are having a nice holiday weekend!


Beth♥ 

Blog or Website?

HeartHomes

...or both?  If I want to market my art, what is the most effective use of my time and money? I have been blogging for several years now.  Before I discovered the blogging world, I was journaling about my art on my computer, which no one saw except me. Then I found blogs and it took me awhile to get the courage to actually start my own.  I really didn't think I had anything to say, much less anyone would want to read about it. Well, along the way I did pick up some readers and met some very nice artists.  I have no idea how much this blog is actually read, but for me its still more about journaling about what I'm doing with my art.  I'm not sure that it has any effect on marketing my art, but I guess it gets my work seen by some people, at least.  Being from a small town, there are no art galleries or local places that sell original art. (That's the subject for another blog post.)  I do have online shops where I sell my artwork and I have links on the sidebar of this blog, set up to both of my Etsy shops, Hearthomes, where I sell my little clay houses, and BMacre, which I sell my pen and ink drawings and other drawings and paintings.  I also set up a page on Facebook to display my artwork, which has brought in some business from local people, which is great!  It has always been hard for me to talk about myself and show what I do either because (1) I feel like no one is interested, or (2) it feels a little like showing off.   But I can't sell my work if I don't show it to people, right?   ...This is why I did not go into sales, but I'm learning.

Custom Pen and Ink
House Portrait

So my dilemma is, should I have a website? Do people actually go look at websites that stay the same for long periods of time? How often do websites get changed?  So far, having the blog and facebook page has worked for me.  I can very easily add pictures of what I am working on currently. But would a website make a difference? I have a free website with WIX, but it is very limited on what I can add to it. And it needs updating if I keep it. But I think that if I have a website, I will be using my domain name. Problem is, I just don't know how to set up a website, or the time to learn anything very difficult.

If you have any thoughts on this subject, I would like to hear your comments.

Beth♥ 

It Makes a Village...

...well, if I put together all of the little houses that I have made over the last 2 years, I would have a pretty good size village!   I haven't had much time to make many new houses lately, but I did manage to get a few done this month.  Two of these are now listed in my Etsy shop.  The third was a custom order.  I will be working on more new ones very soon.  I am also working on some new accessories to add to the collection.

Miniature Clay Heart Home

Miniature Clay Heart Home

The last one shown here, is a custom ordered Heart Home.  The customer showed me one that she wanted hers to look like, but she wanted it personalized.  I have a custom order listing in my Etsy shop for larger houses or I can create a custom listing for my customers who want to order special details to a smaller heart home or add some extra accessories that I do not have listed.

Custom Order that is Personalized on the side.

Beth♥

Countdown until School is Out for the Summer!

Letter Heart Magnets

...11 more days with students (I'm not counting the weekends!), plus 3 days after that for teacher in-service and wrapping up the school year.  Seniors finished up their tests earlier this week, so it has been a little quieter around the school.  So I am ready for summer break to get here so I can get started on my 'to do' list.  Each year I make a list of things to do. Some get done, some don't, because the break goes by so fast! And next year we will be starting back to school a week earlier, so the break will go by even faster!  But, I plan to use a lot of my time working on art projects and getting my studio re-organized.  It looks like a hurricane went through it. Maybe I will post before and after photos! We'll see.  I have several things to list in my Etsy shop. Mostly little houses and little heart magnets. I paint letters on the little hearts and put a magnet on the back.  I'm going to list these in my Etsy shop as soon as I can.  I will be taking special orders for these as well.  So if you see a color or design that you like, but need a different letter, just send me a 'convo' through my Etsy shop or my Facebook page. I will be happy to make you one or several!


Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!
Beth♥

Latest Hearthomes from the Kiln

Just thought I would share photos of the houses that came out of the kiln this morning. 

I need to get busy making more houses. My stock is getting low!

I will be listing all of these houses in my Etsy shop over the next few days.

Thanks for looking!
Beth♥

Hearts and Clay

So Valentines Day has come and almost gone. These holidays always sneak up on me.  But my little houses all have hearts on them, so I have sent many of them off to new homes over the last few weeks.  So I will be busy making more little houses to restock my Etsy shop! Which is a good thing! 

Me in front of my Artwork on display at Bennetts Nursery in Jonesboro.

My display includes my colored pencil artwork also.

Last week I attended the artist reception for the opening of the "Love of Art" Show in Jonesboro.  The weather had been terrible most of the week with snow and extremely cold weather, but Thursday turned out to be warm enough to melt away alot of the snow. So we traveled to Jonesboro for the opening.  I'm glad that we were able to go. I met some very nice people, including several artists who are displaying their art in the show also.  The show will be up until March 10th.  

Happy Valentines Day!

Beth

What makes You Smile?

I got an email today from the writer of this blog called Bunny's Carrots . She said that my little houses make her smile.  That is exactly what my intentions are with my little houses! So its always nice to hear from people who get that feeling from my houses.  So thank you to Amanda at Bunny's Carrots for featuring my houses on her blog today, along with the little houses from The Little Red Door Etsy Shop.

This month my HeartHomes Shop on Etsy has been busier than I expected. I thought after Christmas that things may slow down a bit, but I have been pleasantly surprised to be wrong!  I have sold several of my hearthomes and I have several pen and ink orders for this spring to start working on.  Plus I am getting ready for the show in Jonesboro.  I need to finish the latest batch of houses for the show.  

So, what kind of art makes you smile?  Do you like realistic art, whimsical art, abstract art?  Do you want art just to hang on the wall? Or do you like 3D art to display? I would love to hear your opinions!

What makes you smile?
Beth

'It takes a Village'...

Row Houses
On Etsy

Create a Village
with HeartHomes

Lime Green HeartHome
On Etsy

...well I can make a village! I love to create these little houses and never run out of ideas to add little details.  Shown above are a set of Row Houses that I recently added to my Etsy shop.  Also shown are several houses and other buildings that I've created. I've even created some trees to go with the houses or village, if you decide to collect some houses.  I've sold most of the trees that I made, so as soon as school is out next week, I'm going to start making some new accessories like the trees.   I have plenty of houses to list, but need more accessory pieces and other town buildings.  I've made churches, a school, and downtown buildings that I will be listing soon too.
     One more week of school and I will be finished until August.  I'm looking forward to getting into my studio and painting, drawings, and creating more village items.  Check back often to see what I'm working on!   For now, I'm looking forward to a 3 day weekend.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
~Beth

New layout and new listings...

Purple Cottage Heart Home Clay Tile
5 x 5 inches
My Etsy

Blue Cottage Heart Home Clay Tile
4 3/4" x 4 3/4"
My Etsy

 I am slowly getting back to listing my clay items in my Etsy shop. I listed these two tiles today.  They are the most recent tiles that I've created.  I love the cottage feel of these two houses. If I could build a house anywhere and anyhow I wanted, it would be a mix of these two houses.  And I would build it beside a lake, with a little workshop/studio in the backyard, right beside the pool!  Yes, I'm dreaming, but its okay to dream. 

Also, I've been playing around with different ideas for the layout of this blog.  Its difficult for me to just leave it black.  I feel like it needs 'decorating'.  So I've added this background from Shabbyblogs.com. 

I just love how rough and soft it looks at the same time.    So what do you think? Does it work? Is it easy to read and look at? 

Where would you go? What is your dream?

~Beth

Fanpage on Facebook...

Fanpage on Facebook

Beth S Macre

...well I actually did it. I created a fanpage on Facebook. It seems really odd, but I've decided that if I really expect to make a full time business out of my art, I must promote myself. That is one of the hardest things that I've ever done! I have always been well...the quiet, shy one. At least that is how my friends and family used to know me. I do not find it easy to talk about myself, especially in a positive way. However, over the last several years, I have gained more and more confidence in myself and my art. And with being an art teacher for 27 years, I've also learned to get over being shy. I don't think of myself as shy anymore. Quiet yes, but not shy. When I say quiet, I don't mean that I don't talk, I just don't feel the need to talk all the time.

So, with that said, if you want to follow me on Facebook, please do. You certainly will not get inundated with constant updates on my status or invitations to all kinds of things. I do plan to use my Facebook Fanpage to post pictures of what I'm working on currently and give information about where my work will be available to see or to purchase, if one so desires! Many friends and long time aquaintances have not really had any way to know what kind of art that I do create. If you have read this blog very much, you might realize that I have a little ADD...attention deficit disorder...because I work with several different media and a couple of styles. My work ranges from detailed colored pencil drawings, detailed architectural pen and ink studies, to whimsical and some abstract paintings and creations in clay. My clay pieces also tend to lean towards the architectural subjects...mainly houses. I blame my ADD on being an art teacher and the need to learn and teach a variety of subjects, techniques, and media. Depends on what I'm in the mood to work on, or what a customer may have requested.

So, now that I have 'talked' more in one day than I usually do, I hope that you will 'be a Fan'!

And to those who are already followers or fans...
Thanks for your support!
~Beth

Tree House Tile

Well I sound like a broken record, but again I have been very busy! I have been creating custom home tiles for several people. So when I get home from school, I tried to get busy working on tiles and glazing mini hearthomes. I am excited to create some custom tiles, but they are more difficult to create. Having customers that give you a few photos and say...do what you want!! That is pressure! But it is fun. I just wish that time was not so short right now. Christmas is coming quickly! I have to finish my shopping and finish these tiles.

One of my clay hearts is being featured in a collection in a post on 'the creative JAR: d is for...d here---> the creative JAR: d is for ...d
I will be working on more clay tiles soon. The next batch of clay houses will go into the kiln soon. Stay tuned!

New Clay Houses

Now that the colored pencil show preparations are finished, I was able to spend my afternoon yesterday creating more mini hearthomes. I had so much fun with the clay! I also made some little angels. (on the right) You can click on the photos and see it larger. I plan to be working alot with clay in the future. I'm preparing to go to an artfest in May. It will be my first, so I'm looking forward to it. (More info to come about this.)

These mini houses have been fired and are ready for glazing. I believe they are tired of sitting around on my shelf! They are beginning to talk to me, they've been sitting there for too long!

Oh my!