Welcome to another edition of
Artist Spotlight, our regular Monday blog.
This week’s artist is Lina E from Lina E Creations. Lina creates handpainted
miniature and acrylic paintings, miniature clay houses and unique home
decoration. Here is one of Lina’s
creations:
Tell us a little about yourself and your creative business.
I am Lina, a wife and stay at
home mom of a 7 year old boy and a passionate crafter/artist. Currently I am
working with air drying clay, creating either miniature houses or incorporating
it in mixed media canvases and more recently I have started painting on wooden
utility items.
How did you get your start?
It all started back in 1994. I
was living in Boston MA at the time and enrolled in an Adult Learning Center
for some drawing courses…I was immediately drawn to it.
When I returned to Greece in
1996 I started my experimentation with air drying clay and I haven’t stopped
since.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Everywhere! And honestly Etsy
is a great place to get inspired. Just browsing so many talented people’s work
is a huge inspiration for me.
What has been your biggest successful moment so far?
Well, it might sound mellow,
but it was one morning that I had finished some mixed media canvases and I was
so eager to hear the critique of the two important men in my life, my husband
and son…What happened was they each grabbed a piece and said: “You are not
selling this, this is mine to keep forever”…To this day each one of them keeps
their canvases, my husband at his office and my son in his room…To this day I
still feel their look of admiration upon me which makes feel more than happy go
lucky girl!
What challenges do you face selling online?
A million would be an
understatement! I’m constantly studying on how to become better with my work,
SEO, proper tagging, social media and more….Some days I just feel overwhelmed.
But selling online has given me the enormous opportunity to reach people in the
other side of the Atlantic Ocean and even more far away! It has also set a high
standard for what I create, making me want to be even better in what I do, all
the time…
What advice would you give someone just starting out on
Etsy?
My advice, prepare well before
you open your shop. Being well prepared in advance will save you time later on
when the only thing you want to do is creating. I have to admit that I started
the other way around but after a break I took from Etsy for some months I got
time to do a lot of research and study so when I re-opened my shop last
November I was more focused on what I want to do and how to do it. Needless to
say that you must be willing to keep doing your homework, and thankfully Etsy
organizes very interesting things, like Etsy School I’m participating this
month, which helps you see your shop through the eyes of another seller and
gives you the opportunity to work more on the things you want to improve as a
seller.
Thank you Lina for sharing your
story with us.
Well that wraps up another
edition of Artist Spotlight. We try and
run this column every Monday and we’re always looking for artists to
spotlight. So if you are interested or
know someone that we’d enjoy reading about please pass on the information.
Thanks for stopping by,
Until next time…
