Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Spring will spring!

It hasn't sprung yet, but I'm convinced that spring will come soon!  Despite the very loud winter storm we had last night, and the 50-ish and rainy day we had today, I've seen the daffodils blooming, and I see the weeds growing (a sure sign it is time to get myself into the garden).  So, the new front page for Alere Modern is spring-inspired.  And a bit birthday inspired, too, since spring is about new life and re-birth.  So thinking spring, here is the new main photo for Alere Modern:


The main photo is one I took last year about this time - maybe mid-March - at Wellspring Spa.  I must have been six months pregnant, and I went up there with my mother, a few aunts, and some of her friends, on a little girls retreat (it was through a wonderful organization called Passages Northwest, who take young girls out into the wilderness).  I woke up early in the morning, and decided to take a walk through the woods around the spa.  I don't think I'd had my camera out to take anything but product photos in years, and I felt absolutely inspired by the morning light passing through the cold leaves.  It was probably 30 degrees out and I was frozen by the time I got back to the cabin, but had some peaceful nature photos to show for it. 


My favorite picture from the entire trip, though, was one I took on the way up.  I stopped at a "scenic lookout" and actually ended up taking photos of the rock wall behind me instead.





It is probably a little hard to see but the center writing says "I'm in <3 with the most beautiful girl in the world."  I think I fell in love with this piece of graffiti because I was pregnant with our baby daughter at the time, who is of course the most beautiful girl in the world in her mother's eyes.

And there you have it. A little bit of my handmade artwork on the front page, and the story behind it.  Also on the front page are pieces from Patrick Irla, Bella-Bijou and Christine Mighion.  Three artists I'm sure any girl would be happy to get a piece from for her birthday!

Off to bed...
Caitlin

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tip of the Day

So, after spending the last week searching for artists, and then searching even further for their email addresses to contact them, I find myself wondering, why is this so hard?

Finding artists isn't always that difficult, but to find a small handful of artists whose work I really like it does take the better part of the day.  I can't help but think of this from a buyer's perspective - I was just looking for general artists, nothing too specific, but I know from experience that when I am looking for a particular piece, it gets all the more complicated, and time consuming.   Anyway, more about that later, but after compiling my list of artists whose work I think would be an incredible fit for Alere, I went searching for their email addresses to send a quick hello and introduction to Alere Modern.

Out of the 243 artists that I wanted to contact, I was able to locate 143 email addresses - about 58%.  Not bad, but not great either.  And it really left me wondering why not put your email address in your blog? Somewhere in your shop announcement?  On your website (of all places!)?  

It's not that I don't understand the rationale  - I do. You don't want little bots sneaking into your website, getting your email address, and sending you information about Viagra. I understand this because I get more Viagra ads than I can count.  But there are ways around it.  One favorite seems to be to use [at] in place of @, so my email would become caitlin[at]aleremodern.com, or even caitlin[at]aleremodern[dot]com.  Another is to use an image with your email address, rather than putting it in the text itself.

And the reason to do it is simple - because if people have to work to hard to find your work, or to contact you about it, they're going to give up. I will defintiely contact the people that I found email addresses for to see if they are interested in selling through Alere Modern, and I may contact some of the people who I didn't find email addresses for (through their marketplace sites) but I only give that about a 50/50 chance, and to be honest that is generous.  Some buyers may give up more easily, if they don't want to create an account or be bothered with checking one more place to see if they have a response.

It's just my two cents.  In my experience, actually publishing your email address gives your potential buyers (whether they are retail, wholesale, or something else) a convenient and comfortable means to contact you.  It also sends the message that you are a legitimate artistic business, and that there is a real person behind the virtual shop curtain.

Happy Sunday - enjoy the sunshine (or snow, depending)!

Caitlin

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Artists: THINKNOW

So here I was all prepared to write a post on my personal musings of art vs. craft, and then I realized - I added another artist just the other day, with some pretty interesting pieces.  I better share THINKNOW with you NOW, I THINK, and then I can share my thoughts with you later.  Because honestly, the thoughts will always be there (and the last post was a musing, too).

Meet THINKNOW, and Rebecca Luong - http://www.aleremodern.com/pages/artist.asp?aid=49  - THINKNOW is a Seattle based jewelry company, and they make their pieces out of none other than recycled paper and wood, sourced locally, with accents of metallic papers that were created by wind energy! I always knew that there was a strong sustainability and eco-consciousness here in the Northwest, but after living here for twenty-some-odd years I thought that the fashion created by this movement was limited to wearing Teva's and socks, and your Northface to the opera (that's a story for another day, but you should not be able to over-dress for an opera, which you very easily can in Seattle).  Never did I dream that someone could create such wonderfully modern and beautiful earrings out of paper!
And I am intentionally only posting the link - you have to go click on it to see what she has to offer.  No sneak peeks!  Rebecca also tells me that she is working on an exclusive piece for Alere, which will be posted to the site this week!

Okay so now that you have been formally introduced to THINKNOW, you can shop their collection of recylced earrings, and I can go back to debating myself on art vs. craft.

g'night
Caitlin