Pet Portraits

I have been producing custom Pet Portraits for quite a while now and currently have 3 that I am working on, the progress of which is on the blog: Laura's Pet Portraits Blog

I produce Pet Portraits in coloured pencil and graphite portrait. My portraits are traditional, highly detailed portraits of any pet, though most of my portraits are of dogs. My website has a gallery plus details of prices and sizes as well as a secure order form: Laura's Pet Portraits.

This is one of my past graphite pet portraits

I have more examples of my portraits on my Flickr photostream:

• Coloured Pencil Pet Portraits
• Graphite Pet Portraits

Monday To Do List

I've been working all weekend so have had no time for blogging, tweeting or making things :( We also have my parents-in-law staying, who are lovely, but any visitors deserve a bit of attention so I can't spend all my time they're hear locked away in my little studio! However, I do need to get on and do some Northern Dawn work because we're off on holiday for a week on Friday, so tomorrow's To Do List:

• Do a Folksy Favourites blog post
• Add some more pictures to my Flickr photostream
• List some items from last week in Etsy shop & Folksy shop
• Make a Chinese knotted Necklace & Bracelet

So, quite a lot to fit in before heading off to work at 4. I do have the rest of the week off but have plenty of things to fill that time. Hopefully I will have lots to show you in the coming days.

Persistance

I found these lovely Rune Pendants on an internet site when buying some other Jewellery making bits and thought they were lovely. I like old symbols and whatnot and love the rustic look of these pendants so bought several with different symbols on. This particular one is for me and is the symbol for Persistance. I wear it as inspiration not to give in, to remind me that one day that first Etsy sale will actually happen!

I do think that I'm getting somewhere. My page views are going up on Etsy, i'm gaining more followers on both Twitter and the blog and featuring other Etsy & Folksy sellers has really helped me spread the word around and a few of the lovely people I've featured have then put links to the blog on their blogs. I do really feel it's helping. I now have 16 hearts, compared to 3 at the end of June, if i carry on collecting them at the rate I am now, I'll have 84 by the end of August!! Unlikely, but nice if I did.

I still need to join Flickr and I also need to make a Facebook fan page, they may well be jobs for tomorrow. I think the main thing is just to stay focused and carry on making. I am also planning on making a couple of Etsy purchases, so at least then I'll have some feedback as well.

Tomorrow I will have some Jewellery to list, some Rune pendants definitely and maybe some knots as well.

Flickr

Flickr is a photo hosting website. I have known about it for many years and have used it to look for reference photographs for my drawings. However, I have never used it to host my photographs, mainly because I have my own web space and i've never been a great one for putting my photos out in cyber space.

Since joining Etsy, Flickr has come up many times as a useful promotional tool and I have looked at photographs on other Etsy sellers accounts. In the Etsy Success email I received on Thursday one of the useful forum posts it pointed us in the direction of was this one: How to use Flickr to get exposure for your Etsy shop, posted by dottyral, who makes very cool pin cushions. She discusses rules, Flickr groups, contacts and tags.

So, one task for tomorrow, join Flickr and start uploading some photos.