Friday Finds... Dreamtree Studios

Friday Finds... Dreamtree Studios

This is my second interview of the amazing not-so-well-known artists of Etsy. HOW? is always the question that flies through my mind on my hunts, because as you've seen already with my last interview and my Monday Expo's, these talented people really do have something quite special, yet still they are just not as well known as they should be!

Last weekend on my search I almost fell of my chair with excitement (I'm not exagerrating) when I had contact from Donna of Dreamtree Studios, an amazing talented artist that creates incredible digital artwork with Fractals. I first became interested in Fractals myself about 5 or 6 years ago, upon discovering my first Fractal artist on Spiritart.org, and it has been something which you can probably see in some of my work that has inspired my weird and vibrant abstract style. I have to be honest when I say that I have never put out any fractals out there that are worthy of acknowledgement (I still struggle with the mathematics!) , let alone anything quite as amazing as who I am introducing to you today, but the fact that fractals are at the heart of my own crazy digital ideas is the reason I just HAD to offer Donna an interview. Fractals are more than just an art...


(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)










--Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) My name's Donna of Dream Tree Studio and I'm a 30-something (wink!) living in Charleston, SC at the moment. Fun fact - I've lived in 7 US states and 2 other countries (Korea and Germany). I'm a proud military brat!

--What is your business about then? I'm kind of a contradiction in some ways - I'm a creative person who loves art and color but also a total computer geek! I've found a great way to combine the two sides by creating unique digital artwork called fractals. Fractals are mathematical-based creations (bet you never thought math could be this cool, did you?). I use various software programs to explore the formulas, algorithms, transformations, and other mathematical functions and use them to create interesting forms with rhythm and vibrant color.

--How did Etsy come into your life? I actually found it via a friend who is very into the handmade scene and encouraged me to check it out. I've been on etsy for a while, though just started selling my art, and I've found it to be a great community with sellers and buyers from around the world interacting in the forums - I love it!

--Are you working a day job too? Yes - as much as I love my art, I can't pay the rent with it yet! I actually have another business on etsy too - creating bath & body products, so between that & the day job, I keep pretty busy. I do hope that, in the future, I will be lucky enough to have more time to focus on my own business and my creative life all day long.

--How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? It's funny, actually. When I was very young, I remember being really interested in art and taking a lot of classes at school (of course, this was back when all public schools in the US offered multiple art courses, which they don't anymore, sadly). I used to love it! Then after school and college, "grown up" responsibilities took over and I set art aside for more practical pursuits. About 6 years ago, I was going through some old papers my mom & dad saved from my early years and found a paper that I'd written...in crayon...about how I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. That's when I realized I needed to start creating things again!

--What has been the inspiration behind your business? I started creating fractals just for fun - a great way for me to relax and enjoy the process. But when I started showing them to people they would "ooh" and "aah" and asked so many questions and wanted to have copies for themselves. I thought it would be great to share my work with more than just friends & family and also try to educate people about what fractals are and how math plays such an important role.

--If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? colorful, dynamic, fun!

--What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? Well, as I have a day-job, it's pretty simple:
6:45 am - wake up, feed the cat, check my e-mails & etsy
8:00 am - head to work
1:00 pm - take lunch break - eat at desk so can use computer (allowed by my boss!) to check etsy and work on a fractal for a bit
6:00 pm - get home from work, feed the cat again
6:30 pm - eat dinner
7:00 pm - work on fractals, hang out in etsy forums
8:00 pm - work on bath & body orders
10:00 pm - work on fractals before bed
11:30 pm - bed...finally!


--What's your favourite material and techniques to work with? Well, fractals are completely digital, so I work with my computer and a fractal software program called UltraFractal. I do use other fractal programs like Apophysis sometimes, but my true love is UltraFractal. I also use Photoshop to sharpen and sometimes enhance the colors of my work, as well as resizing images as necessary. I have my work printed by a professional photo lab using Kodak Endura papers - the metallic paper is my favorite as it gives a silvery pearlescent sheen to the fractals that makes them look almost three-dimensional!

--What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? Right now, I have so much going on in my life that I want to focus on the present. I can say for sure that I ilove creating fractals and plan on working with them every day as long as I can!

--Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? You can see I have a busy schedule, but I do fit in time for friends and family. I like to go out to the movies a lot with my closest friends or we'll have small gatherings at one person's house to watch TV or a movie and have a great dinner cooked on the grill. I usually have dinner with my parents on Sunday too.

--What are you likely to search for on Etsy? Oh, all kinds of things, but probably jewelry and art the most. I happen to adore modern sterling silver jewelry and there are some fabulous artisans on etsy - I wish I could own so many things I find! And as for art - I love, love, love abstract works, especially if they are very flowing and have rich, vibrant colors. I've found some truly amazing artists on etsy as well!

--Any last words? I'm always interested in talking about fractals with people, so if anyone ever has questions, please feel free to contact me any time. And, thank you for this interview!

Sunday - Coffee And Cake!

New Water Series Mandala Prints - Click Images to Visit Listings


Sunday - Coffee and Cake



Late again! I was early! Seriously! What would have been around 5.30am for most of Etsy (about 10.30am for me) I was ready to begin this article, but though to myself, no I'll give it a few hours until most of the universe on a Sunday morning would be awake! So I went shopping. Little did I know my son would be Mr Wiggle and delay us a bit whilst we were there, nor did I expect to come across a NEW venue for me to print my canvases SO close to home. That would BLAST the huge wait people would have by a few weeks if there was a long wait so I hope to research that later. But then I had to respond to all the fab applicants for tomorrow's feature, AND try and list some stuff online, whilst inbetween all of this, play trains with my little boy when he wouldn't nap in his room. Fun times! So I'm on it now :) Looking forward to this one. Nothing particularly strenous today. Shouldn't be a long one, for I want to discuss YOUR Etsy store :)



Networking Part 3 : Your Etsy Store Now I wanted to talk this week about Blogging. But I think it can wait a week as I MUST talk about Etsy, as I have seen many MANY stores this week that I have come across through loads of means, and some are incredible! But there are some that are struggling to get noticed and unfortunately it is noticable as to why.



People I'm sure are desperate to know why they don't get enough views on Etsy and it does take a lot of TLC in your store to make it worth noticing. You'll come across millions of resources to help you optimise your store for viewing, but I do wonder whether people go out of their way to find them? I know it took me a few months before I became away of the helpful articles on Etsy itself, and that was because I made a point of browsing a section I wouldn't normally have done one day, and POOF there it was. In the months prior to that what was I doing? I'm sure a lot of new sellers on Etsy are in the same boat wondering why they didn't look before when it was always there! another fab resource for all things handmade and selling related check out Handmadeology. It rules and the amount of helpful things on there would surely surpass what I do on here every week. But the reason I do what I do is because I try to make a point of letting people know it is here, as I have been lucky enough lately to have the time to find these helpful things to share with everyone. And I'm a time scrooge! I can totally understand when people say they just DONT have the time to look for things, so that's why I find you and lay out the things that have helped me for you to see :)



Anyway... Here are the reasons I feel from my early none-view days that I went wrong with my Etsy store, besides not marketing outside of Etsy. I didn't market WITHIN Etsy, I took bad pictures, I mixed alsorts of things in my store, I didn't do any market research, I didn't make a good banner, I didn't optimise my store text with relevant keywords (nor my profile for that matter), and importantly I didnt research PRICES. Since changing the lot, I have started slowly but surely making sales, and my traffic is abundant like you wouldn't believe!
You wouldn't believe the hours I have put in changing, re-changing, and completely eradicating things from my store, but seriously, if you are serious about your business you need to shake off your pride and consider that you will have to put in more effort. You have FABULOUS work! You need to make people want to notice it!



I'll break down my past mistakes because I see all of them regularly, and I know for a fact that it's important to realise when people go shopping, as much as you hate to think the world isn't superficial, first impressions unfortunately are EVERYTHING. That's why the supermarkets treat food like cosmetics, that's why any baker you walk into will smell AMAZING, that is why the big guys go out of their way to make sure you cannot resist their products, period. It's awful, but even if you have the best thing in the world that everyone may want, if you take a dark picture, no one will look at it.



Photos - Don't just try to make them look pretty, LIGHT is imperative! Camera flashes will work against you. They don't look natural and they ruin your beautiful work. You need to take your photos in the day time in natural light where you can get a lot of it shining down on your items. Having a good camera will help, and making use of your macro settings! If you can't get a good camera then just make sure you take your photos in good light, and make sure they are not too fuzzy! There's a big difference between macro and blurry! If you can't do day time pictures then make yourself a lightbox! you can buy them but here's a fab video to show you how to make them.



Storefront - You need to use plenty of descriptive "related" words for what you're selling in order to optimise your store, within your beautiful store introduction. Google will pick up on the first few lines of your store, and you want to be sure it's noticed in the search engines. But lists of words will go against you. Don't write lists, that's the kind of thing that'll bump you down the chain. Be honest, be yourself and talk about what your store is about. Sell yourself! People looking for specific things will never find you if you don't have it in your storefront. Make a good banner, or invest a couple of dollars to someone who can do it for you (unless you know a nice person who'll do it for free!). That will be the first thing anyone sees! and it needs to look good! As for items. Don't mix them. Eg: If you sell jewelry and pottery, have 2 stores. Don't put them in the same place. Why? It puts people off as it confuses them. As multitalented as most of Etsy are, you're better separating your stores. I have recently done it myself, and my reason is exactly what I have said. Someone actually said to me 3 months back that they loved my work, but the mish mash of stuff in my store confused them. So I keep my photography and art together, and my crafts will appear in another store a little later.



The Community - Etsy people rule. So you need to talk to them! The forums are ace! you can meet new people, sellers help eachother all the time with advice, promoting eachother and alsorts. It's a great place to meet new faces and make your presence known within Etsy. The promotion section is particularly grand as some of you may know already. I'd recommend making the time to go in and have a chat with the community :) (Etsy chat will do you some good too!)



Listings - You need to ideally list every few days. I personally try to list everyday IF I can. Not always possible, but you can always relist or renew items. The power of relisting bumps you items back up to the top of the pile so they'll more than likely be noticed. But it will still cost .20 to do so. It's not everyones cuppa tea, but if you do make a lot of stuff, rather than bunch it all up on one day, try and spread the things out a little. Showcasing is something I have tried a few times, and it gets you a lot of views, but I have never received a sale from it. But people do, and I see people that regularly showcase so it must work for some!



I have made all of these mistakes and it is the most gutting thing in the world to realise that you need to change what you have done and put hours into. I guess anyone in the world with a business would do this regularly, as you always have to appease the market, not just yourself. But believe me, your work IS worth it and you are worth it too. If you are struggling then simple things like new photos, and listing regularly can really help within Etsy. Coupled with marketing outside of Etsy, people will come in droves! You always need to assess what you're doing. And go to the forums! People will help you if you ask them! Ask for opinions, and be open to constructive critisism. It could be the thing you need to turn everything in a positive direction!



moonangelnay x

Kettle And Me

I had a bit of fun earlier with a kettle and my camera whilst the boys were out and figured it was internet worthy. What could I possibly do with my camera and a kettle? (ho!) To be honest I don't even know what sparked the idea, but after the morning coffee I suddenly felt inspired to pull faces and take pictures... i love the way its distorted my head in all the pictures. Either completely over or undersized lol!!! Yeah I know I can be pretty basic! enjoy!