Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
Made It
Mother Day is May 10th
Mothers Day is only a couple of weeks away and what better than to give mum something special, something unique and handmade…
My MADEIT store has a wide range of homewares from coffee mugs to trinket boxes to foodie gifts, and my ETSY store also has these items plus jewellery and original art gift cards.
AND if you use the coupon MOTHERSDAY15 at checkout you’ll receive a 10% discount!
My advise – order as soon as possible to ensure delivery prior to the big day 🙂
www.etsy.com/shop/deedeedeesigns
Here’s are few more special gifts you can purchase for mum 🙂
Sunday Studio Visit – Valentines Day
It has been a while since my last Sunday Studio Visit – Christmas and the New Year and holidays threw me completely out of routine!! But I plan to get back on track as of now – famous last words!
During the past week I have been preparing for Valentines Day – I did leave it a bit late, it seems that no sooner is Christmas marketing over than Valentines marketing has to begin – its just a bit hectic for me at times…
But I have been trying to create and list new jewellery items in my ETSY shop and have been rejigging some of my MADE IT shop items to reflect intimate Valentines dinners with unique handmade tableware. I still have more new items to add which I will continue over the next few days.
In the ETSY shop this includes lots of unisex jewellery, as well as designs specifically for her. I also have unique original art gift cards which are ideal for framing after gift giving.
And to top it all off I have a Valentines special in both of my shops – use coupon code VALENTINE at checkout to receive 10% off storewide.
So, without further ado, here are some pics of some of the handmade gorgeousness you can give this Valentines Day 🙂
Boxing Day Sale
I have lots of new products to add to my ETSY and MADEIT stores in the New Year, so I need to make room for them.
To this end I am having a Boxing Day Sale in both stores beginning at 12.01am on the 26th December and ending at midnight – Australian time. Both stored will have 15% off storewide including FREE shipping Australia wide and very reasonable international shipping.
Use the coupon code boxingdaysale at checkout in both stores to activate your discount.
Until then have a great Christmas 🙂
Give Handmade at Christmas : Last Minute Gift Guide
Christmas is fast approaching and if you live in Australia you can still place an order in my ETSY or MADEIT stores within the week and receive your gift before Christmas. if you live outside of Australia you can place an order, but won’t get it before Christmas – instead I can express post a gift card to you with details and an image of what your gift is for the person receiving which you can write a xmas message in and place under the tree.
While it is too late for custom orders, I have lots of ready to ship products available – products that people who love to give handmade unique quality, and those that love to receive the same, will love.
My MadeIt store is stocked with handmade unique tableware and my Etsy store has handmade tableware, jewellery, buttons and original art greeting cards.
Not sure what to give as a gift? I have gift certificates available in both of my stores – if you would like a different amount than I have listed simply message me and I will create a custom listing.
Below is an example of one of the pages from each of my shops …. explore, and happy shopping 🙂
Sunday Studio Visit – Xmas Stuff
In the lead up to Christmas it is becoming hectic – there are custom orders, but also dinner and BBQ invitations left, right and centre! This weekend has been one of those weekends, so there has not been much action in the studio. Today I did manage to load the kiln for a bisque firing for my student classes, as I do usually intend to have all the student work through by the end of the year, which can be a huge task!
Apart from that I am participating in a couple of ETSY team promotions, which involves helping promote other team shops, while they in turn help promote your shop – and all shops have universal coupon code for discounts in their shops. I am participating in an Etsy Meet & Tweet and a Strategic Team for Success promotion. (see below for further xmas shopping info)
I have a 10% discount in my shop for both teams, plus shipping is FREE Australia wide, and I do keep international shipping reasonable use coupon code spst4u or blackfriday14 both till December 3rd at checkout.
I also have a discount in my MADEIT shop – enter merrychristmas at checkout for a 10% discount storewide! And shipping is FREE throughout Australia!
So that is it for today in the studio…. happy Christmas shopping 🙂
Buy Handmade for Christmas
OK, I am going to do the annual bang on about buying handmade this Christmas – but it is really important!!
We live in a world of mass production and mass consumerism, and this can be an alienating influence on how we see ourselves in the world!! Buying handmade helps to heal some of the disconnect we feel from society and ourselves. How? Because a handmade product comes directly from the maker…. it contains their passion and emotion, and this flows through as the product is used in our everyday lives – whether it be jewellery, tableware, sculpture, drawings, journals, clothing….everything…. we touch it and it touches us.
This is why I am so passionate about being an artist and a maker.
In this post I am going to concentrate on my MADE IT store. I joined Made It a few years ago, out of curiosity and to check it out when I began designing tableware and jewellery under my brand DeeDeeDeesigns. I began stocking my shop earlier this year, only with my tableware, wanting to concentrate on promoting this range.
The thing I like about Made It is that is all about handmade, and is a platform only for Australian sellers. While purchases can be made internationally, the product you are buying is 100% Australian made – this is great for the economy and great for Australian makers.
It just so happens that this week I am a pick editor on Made It…. so click HERE to view lots of great Aussie gift ideas just in time for Christmas!
In the meantime here are some pics of some of the handmade tableware available in my Made It store – bowls, coffee cups, tapas sets, condiments dishes, candle holders, trinket dishes – all great for Christmas gifts, including secret santa and teacher gifts, or even to adorn the Christmas table!
Sunday Studio Visit: Playing with Product Photography
Product photography for Etsy & MadeIt
This Sundays studio visit is all about product photography….
As some readers may know I have online stores on Etsy and MadeIt featuring functional ceramic tablewares and jewellery. In these stores I have a clean uncluttered look which focuses on the product, especially in the main shop image. When a buyer clicks through to the product I do have shots of the bowls with foodstuffs in them, necklaces around necks and rings on fingers to give the product some scale and provide a more ‘real’ context for the potential customer. These images have previously also been on white backgrounds…. until recently…
Going back ten months…. In the lead up to last New Years Eve I took some images of a few statement rings within the context of dressing up for the occasion…. but since then had not explored the concept further.
Recently I have been thinking about re-approaching this idea, and have begun by staging some of my tablewares in a ‘real’ kitchen environment.
A limitation is the size and format of the images you can have on these online platforms…. for example MadeIt images fit into an exact square… I want to feature the product, so a fair bit of the background needs to be cropped out – the upside though means I need less of a clean kitchen….lol!!
Then there is the question of depth of field and which images look better? I’m not super happy with either of these images, so will do a bit more playing around with my aperture settings….
So thats about it for this Sunday – the kitchen has become the studio!! (I knew it had to be good for something)
I’ll leave you with some of the other in situ images i have been experimenting with…. have a great week 🙂
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.