Beth S. Macre -- In first person:
I have been an artist for many years, but as an art teacher and mother, I have focused more on my own children and my student’s art than my own. When my oldest child moved off to college, I began to spend more and more time on my own art and looking for ways to sell some things online, to supplement college expenses.
Selling my art was a whole new thing for me. I have always created…drawings, paintings, bowls, clay boxes…selling a few things along the way. I didn’t have the time to travel to art shows and festivals while the kids were little. I didn’t have the option of internet sales until a few years ago, when we actually graduated from dial up to DSL! It was pretty good timing. My kids were going away to college soon and I needed 2 things: to sell some artwork to help with expenses, and a unique item to create and sell online. I got an idea for a textured tile from a project that I was doing with my High School Art students. I made some samples for them to watch me create, and to look at the finished product. So I decided to put one up on Ebay to see if it would sell and it did! So I put a few more tiles on there and they sold. I was pretty excited about selling to someone that I did not know! Eventually I ended up switching over to Etsy and started selling textured tiles. I made one with a dog by a dog house and posted a photo. That is when I got my first ‘request’ for a tile. A lady contacted me about ‘trading’ artwork. She liked my tiles and she had the idea to put her dogs by her house on a tile and I could pick out any painting in her shop as a trade! So I created a tile for her (see the picture included), and the custom house tiles were born in my shop! Oh and I still love the painting that I received from her, all the way from Canada!
Later I made some house shaped magnets for gifts. That led to the idea of having 3D mini houses. I love little hearts, so I put a little mini heart on each little house I create. I call them HeartHomes. I’ve made teeny mini HeartHomes up to very tall HeartHomes. Each house is one of a kind and made by me from the wet clay that is cut and shaped into the little houses with a roof, windows, doors, shutters, flower boxes, and other individual and unique details. I am also painting little HeartHome villages on canvases now for those customers who like 2D art.
Whimsical is a word that often used to describe my HeartHomes and my other clay items and paintings. I am having a great time creating these little sculptures and I am thrilled each time that someone wants to buy one and take it home with them.
In my original Etsy shop,
bmacre.etsy.com, I mostly offer custom pen and ink illustrations of homes. I will also be adding more paintings and illustrations in the near future.
