Marketing the Maternal Bond

Mother/Daughter Aprons - $43.00
Floral pattern on a blue background, Adult size fits most. Child size 3 to 6,machine washable, cool, tumble dry.

Corline of Mommyandmeboutique based in California started making her sewn items only 2 years ago in her 70s and they are in great demand. There is something about this kind of product that just seems to sell itself. Perhaps part of it is that it's functional, but the other part seems to be an insatiable desire on the part of parents to dress up their children. I can remember this phenomenon from when my son was a toddler (he is now almost 23) but I used to find it irresistable to buy him clothes, and if there had been matching outfits I probably would have bought them too.

Corline works with designer fabrics, beautiful trims, and ribbons to create aprons, dressed, and other accessories for adults and children. Aprons are her specialty. Wear these for entertaining
or for fun activities for mother and child to do together.

This little girl below is the perfect model for the array of dresses and aprons created for this business. If she doesn't make you want to buy I'd be very surprised!


The matching bib and burp cloth below is very unusual with very realistic airplanes on the material; much more interesting to look at than the typical teddy bears and bland baby related symbols you see so much of on the commercial market.

Little Pilot Bib and Burpcloth - $12.00
Vintage print; fits baby to toddler.

This little girl, this time dressed in a black and white dress, could easily be a flower girl or ring bearer for a wedding, or this could be an outfit she wears to church or to a party.

Black and White Polkadot toddler dess - $29.00
100% cotton; fits size 4 to 5 toddler.

This outfit is more casual and may be something she wears to school or around the house.

Retro Style Toddler Dress Michael Miller Fabric - $29.00
Michael Miller's 1960’s Retro print of Dick and Jane.

Aside from selling these on Etsy Corline sells her work at a boutique called Twigs.

To see more of these gift items go to;
http://mommyandmeboutique.etsy.com
and read her blog here;
http://themommyandmeboutique.blogspot.com

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Karen Jinks is a freelance mixed-media artist and illustrator living in Cambridge, UK, specializes in stationery, gifts and accessories for weddings and christenings. She also works in collage, and in textiles.

Many of her works are a compilation of snippets of paper and images painted on top of to add dimension and change context. For instance;

See, a mixed media piece using acrylic and collage on canvas, measuring 40 x 40 cm, shows windows and doors superimposed on handwriting in the background. The disembodied images seem to represent transparency or possibly vulnerability. This piece retails for $180.00 and is ready to hang.


Scrapbook/Photo Album
This handmade scrapbook or photo album has an interesting blue texture on its Indian embroidered silk cover and includes 20 pages (40 sides) of acid free ivory cardstock with spacers to allow the book to keep its shape when full. Page size is 25 x 19 cm approx. $50.00


Asia Greeting/Note Card
Original oriental inspired collage printed on to white linen card. Perfect for a birthday or just to say hi! 100 x 210 mm. Plain white envelope included. $4.00


Custom Portrait
Commission a beautiful pencil drawing of your child and capture that moment forever. The artist uses A3 size quality artists’ cartridge paper (white) or ingres paper (colored) and for best results requires one or two large, well focused photographs to work from. $200. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact her before you order.



Original Rose Photo Print
printed on glossy photo paper with lightfast photographic inks, 8 x 10 inches, including white border for framing. $30.00. Beautiful and vibrant!

For her cards, art prints, originals, and other small gifts:
http://kala.etsy.com

She also makes jewelry which will soon be divided into
its own Etsy shop at:
http://upwiththelark.etsy.com/

See more of her paper items and small gifts here:
http://chalkhillstudio.blogspot.com/

Bead-On-A-Stick
You can tell by looking at Marcy Lamberson’s work that she has a healthy sense of humor! Living in Atlanta, GA. she gets many of her ideas while watching plants and animals native to the area, then with torch in hand, she captures the impish characters inside.

Some are sort of mischievous as if they’ve got a devious plan up their sleeves, and others, almost woefully innocent, seemingly oblivious to what has happened to bring them into existence, as if born fully grown, yet somehow eternally young.

Reinforced by the smiles, laughter (and custom orders) these creatures evoke in others, she has continued to follow the thread, watching to see where it will lead, shaping her as much as she shaped the glass. That raises an interesting question. Does life influence style, or does the artist impact life? Most likely the answer to that falls somewhere in the middle. How much does one’s experience determine what we make, what medium we choose, even the colors and textures we bring into being in that which we create?

Marcy actually started out as a watercolor painter and enjoyed the process of mixing and blending colors in that medium so much that naturally glasswork was a logical next step, both providing her the comfort in familiarity she’d previously known, and the promise of new and exciting challenges ahead, and the satisfaction of being able to render her ideas 3-dimensionally.

Most of her days are spent making more beads and sculptures, and teaching classes out of her home.
There is this place where artists go in which there is no sense of time, where there is no right or wrong, where candy is everlasting, and flowers never die, and a child can live forever.

Perhaps this is what the world is missing now with busy schedules, global warming, war in the middle east, and life in a culture in which people are drowning in expectations they can never measure up to, work fast enough, make enough money, spend enough time with friends and family, consumed with guilt, and anger, and fear for the future. In a society in which people are slaves to their cell phones, and the American worker is as expendable as a McDonald’s hamburger carton, and the President has told us that art is unnecessary in the classroom, crayons are put away in the closet, dismissed as frivolous and irrelevant to the “really serious” work at hand, where the adage “no pain, no gain” rules the day, humor and whimsy are precious commodities. Like an endangered species threatened with extinction these qualities must be nurtured and protected with all we’ve got.

Art is what brings us back to what really matters, to that little slice of heaven we dream about, yet far too often just let slip through our fingers. Here is your chance to get a little bit of what you’ve been missing. Put it in a necklace, or on your desk to remind you of that child within. She isn’t gone, just hard to locate sometimes. To buy your little piece of whimsy, go to http://studiomarcy.etsy.com/
These make great gifts!