When Cottage Industrialist started in 2008, I had been making handmade jewelry for about fifteen years, and my friends and family had been telling me for about as long that I needed to sell it.
About the same time that I started my shop, I started a blog to "promote" it. Whatever that meant. Everybody and her crazy uncle was trying to get attention for their shops and blogs were supposedly the fastest way to get noticed. What I quickly found, though, was that I loved writing about my creative life as much or more than I loved the commercial side of things. So over time, my Etsy store faded away, and my blog took over.
One of the most popular elements of my blog has always been the digital downloads I've been making freely available since the beginning--from quirky valentines to beautiful calendars to clever paper crafts. And over the years, I have honed my aesthetic and my skills and really learned what makes people squeal with delight.
Still, there was a piece missing. Everything really came together in my creative life when I discovered the world of textile design. Combining my love of graphic design and illustration with real, tangible fabric is like a dream come true.
The reason I sell digital downloads and have fabric shipped directly from the printer (rather than keeping it in inventory) is that on-demand printing fits with my environmental goal of wasting as little as possible.
I live and work in a sunny spot just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. I adhere firmly to the Portlandia "Put a Bird On It" mentality. Except in my studio it's "Put a Ginkgo On It." Seriously, it's a sickness.
Thank you for visiting my shop, and thank you for continuing to value homemade in the modern age.