The ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ is a regular feature on Mindless Pursuits intended to provide insight and exposure to the tons of talented artisans working today. Please comment and give them some encouragement and check out their work! If you would like to be in the Spotlight, click on the ‘Free Press’ link above!

What is your shop?
Borealis Art (http://norablansett.etsy.com)

What is your art/craft?
Actually, I work in a wide variety of mediums. First and foremost, I am a fantasy artist and work in colour pencil, watercolour and watercolour pencil. I also work in photography, jewelry design, beading, dolls, miniature quilts, stone carving and pyrography.

Describe your style in 2 words:
Unique, varied

What is your favorite piece and why?
I honestly don’t think I could pick a favourite piece! I work in so many mediums that I tend to have favourites in each medium, and the favourites change as I improve on my skills and create new works. My most current favourites are the following:
“Invitation to the Sun” ACEO 
“Drift” (Photography)
“Jasper Bead Embroidered Pendant” 
“Mermaid Pyrography” (Wood burning)
“Miss Darling Blues” (Doll)

I’m sure you can see why I can’t choose just one!

What is the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I think the best advice I ever got was to stop comparing myself to other artists. There’s nothing worse than trying to compare apples to oranges and worrying that you’ve only got prunes. You can never base your talent on that of others.

What is the one piece of advice you’d give?
Probably the usual cliche’ “Never give up!”. It’s a hard road — especially if you are trying to make it your livelihood. I also think it’s important to expand; don’t just work in one medium. It’s nice to have different paths to take according to your mood. Right now, my jewelry is flying off the shelves of local stores, but my dolls are taking a backseat. In another month, my dolls may pick up again as well the photography with the visual change of seasons occurring. I try to keep the artwork moving at a gentle pace, never putting too much out at a time and making every piece special because I keep it so limited.

Let’s jump right in by discussing why business planning is a necessary effort in planning for success (you do plan to be successful, don’t you?). The primary intent of business planning is to provide you with the focus you need to prioritize your work, develop your communications, and invest your dollars. There is much more beyond this, but this is where you will want to start. Once you have a business plan, you should be aligning all of your work activities to the plan to avoid wasting extraneous effort on items that don’t support your business goals.

Let’s start by asking the seemingly most basic and straightforward question: What do you want your business to be? In other words, what are you going to be selling? Is it a tangible product such as jewelry or will it be a service such as graphic design? Mind you, services often come with tangible end-products (i.e. Graphic Design may end up with a logo, a banner, etc). Sometimes you can confuse the two, as happens occasionally in sewing. For instance, if you pre-sew plush dolls and sell them, you are offering a product. If you are taking an order for custom apparel, you are actually offering a service, even if the end result is a tangible product. Read More

The ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ is a regular feature on Mindless Pursuits intended to provide insight and exposure to the tons of talented artisans working today. Please comment and give them some encouragement and check out their work! If you would like to be in the Spotlight, click on the ‘Free Press’ link above!

What is your shop?
dollproject (http://www.dollproject.etsy.com)

What is your art/craft?
I make dolls and sculptures.

Describe your style in 2 words:
Cute assemblage

What is your favorite piece and why?
My current favorite is the Steampunk Bust.

Every once in awhile, I make a doll and allow myself to spend as much time as I want on her. Intricate costuming, perfect features, tiny accessories….that stuff gets me going :]. But it is not practical to put days of effort into all of my creations, so a few special ones stand out.

What is the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The secret to success is to find something most people can’t do and then do it better than anyone else. (Lon Chaney)

I always try and aspire to that quote.

What is the one piece of advice you’d give?
Don’t take yourself or your art too seriously. You don’t need anyone else to validate your work or tell you whether or not you are making ‘art.’ If what you make makes you happy, chances are it will make someone else happy as well. Love what you do.