Luxury Shopping

A cigar box guitar from our Squier Etsy Shop was featured in Saturday's Etsy Finds in the Luxury Shopping Section.

Check out the guitar:

Cigar Box Guitar No. 32 - Americana

Another Fab Feature

My husband got a feature yesterday in the newsletter, today a set of my torch fired enamel beads made it to the front page of Etsy.

Singed Cambridge Blue Torch Fired Enamel Beads

Set of 6

I just happened to be checking my emails, when I received a note from Bacon Square Farm saying I looked fab on the FP. When you get a chance check out their awesome bird houses!

So of course I quickly opened up Etsy.com and grabbed a screen shot to share with you all right here.

Music Lover's Gear Guide

An Etsy Finds Feature

My husband's Cigar Box Guitar No. 31 is featured in today's Etsy Finds - Summer of Love in the Music Lover's Gear Guide section: http://bit.ly/qLCreA

Check out the cigar box guitar right here:

Cigar Box Guitar No. 31

http://www.etsy.com/listing/78756111

Yay! Etsy FP!

Happy Birthday Etsy!

Just found out my Squier Etsy Shop made the front page of Etsy.com with my husband's handmade Cigar Box Guitar No. 29 La Gloria Cubana in a fantastic Happy Birthday Etsy Treasury. It can be played as either an acoustic guitar or plugged into an amp and played as an electric guitar.

Pair it up with our portable battery operated cigar box amp and rock out by the camp fire!

Etsy Front Page Again!

This time my Speckled Eggs torch fired enamel beads made it to the front page of Etsy.com at 7 pm eastern ... so very exciting!

Find the beads right here:

Speckled Eggs

Even more beads in the bead section of my

Squier Etsy Shop

I need more mapp gas so I can create more beads!

Etsy Front Page Hurray!

My Squier Etsy Shop made it to the front page of Etsy.com this morning at 5 am. So exciting! Here's a screenshot showing my husband's Padron 3000 Cigar Box Guitar.

This Padron 3000 CBG has a nice bright, almost banjo like sound.

You can find it for sale here:

Padron 3000 Cigar Box Guitar No. 25

Busy Beader

I've been busy playing with my torch and creating lots of gorgeous beads. Only thing is, I'm not sure what to do with all of them. So I decided I would add sets of beads to a special section in my Squier Etsy Shop.

Others too can create wonderful and inspirational pieces of art jewelry from my beads.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Squier?section_id=7942170

Girl with a Torch

I'm a girl with a torch!

Have you seen my new torch fired beads?

I will slowly add them to my Squier Etsy Shop in the Torch Fired Jewelry section.

The beads are so much fun to create.

What do you think of my new beads?

Square Watercolors

Blue Drops

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Size: 5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

I love it! I've created a new slightly larger size to add to my Dew Drop Series.

I have a few paintings of this new size now listed in my Watercolor Drops 5x5 Section of my Etsy Shop.

An Etsy Treasury

Scandinavian Dream

An Etsy Treasury I created featuring items from the various countries in Scandinavia. I hope to someday travel there to research my ancestral roots.

Etsy.com is such a cool place to find all sorts of hand crafted and hand painted items from around the world. It's like the world's largest fine art & craft fair online.

Please take a look at the Treasury and leave a little comment.

Click a few of the items and see the amazing quality of work these Scandinavian artists & artisans have created.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c7ec7c9d98e6d91d6f8b435/scandinavian-dream

Goddag!

Enjoy Summer

Late Summer Day - August 12, 2010

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

ACEO Art Card

This precious little watercolor painting can be found for sale along with many of my other Painting A Day Challenge paintings in my Squier Etsy Shop.

Have a wonderful summer day!

Etsy Front Page

My Dew Drop!

It's so exciting to wake up and find out one of my watercolor dew drop paintings made it to the front page of Etsy this morning!

So if you were shopping on Etsy at 2 am Eastern time, you will have seen my dew drop there.

If not, click here to view: Morning Dew Drop

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Photographing Little Watercolors

I photograph my little watercolor paintings on an open book. This could actually apply to anything small. It gives you an idea of scale, it's on an open book, it cannot be very big. I chose my Swedish Pippi Longstocking book because I did not want people to get caught up in reading the words on the page.

I do not have a big fancy photography set up. A window, a book, a canvas panel, a trash can and my digital SLR camera. My key ingredient is the South facing window. The best pictures are taken on an overcast day or a bright rainy day. Bright sunshine washes the pictures and creates too much drama and harsh shadows. Overcast and rain bring out the colors of the artwork with very little photo editing.

I also prefer to take my photographs in the late afternoon. The time of day changes with the seasons. In the winter time between 3 and 4 pm works great in my part of the world. As the days get longer I can stretch the time from 3 to 6:30 pm.

I love the open book, something about the black letters and white background of the book helps the camera to automatically adjust the settings. I set my camera to No Flash and zoom all the way in. By doing this, I can also achieve some of the effects you would get on the macro setting, but the flash does not pop on.

I needed to find something that was just below the height of the window sill and wouldn't you know it my little studio trash can works perfect. Other heights, had me struggling with the shadows of the window frame. The table top is one of the many canvas panels I use for taping down my paper when I create watercolor paintings. Place the open book on top and voila, perfect little backdrop with a super quick and easy set up. The height is perfect, just below the sill the light shines down onto the open book and lights up my work nicely. I am able to easily take 4 or 5 photos at interesting angles and also straight down with ease.

I love the variety of angles, steep angles, twisted angles. Variety is the spice of life!

Now you know the secret to my Etsy Shop photos.

Painting A Day Challenge for May 20th

Plum Wine Dew Drop - May 20, 2010

Moss Green Dew Drops - May 20, 2010

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Paintings

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

It is so exciting when I list a painting for sale in my Etsy shop and it sells within a few hours! This is the case for Plum Wine Dew Drops. It sold quickly! So, if you find a dew drop you like, snatch it up right away. Sometimes they sell quickly.

Visit my Etsy Shop to find my Painting A Day Challenge Paintings for sale and lots more!

Saturday Morning's Paintings

Secret Adventure

Whispers by the Sea

Blue Note Forest

Painted on February 27, 2010

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Paintings

ACEO Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

ACEO = Art Cards, Editions & Originals

ATC = Artist Trading Cards

Required size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Medium: Any!

ACEOs are bought and sold. Collectible little pieces of affordable art.

ATCs are traded.

ACEOs and ATCs are pretty much the same. They get one name if bought and sold and the other if traded. This is a great way to start your original art collection. All of mine are original watercolor paintings. Enjoy!

New Product

Emoticon Laptop Skins

Today we added a new design item to our Etsy Shop. Michael has created a bunch of emoticon decals for laptops. We've got the Smilie and Winkie listed already and will be adding more. They're so cute and fun!

They'll give your laptop character!

Check them out here: http://squier.etsy.com

Features Galore

Great Blog Features

This past week or so, my Etsy Shop items have been featured on several blogs. A big thank you goes out to those who have featured me and my items on your blogs. I really appreciate it! Thank you so much.

Here are the links to the various blog features:

Featuring my Giant Indigo Dew Drop Ring

http://suavoce.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-endeavor-etsy-free-feature.html

My Peachy Dew Drop I - ACEO Art Card

http://creativewithclay.blogspot.com/2009/12/color-feature-of-week-peach.html

A fabulous feature on my husband and I and our Etsy shop

http://poshgallerynews.blogspot.com/2009/12/shop-here-squier.html

My Original Watercolor Pear Green Dew Drop

http://simplyinvitingcards.com/blog/?p=367

Please take a look at the features and check out the blogs, they're great blogs to follow!

Made My Day

Lil Guide Tea Light Candle Holder makes the Etsy Front Page

What a fun surprise today! We received a convo from a friend DesignsbyShellie on Etsy who spotted our brand new tea light candle holders on the front page of Etsy. I noticed the convo 20-25 minutes after it had been sent and quickly went to Etsy's front page and it was still there! Thank you Shellie! And a big Thank You Etsy!

My husband and I have a second shop on Etsy, it is called SquierDesign.etsy.com. He thought it would be a great idea to separate our fine art from our vinyl graphics & design work. So we've been testing it out for a few months now. Michael is an industrial designer, who ended up designing and producing graphics for race cars. He loves coming up with design ideas for products. So hopefully, we will all see more of his ideas popping up in our Etsy shop.

We're still debating the one shop or two shops on Etsy idea.

Right now ... I'm happy one of his products made it to the front page of Etsy!

Dancing Feet Dew Drop

Samba Drop

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

ACEO - Art Card

Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches

From my popular Dew Drop Series, the dew drop with the dancing feet. Okay, I don't know where that came from ... perhaps the colors, the background, the love of dance.

This little dew drop and more can be found in the ACEO section of my Etsy Shop.

Collecting ACEOs is a great way to start your original art collection. Start yours today!

Naming A Painting

Death of a Frog

by Artist Rita Squier

Abstract Painting

Watercolor, India Ink & Gouache

Size: 11 x 15 inches

Naming a painting is sometimes more difficult than painting the painting itself. Here is a painting I created either in or in preparation for one of the abstract watercolor classes I teach. At the time it was created and when I was preparing to show it to my students, it did not have a name. I was holding up the painting, talking about it and the techniques. I looked at the ink splotch in the middle of the painting and thought it looked like frog's legs, as though he was trying to leap through the painting but got stuck. The title just came to me ... Death of a Frog. I know a little bit morbid and so unlike me. But the title just stuck, just like the frog was stuck in the center of the painting.

This painting and more are available in my new Abstract Art section of my Etsy Shop.

Enjoy!