Team T Tuesday - Say Your Piece

Starting her career in ceramics out of her home seven years ago that which was born out of a sense of commitment to her family, Eileen's business has expanded quite a bit since then. She opened Clayful Moments which specialized in the 'imprinted for posterity' capturing of the hands and feet of infants and small children in her ceramic keepsakes. She still continues with this flagship line at Clayful Moments.com where you can visit her studio to have one of these beautiful keepsakes made for yourself or gift giving. These are called Kid Print Keepsakes and are a product of her local business so if you are in the area of Fairfield Ca. give her a call to arrange an appointment. Eileen also Hosts Ceramic Painting parties for all ages, appointments can be made through the Clayful Moments site.

This business lead to other things such as fundraisers and teaching in schools and today Eileen has expanded her business to the internet with her almost two year old thriving shop on Etsy, 'Say Your Piece' .

SayYourPiece offers a variety of personal, sentimental and heirloom quality keepsakes, both decorative and functional.With over 800 sales on Etsy, Eileen has developed a following and her customers love the quality of the workmanship, the sentimentality involved as well as the speed with which their purchases reach them. She has the joy of sharing in many precious moments of her customers lives and each is touched by the beauty and personal attention to detail on each piece.
Weddings, Births and Birthdays, Anniversary's, Holidays, Inspirational and' just to make your day' are the themes of the body of her work. She also welcomes custom orders with a sentiment that you would like on a variety of ceramic pieces.

I believe that words are powerful and love using them in my art and Eileen sure has captured that importance in all her works.

If you have a special occasion coming up, why not preserve the moment with one of Eileen's beautiful and affordable keepsakes? She also is now offering some special designs just in time for Valentine's Day too!

Meaningful Art, what more could you ask for?

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Team T Tuesday ~ The Art of Writing

Computers are great aren't they? You can send a letter, photos, games or music to anyone anywhere around the world in the blink of an eye. You can take courses in just about any subject without ever leaving home. You can chat with someone practically anywhere around the world on an IM (Instant Message) or text message and lots more. This is all amazing and great, but has it turned us into an instant communication society, one where the word has lost it's meaning because it is so easily tossed out there? Has the art of sharing our thoughts become disposable?

I began to wonder about this myself as I have spent so much time online and typing 1000x more than I ever write something. My penmanship has gotten so bad because my hands are more used to pressing keys than holding a pen and putting words to paper. I actually find it awkward and unnatural feeling holding a pen to write. I make out a grocery list even and then when I take it to the store I stand there in the isles wondering what in the world that chicken scratch means?? I get an idea for a jewelry design and can't make out what I wrote down even a short time later (I have since learned to accompany that with a drawing, at least I can still make those legible! ) :)

I used to be told what lovely handwriting I had, now I am embarrassed to write even the smallest note on my invoices thanking my customers or a dropping a card to a friend. I used to journal a lot, way before it became the 'in' thing to do. I also used to write stories in long hand and still have some stashed away somewhere.

But I fear that the art of the handwritten note, letter, or journal page is fast becoming extinct. And yes, I believe now more than ever that it was, make that 'is' an art-form. Communication is a great wonder and shouldn't be lowered to the mere pressing of keys. We can too easily press the 'send' button or the 'delete' button without much forethought. But when you sit down to write to someone be it a letter, or a note, it's purpose requires more planning, such as what to write on? What writing instrument to use. Address labels, a sealer, perhaps it calls more for a card with a pretty picture. And then what to say, how to address it. Sentence structure, careful placement of words around a picture or drawing and more. It takes a little planning, but that is what makes it so meaningful and why people will save it.

So much used to go into correspondence, and now it is sadly declining at a rate faster than we can imagine. I have some Ephemera from over 70 years ago. Cards and notes and letters too precious to throw away. Letters written by our Founding Fathers have sold for millions of dollars, but how many save an email? How much is one worth today coming from a celebrity or even from the White House? Alot less than yesteryear I'm sure.


Well I know of someone that has a similar feeling about the demise of the Art of Letter Writing and she has designed many ways to bring it back, and her name is Amanda Day of Dawn Correspondence.

Some of her designs include Wedding invitations, Personalized writing paper, note cards, other wedding paper goods, party invitations, gift tags, Boxed Stationary and more! (And some Valentines Too!)

Modern, fun, sophisticated, elegant, all these words describe the diversity of writing elements you will find at Dawn Correspondence. She loves to work with her customers and create special orders that fit them to a 'T'.

So when was the last time you sat down and put pen to paper? Written a note to someone you love? Someone you haven't had time to visit or tell the things you've thought about while going about your busy life but want to, well do it with style with some of Amanda's beautiful notes, cards or stationary. To get them to return the gesture, why not include your letter or note in a boxed set and help them to continue propagating the ART with a return note to you and other loved ones as well?

I especially like this elegant boxed writing set, and with one of my favorite things, chairs! There is something for everyone so visit today and take back the ART of Writing at Amanda's shop for some great vehicles of sharing your art of the written word!

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Banner Treasury Week!

I recently was asked to join a new team on etsy, one whose goal is to promote fellow members of the team. When I joined my first team on etsy I thought that was the goal of that group as well, but I have found that the months I have been on there ( going on 8 months) have been far less productive, promotion wise for me than the few weeks I've been on this new team. Mind you I have put every effort, and hours, days even promoting my other teams members, but the reciprocation hasn't been overwhelming, and in this day and age of limited areas of promotion I can access as well as time and money constraints I feel it is time to concentrate on what is most productive, all around.

Today is only Tuesday and already this week I have been in over a dozen treasuries! Which happens to include all my shops. For example right now I am featured in nine treasuries. I know there were a few more over the weekend and today both go off so I am likely to get in one or two of those, but wow! What a team! If you'd like to see the latest, I've been keeping a photographic journal at flickr of them, so as not to bore you here with every little one I'm in, and if you'd like to see it, go here and just click on the Treasury set.

But a picture first, since I can't seem to post without one! From that great tool Craftopolis!
And that is just for Organic Odysseys, my other shops PolkaDotSandals and AlmostARTifacts also have treasuries.

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