Harvest Moon Art Journal

Paper.  A thin, flexible material made from pulped rags, woods, etc which is used to write on, wrap in, or cover with.  In some way we all come across it everyday.

From the talented artists on Etsy, I’ve found those who are very resourceful and used paper in their own creative way to produce their products.

A couple of months ago I was browsing the shops in Galena, IL.  A town very close to where I live.  My eye was drawn to the Art Journal as shown above.  Instantly, I was trying to remember where I’ve seen this before.  Then it came to me, it was an item I had looked at online to be in a future article.  Not only was it nice to actually see the product, but I also met the artist herself, hollingsworth.  The journals are nice and compact.  Her craft of painting has been a skill of hers since she was little.  This was my first face-to-face encounter with another Etsy seller and I was enthused beyond words.

MissWooGoo has brought back a hobby from Victorian women who made and used them as curtains when strung onto yarn.  She uses pages from magazines to create these colorful Olive Green Paper Beads.

Then I found, SquishySushi, a California artist who’s shop is full of Eco-Friendly Jewelry.  This Travelers Bangle Bracelet caught my eye.  She uses a lightweight wood bangle bracelet that has been decoupaged with scraps of map paper.  How unique.

One thing that I must say about this article is the names of the shops that I found, truly ingenious, along with their work.

And that leads me to my last feature.  Cards are made of paper right?    But I wanted to find that one designer with a “little extra” in her work.  There were so many artists who create beautiful cards and being a card maker myself, I thought it would be impossible to find just one.  But, when I discovered this shop and her creativity, she won me over.  Funknugget, an artist from New York makes the most interesting cards I’ve seen.  She uses unmatched socks, googley eyes, pom poms, and dog wigs to create these one-of-a-kind cards.  I could find a purpose for each one that she had, but this was my favorite, the Remember Writing Card.  Very simple, yet clever.