Marisa Girardi Presents

It’s always such a treat to find out that you were on the front page. Even if you didn’t catch it while it was there, thanks to Craft Cult and a Flickr group dedicated to the task, you can always sleuth it out later.

I’ve only been featured twice before and this time it was my sea fan painting that I’m becoming quite accustomed to having on my own wall.

I never had a special desire to live within viewing distance of the ocean, but since moving to Kalk Bay 3 years ago and living literally across the road from it, I am smitten with all things that smack of the sea. Not only is there plenty of sea here, but there is also a working fishing harbour to make it a little less wild and scary (which, frankly, the sea is very) and I am enamoured of all the little vessels that come and go and I imagine having a little sail boat myself that I would absolutely not vomit over the edge of, because in my imagination I fortunately have no tendency for sea sickness.

Here are some  favourites from the treasure chest:

1.Sinking Ship by Limedrop

2.Sailing by Geninne

3.Anchor by Bride and Wolfe

4.Ships Ahoy Wallet by myfavouritedress

5.Steamboat by Nate Duval

6. Front Gate at The Save Our Seas Shark Centre, Kalk Bay

7.Underwater Circus Screenprint by Jamie Zollars

Etsy feature on the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design- as creepy as it is amazing. I could spend a lot of time there…

One of my favourite Etsy artists is the featured seller at the moment. Her name is Danna Ray, her Etsy shop is Groundwork and she paints the most heart-achingly beautiful fragments of nature. There is such a delicate air of silence and solitude in her paintings of those magical moments that you may be lucky enough to stumble upon when you visit nature.

As I have confessed before, I’m still new to blogging and sharing and having a presence on the web so it is very exciting for me when I am featured in someone’s Etsy treasury or their blog and I can’t very well keep it to myself, so I will be sure to be using my blog as a boasting platform, if you don’t mind. Hey, you have to take your fame where you can get it!

So here are the 2 most recent:

On Little Pink Pebble’s Etsy Finds

Littlepinkpebble is an illustrator and I just love this painting from her Etsy shop:

I’m sure I must’ve had this dream / fantasy. It reminds me of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I just couldn’t wait for them to find that library. Imagine what’s in those books… ancient stories, accounts of faeries, lists of names, amazing inventions, secret societies… I feel kindof funny looking at this painting and thinking about it.

And then my heart brooches were featured on Wren’s blog too - hooray!

I hope to have my own shop up and running soon, but in the meantime, here is my lovely Etsy shop.

Etsy is the reason I started creating things again and helped me finally say “I am a crafter!” with pride, rather than mumble it into my sleeve apologetically.  Okay, so I still sometimes do it…but less often.

The array of talent on that site is remarkable and browsing around the site never fails to lift me out of a creative slump.
Thank you Etsy!