02 August 2019

Designer Spotlight: Wishsong Design

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My name is Jodie and I run Wishsong Design here on Madeit. I live in sunny Perth, Western Australia with my two mini schnauzer pups and 3 cheeky guinea pigs. I am a solo self-taught artist who enjoys a variety of creative mediums from painting in watercolours and acrylics to sewing one-of-a-kind art dolls and collectible toys, needle felting, jewellery making, dreamcatchers and polymer clay sculpture. I love all forms of art and craft and often cannot contain myself to just one form.

My most popular product by far have been my Yeti's, having sold hundreds over the last few years. Each comes with their own name and story on a character card.

I have been selling on Madeit on and off since January 2012. I have also had shops on other large online marketplaces over the years too, however I now exclusively sell only on Madeit. My art is purely a hobby as I have a full-time day job which can be very busy and tiring so my creative pursuits are often limited to weekends and evenings. Art is my passion; I don't know what I would do without it!

My creative workspace is actually a rather humble small enclosed room in my house that is full to the brim with craft supplies and fabric and my personal collection of finished projects I could not part with. I have a range of artworks on the walls that I have collected from other fellow artists who I admire and who provide me daily with inspiration.

I have a comfy couch and a table that I work on, all whilst I watch a favourite movie or Netflix. I also have a second room where my computer and large format archival printer lives. This is where my fine art prints are created from my original watercolour paintings.

I am inspired by many things in my creative process. I am a big lover of nature and animals so these usually feature heavily in my drawings and paintings. I am also a fan of some of the low brow art and the 'big eye' girl art so my characters are often depicted with the focus on large pretty eyes.

My love of fantasy also plays a big part in what I create, with unicorns, mermaids and dragons appearing regularly in my work. I love colour so naturally most of my creations are very colourful and bright.

I am inspired by kids too; most of my works these days are children's illustrations and 'cutesy' style art dolls and artist bears.

I love to create items that bring joy and happiness to people. I am hoping to, in the near future, be able to donate my artwork to children's hospitals and also use the proceeds of the things I sell on Madeit to support various humanitarian aid charities.

I have loved drawing since I was a child, and continued to practice my skills throughout my teenage and early adult years. I developed a love for acrylic painting on canvas, mostly realistic detailed animals, with a particular love for African animals including lions, cheetahs, rhinoceros and elephants. As the years went by, I expanded into pet portraiture with chalk pastels and watercolour.

After completing a short course on storybook illustration, I was inspired to move into children's illustration where I could fully explore my imagination and bring it to life and colour on paper.

Then about eight years ago my eyes were opened to the world of online marketplaces for selling handmade goods and so started my journey in selling my work. This further inspired me to start sewing and branching out into other art forms which has led me to where I am today.

Handmade, for me, means owning something that an individual (or few individuals) have lovingly created from their own hands, and therefore contains so much more value in my eyes than something that has been mass produced purely for profit.

Much thought and consideration goes into creating handmade goods, and as a creator of handmade myself I know and appreciate the hours of work that goes into every piece.

I think handmade also brings a little bit of the old ways back, some of the amazing skill that can be seen in handmade antiques has been lost over the years as machinery took over, and so being able to buy handmade where true skill is needed to craft something by hand is so much more valuable to me.

Madeit provides me with an opportunity to share my handmade crafts with the Australian community and provides an increased customer base than selling at stalls alone cannot provide. Although I have sold on other online marketplaces in the past and sold internationally, competition on these websites are too high and you feel drowned in a sea of sellers, fighting just to be seen.

Madeit is wonderful in that you are part of an Australian-only art community which gives you opportunities to be seen better and it provides a much simpler online selling process. This enables me to be able to spend more time in creating new works than trying to promote my work.

Visit Wishsong Design to find more magical characters: Wishsongdesign