Persica: A Beautiful Shop with a Worthy Cause

Roasting Marshmallows, An Original Drawing

Persica

By Jessie Guilford

Etsy Shop: Persica.etsy.com

Website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/persica

Blog: http://persica.tumblr.com/

What struck me about Jessie Guilford and her beautiful shop, Persica, was the similarities Persica shares with Uncovered Artistry. Persica was founded by a business college student, like Angie and I (both business majors ourselves) who founded UA. Persica also donates 20% of profits from a few of her pieces to a domestic violence organization, just as UA is dedicated to empowering domestic abuse survivors.

With that said, please take a look at Persica's unique and gorgeous paintings, drawings, and jewelry at her shop!

What do you make?
I make necklaces and paintings primarily, but I'm always experimenting with new media.

Forget-Me-Not Miniature Milk Pitcher Necklace

Where do you get your inspiration for your work?
I'm inspired by materials. I'm currently in love with brass chain, amazonite, ink and white-out. Sometimes I find things that I know just have to be part of my art.

How did you become involved in your work?
I've always been making things, but last year I started selling my work on Etsy. I'm a currently a business student, and I felt like getting my hands dirty I guess!

Button Poppy Hair Pins

What are you doing to help your community through your work?
I donate 20% of the profits from my drawings and paintings to the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence. I chose this particular organization because they work on a national level, but they also collaborate with local organizations. The NCDSV works with law enforcement and health care professionals, training them so that they can better help victims of violence. You can find out more about them here: http://www.ncdsv.org/

Original Mini Art, Maude

Why did you decide to make a difference through your Etsy shop?
Being involved in good causes is something really important to me, whether it be through donating, raising awareness, or just acting thoughtfully. It felt right to incorporate that belief into my Etsy shop on some level. I'm still a fledgling shop, but in the future I hope to do more.

Juliet, An Original Drawing

What is your favorite item that you make?
How to choose? Almost all of my items are one of a kind, so I enjoy each one as I make it, but I find painting the most relaxing.

Green is the Color for Fall: Our Top Picks for an Eco-Friendly Back to School

Green is the Color for Fall!

UA's top picks for back to school. All items are made from recycled materials, are re-purposed, vintage, or promote eco-friendly habits.

*Links for items are below

(from left to right)

Dryer Pillow Sheets SET of THREE by zJayne

CAMEL Supple Leather Backpack by floweronthewall

Weekly Eco Planner in Fuchsia and Sky - Rustic Vegan Hemp and Recycled Rubber with Biodegradable Pen by NaturesCubbyhole

Vintage MARIGOLD Slouch Cardigan by AdrianCompanyVintage

Things to Make and Do Reinvented Sketchbook, Scrapbook or Journal by UsefulBooks

Knitted Vintage Mustard Vest by prvtcollection

Abraham Lincoln - Eco Friendly Graphic Canvas Tote Bag by Baostudio

Five Vintage Souvenir Big Pencils by Baostudio

American Tourister Carry on Tote Cornflower Blue Luggage by SassyGrove

Vintage Industrial Mid-Century School Room Pencil Sharpener by

uglysanta

Point of Light Lunch Bag, Grey by shoofly

Wool iPad/Laptop Sleeve by Lavenderharvest

Stuff We Like: An Artful Agenda

An Artful Agenda on Etsy

Unique art, quality diaries and planners, and 100% post-consumer recycled paper!
How could you not love An Artful Agenda?

Uncovered Artistry's Grand Opening!

Visit the Grand Opening at www.uncoveredartistry.com!

We at Uncovered Artistry strive to help domestic abuse survivors discover their "inner entrepreneur," empowering them both emotionally and financially. We also hope to encourage the use of art as a form of healing. From this, we hope to promote peace in the lives of the artisans and our customers. We also support local domestic abuse safe havens through monetary donations.

Our grand opening features...

New Artists

New Products

New Layout

And Even Free Stuff

www.uncoveredartistry.com

Lighboxes, Etc: Improving Your Photos

Before Sarah and I began Uncovered Artistry Boutique (www.uncoveredartistry.com), we spent a little over a year running our Etsy shop (suavoce.etsy.com). We struggled with photographs. They would always come out too dark, too blurry, to dull, too washed-out or a combination of these! And everybody knows that good photos are they key to success for an online shop.

So when we began Uncovered Artistry this summer, we decided to eliminate our photography woes by finally (We really procrastinated on this one) creating a lightbox.

our lightbox, created using cardboard box, tape, paper, sheer fabric, and a sheet

And it was a miracle! Our photos turned out beautiful (with very little editing to be done afterward).
We used this article to help guide us.

TIP1: Use a a sheet for over the top of your lightbox. We started off with a pillowcase, but that was too thick and yielded dark photos.

TIP2: If you have Windows Live Photo Gallery (it comes free on PCs) the "Auto Adjust Tool" is often amazingly helpful. But don't always take what it gives you automatically because sometimes it can make things a little weird.

TIP3: MAKE A LIGHTBOX! You'll be very happy you did.

Angie

Why we started Uncovered Artistry in the first place

The universe always helps us fight for our dreams.

-Paolo Coehlo

It was just after my sister and I had discovered the power of Fair Trade (trade based on a fair wage, no child-labor, healthy working conditions, and usually environmentally-friendly products), micro-loans (read Angie's post for more info), and social entrepreneurship.

We realized that business didn't have to be that big, scary, masculine world of corporations and greed. Business could in fact change the world...for the better. The Projects for Peace grant was the opportunity we needed to make our ideas reality.

So why domestic violence survivors? At first, we wanted to sell the artisan work of American women who were in financial hardships. We wanted to empower women. And we wanted to empower women in our own country. For as much as we love the idea of empowering women from far-away countries, the hardships of women in America were never clearer to us.

After sharing the idea with our family, our dad asked, "Why just women? Why not men too?" Eventually, we settled on the idea of providing domestic violence survivors the opportunity to be empowered through business and art. Domestic violence survivors who are women and men, young, old, heterosexual, homosexual, and who come from rich and diverse cultural and religious backgrounds.

If you know of an individual who is a domestic violence survivor as well as a creator of beautiful artisan work, please have them visit our website at www.uncoveredartistry.com and send us an email at uncoveredartistry@gmail.com for an artisan application

Peace,
Sarah

Search for Artisans

We recently recieved a grant through the Projects for Peace Organizaion, which will allow us to start Uncovered Artistry Boutique.

This boutique will sell the artisan work of domestic violence surviors. If you or anyone you know is a talented artisan who has suffered from domestic violence and would like to sell your work in our online boutique, please email us at uncoveredartistry [!at] gmail.com.

Your identity will remain anonymous if so desired. See the description below for more details!

Sarah and Angie
La SuaVoce Designs
Uncovered Artistry Boutique

The Project:

Uncovered Artistry Boutique, operating out of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, will be a non-profit online and catalog retailer that sells the finely crafted work of domestic violence survivors and distributes the products throughout the country.

The business will have two main goals. First, it will provide an outlet for domestic survivors in America to sell their artisan work,thereby providing them with financial independence and personal confidence.

Second,Uncovered Artistry will educate the customers about domestic violence in order to raise awareness and eliminate stereotypes.We will solicit applications from domestic violence survivors, who also have an undiscovered artistic skill such as jewelry-making, quilting, sewing, or woodworking. We would like to represent domestic violence survivors from different cultural, ethnic, racial, and regional backgrounds, who each have their own unique personal stories.

In order to raise awareness, we will include a profile about the survivors on the website, catalog, and in informational packets sent to customers. To protect the safety of our artisans, we will work with safe havens to develop these profiles in a manner that protects the anonymity of the artisans. We will also recruit students and professionals as volunteers.