Yaslani is the focus of today's 90-day Challenge feature. The shop owner, Yasmin says, "My shop name is a combination of my name and my daughter's...I'm Yasmin, she's Leilani hence - Yaslani!" Yasmin is a very focused mixed-media artist who has confined her Etsy product line to two art forms: mixed-media collage and bamboo pendants. The marketers would tell you to do this, and from sales numbers, it appears it has been very effective for her.
This Etsy shop is loaded with pendants, pages and pages of pendants with different themes. These are made of bamboo tiles and have a single image applied to each and coated with layers of non-yellowing varnish. There are single pendants, duo pendants, trio pendants and sets with many pendants. I like this one that looks like seed packets and makes me think of Spring and starting a garden. There are many, many images to choose from, and you can, "Wear several together for a layered style or hang individually from a leather cord or ribbon for a unique necklace. Also very cute on a charm bracelet, cell phone or keychain," says Yasmin.
But now, about the collages . . .Yasmin created these wonderful mixed-media collages using 4 x 6 gallery wrap canvases (means you don't have to frame them, just hang if you want to) with layers and layers of paint and paper and these little wooden animal guys. There's a series of these, and they can be grouped together and really make a statement.
It seems there was a time when Yasmin wasn't pursuing her dream full-time, and then all of a sudden she burst out with all sorts of creativity. To let her tell the story though, "I spent many a day and night daydreaming about doing art and selling my work...maybe just making a little money but mostly gaining much needed self esteem. I dreamed and came up with a thousand and one reasons why I couldn't, shouldn't, can't and probably wouldn't. Ten years later I was still a single mom (now of a teenager), still at the same job (and got used to the idea...even comfortable) and still dreaming. But this time it was different...
I got tired of seeing everything change around me and not doing what I really really really wanted to do. You see the truth is, the only person that told me I couldn't was me! I thought I was on my side!! I was tired of listening to myself whine about how I wanted something different and I was tired of my own excuses. Today's message is for any artist with flabby creative muscles...as Nike says...Just do it. Looking back and knowing now how much I was able to achieve in one year, I feel silly that I wasted so much time."
Isn't that a fabulous and insightful story! Living it, was undoubtably a hard, learned lesson, but if we could only read about life lessons like this one and learn from them, it would surely save some bumps and bruises along the way.
Check out the fresh ideas in Yaslani's shop and blog too.
1 comment:
Love this post! Thank you so much for capturing the spirit of my work!
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