Hey! My blog, it’s a thing I write on sometimes? Well, I’ve been working on a larger personal project over the past few months, keeping my head down and ignoring all my friends in the process. I’m proud to tell you that my work-in-progress has finally launched: Saltbush Avenue, The Shop.
Saltbush Avenue is not just my blog, it’s my brand-new shop on Etsy! Feel free to tell all your friends.
Now, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ll have heard about the shop already. And sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the new link in the header menu: Design Shop. But I thought it deserved a more in-depth introduction than just, HERE’S MY SHOP, I MAKE THING.
The Saltbush Avenue shop is named in conjunction with this blog, obviously. Saltbush Avenue, The Blog isn’t just about my home, it is my home. I make decorations and letterpress prints with a mod aesthetic, and now they’re up there for the entire internet.
As for why I was drawn to “Saltbush” in the first place: saltbushes grow in dry coasts and deserts. I accidentally drew an American saltbush for this blog logo instead of an Australian one… which turned out to be native to Arizona and Mexico. How serendipitous that saltbushes are an Australian thing and an American thing! Just like yours truly.
I started out making small crafts from paper and felt, but then I enrolled for a letterpress short course/open studio in July (through TasTAFE) and it sucked me right back in. Props to my good dude Nathanael for running the course, he’s helped me heaps with letterpress and just good talks about uncertainty n’ stuff.
I majored in painting & printmaking back at Arizona State University, and the letterpress class I took there taught me about typography and it sparked my interest in design over fine art. Letterpress combines a bunch of things I like: typography, fine papers, getting my hands dirty, and blunt communication. It also just feels really nice to be back in that art school cocoon, I’m not gonna lie.
I’ll be adding more in the coming weeks, including Christmas cards, but here are a few items you can find at the Saltbush Avenue shop right now:
Painted Origami Keepsake Box with Gold Floral Design
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good, Y’all – Letterpress Print
Geometric Felt Coasters, Set of 4 – Mod Illusion Design
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – Letterpress Mini-Print
It feels wonderful to be making things again, not just creating digital designs or mucking around with my house (although I still love those things too).
Maybe it’s the return of Saturn, maybe it’s seeing 30 on the horizon that’s lighting a fire under me, but whatever it is, I’m motivated to put myself out there properly as an artist and a designer. I’m signing up for local craft markets this summer (psst: come see me at Cuckoo Artisan Market Hobart on 11 December!!) and, of course, I’m spending every available Monday in the letterpress shop.
Having my shop finally established also means that I have more time to post about house stuff. Just putting that out there…!
A part of me is terrified that this whole endeavour is going to be a giant bust, but it’s so personally satisfying that, if it is, I won’t feel like I’m left with nothing. Come say hi over at Saltbush Avenue on Etsy , feel free to let me know what you think. And if you’re on Etsy too, I want to check out your stuff!
Steph x
(Edited, March 2017: I have changed the wording in this post to reflect my shop’s current name, rather than “Casa Saltbush” as it was originally. After a few months, I decided to combine the shop and blog under a single unified brand of mod home decoration. Also I don’t want to run two sets of social media accounts. Thanks for understanding, guys.)
This is so very exciting!!! A huge congrats to you! (Now get back to work)
Thank you so much Loree! I’m very excited about this.
I gotta go edit my Spring garden photos now…
My mother graduated from the University of Missouri journalism school (oldest west of the Mississippi) and worked as a commercial artist for newspapers in the days of hand drawn advertising. My father worked for newspapers also as an advertising salesman. They met working for a newspaper in Jackson, MS They both loved the print media and I think they would be very impressed with your work. My mother and father later ran a small paper in North Carolina where I was born. I am extremely proud of you and your work.