Etsy Interview Repost: Neil Slorance

Since I interviewed him in 2012 Neil Slorance has started making comic books!  So here is the interview again for those of you who didn't see it.

I "met" this guy through one of my blog friends on Twitter and he is awesome so I interviewed him about his Etsy shop, which you should all check out.


1. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Hey! My name's Neil Slorance, I'm an illustrator from Glasgow in Scotland. I'm 25 and have a pet tortoise.

2. Tell me a little bit about your shop.

My etsy shop is where I put up my prints, pictures and other bits and bobs. I set it up about 2 years ago and so far it's been ticking over nicely.

3. How long have you been making art?

Since I could hold a crayon really. I spent most of my school days doodling in jotters and making wee comics about superheroes I'd make up. I really wanted to be an artist although I stopped for a good while in my teens while I was pursuing music but got back into it around the age of 19/20.
 

4. How long have you been selling art?

I started selling about 5 years ago, I remember I took my painting to a market stall in a library. I remember feeling totally chuffed when I sold my first painting, I guess because I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid and this was me taking my first step.

5. Why did you start making art?

I guess everyone starts making art as a kid and then as we grow up for whatever reasons some of us stop. I've kept going mainly because it's the best way I've found to communicate my ideas and thoughts, and where as I'm not a great talker and I stumble on words my pictures have given me a voice.

6. What inspires your art the most?

Life? Any part of life I feel strongly enough to make a picture about. Aside from that just when I get excited about something e.g I've been playing a lot of mario so I made a mario picture.

7. What advice do you have for new Etsy sellers?

Try and have a wide range of products, especially little things, they are your bread and butter. 

8. What advice do you have for aspiring artists?

Don't be afraid to show your work, even the stuff you're not proud of.

neilslorance.com
flickr.com/photos/osm_art
twitter.com/osmart

This collection contains all four of the issues of Neil's comic book Dungeon Fun.  I haven't read it yet but I really want to!

So be sure to check out all of Neil Slorance's stuff. If nothing else, definitely visit the shop and his Flickr stream.  He draws so many amazing things!

And definitely leave me a comment letting me know if you have an Etsy shop and would like me to interview you.

My Mental and Physical Health

I was thinking about stopping blogging but instead I think I'd like to switch the focus to being more about jewelry making and Etsy stuff and less personal life.  That being said this post will be about my personal life because I need to ... vent isn't really the right word, just process what I'm dealing with, I guess.

If you haven't been here from the beginning you might not know about me not being able to walk for nine months for no apparent reason when I was in college and then ultimately having to do a hardship withdrawal from school after having daily seizures.  This post tells about that.  Since that time I was diagnosed with celiac disease and stopped eating gluten.  I still get sick from time to time, most recently September through December of last year.  Even after being able to hold down food again my energy level never returned to normal.  I am exhausted constantly, sleeping a minimum of 12 hours a night and still waking up tired.  Because of this I had to quit my retail job and the last day I worked was in August last year before I got sick.  I applied for disability but I was denied because "there is a cure for celiac disease" (there's not) and I won't be unable to work for over a year (It's been a year this month.)  I was trying to find a place to move with Jordan closer to my parents because I am super tired of not having our own bathroom and kitchen.  We live in sort of a boarding house and there is one shared kitchen and five shared bathrooms for 30+ people.  The kitchen is on the first floor and our room is in the basement so I haven't had enough energy to go up there and cook since before I got sick in September.  Anyway we couldn't find a place in our budget in the small town and then I got glutened so we had to renew our lease here.  For the first three days since accidentally ingesting gluten I had my normal symptoms of not being able to keep food or water down, low fever, and a seizure.  The next day my stomach was actually feeling mostly better but by the end of the day I stopped being able to walk.  This is the first time I've been unable to walk again since 2011 and it is incredibly frustrating.  Jordan bought me crutches and a wheelchair on Amazon (Prime is a lifesaver) so I can get around our room and get to the bathroom by myself.  Our house is full of stairs.  To get out of our room and to the bathroom I have to go up two stairs.  I can use the crutches to skip the first step because the second step has a lip on it that trips me if I do both steps.  It is very frightening and dangerous and that's what I have to do every time I have to go the bathroom.  Even worse is that I can't leave the house, which is kind of ironic since when I could walk I left the house as little as possible.  I am going to have to get groceries very soon and eventually I'll have doctor appointments to go to and I don't know how to go outside right now.  There are between 6-8 concrete steps out the back door (never counted to be honest) and I don't have enough upper body strength to get up them with my crutches.  Jordan has been sick recently and can't carry me up that many stairs.  I also can't send him with a grocery list for me because Safeway stopped selling all of my main staple foods and I'm currently unable to cook, so I would have to go myself.  I would order groceries through Amazon but I have food stamps and very little money in savings, which I don't want to have to spend unless necessary.

This is all very stressful.  I have anxiety and depression and when I get glutened my anxiety and depression go into hyperdrive so I either sleep all day, have trouble falling asleep because my brain won't stop being anxious, or don't want to sleep at all despite being exhausted because the fever dreams have been horrible.  To make matters even worse I'm nearly out of Prozac and haven't managed to be awake during the day to call in the refill.  So I'm just trying to keep my mind occupied for the most part with Netflix, Youtube, or Etsy.

This post is more for myself than anything.  I kind of just needed to get my frustrations out.  So thanks for reading, if you did, and I hope that you are able to enjoy the outdoors and life's everyday wonders.  I'm still remaining mostly optimistic and have definitely kept my sense of humor.  I just hope I can walk again in less than nine months.

Inspired by Reading: Drinking the Rain

This month for Inspired by Reading club we read Drinking the Rain: A Memoir by Alix Kates Shulman.  This is probably the last book I'll be reading for reading club for a little while because I am super duper broke and can't even buy my vitamins, let alone books.  I loved this book partially because it made me think of the game I've been playing lately, Stardew Valley.  In this book a woman learns how to be independent and live off of the land at age 50.  Among other things, she learns how to identify new plants and cook with them.  One of my favorite things in the Stardew Valley game is foraging for different plants and cooking different dishes with them, so that's what was in my mind while reading this book.  To be honest I wasn't feeling inspired at all while reading the book but as soon as I finished reading it this design popped into my head and it seemed fitting.  I originally had an ammonite in place of the wood beads but these worked better with the design.

I used pyrite, matte frosted onyx, an orange agate tusk, wood beads, and a hammered copper clasp.  This necklace had to be made of things I already had because of how the book talks about not adding to the glut and re-using things you have, so I salvaged these wood beads from a broken necklace and they seemed perfect here.  I made the clasp out of copper wire scraps from previous pieces.  I feel like this is the sort of necklace Alix would wear and possibly even make for herself.  It speaks to me of nature and of adventures and being tough, which I think relates well to the book.

Inspired by Reading: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

This is my first piece of jewelry that I designed after reading a book.  I joined the Inspired by Reading group this month and I really liked the book we read.  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender is the story of a nine-year-old girl who discovers that she can taste people's feelings in the food they make.  She struggles with this throughout her life until she finally learns how to live with it.  I intended to make three pieces inspired by this book: one for the innocence of childhood before she discovers her ability, another for the chaotic years of trying to handle it, and a third for when she learns how to live it.  Because of the fact that I only finished this book two days ago and have had low energy I only ended up making the first necklace, the one that represents her innocent childhood before discovering her "gift".

The imagery that stood out to me the most in this book was the red and white at the beginning, especially the red strawberries in the bowl on the lace doily that her mother made.  That's what inspired this necklace.  I had this scrap of lacy ribbon with stitched plastic pearls in a drawer and I added wire wrapped glass beads in red.  I made it a choker-length because it is the length of a necklace for a small girl of almost nine.  This necklace also reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, which seems fitting because it's another tale about a girl whose life is changed forever by things that she can't possibly understand.