April 12, 2019
I’m one of those instructors who doesn’t mind if her students draw during class.
From my own experience, drawing makes us MORE focused listeners.
My thanks to #DigitalEdu‘er @followhulki for this spot-on portrait of me.
Check out her Twitter bio & blog for a range of her illos!
She also happens to be an OCAD instructor.
I’ll be teaching Foundations in Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media again this Spring.
April 12, 2019
Anyone who knows me knows I like interviewing people who are best in their fields. I got to do that for the May issue of House & Home magazine. I sat down with Tony Round of blackLAB architects inc. and designer Cameron MacNeil to find out how they positioned, built, and appointed a modern farmhouse to take full advantage of a jaw-dropping view. In this case, a 180-expanse of Georgian Bay from a hilltop. My thanks to owners, Kevin Heeney Toronto Real Estate and Alim Dhanji for their stories of raising two little ones on this amazing property.
April 7, 2019
Happy Sunday, friends!
I haven’t’ even cracked my Sunday New York Times yet. I hope it’s still in the lobby. Here’s why: I spent the morning turning my drawings into puppets for this video.
I am proud to announce that Pen Jar Productions is an official partner of Jane’s Walk Toronto (May 3-5, 2019). I will be outfitting all 130 Walk Leaders with my Jane Jacobs’s Enamel Pin.
“We walk together to make space for every person to observe, reflect, share, question, and collectively re-imagine our city.” ~ Jane’s Walk Toronto
To find out where the walks are happening (and who is leading them), go to: https://www.facebook.com/janeswalkTO/
March 25, 2019
While my students were working on their group projects this week, I had a moment to myself. So I drew a daisy, then two …
Back at my desk the next day, I had the beginnings of my Spring/Summer collection for Pen Jar Productions.
The ingredients that went into this recipe were:
• 1 Above Ground Art Supplies Premium Hardbound Sketchbook
• 1 Uniball Vision Pen (Fine). The waterproof ink is key.
• 4 colours: Daniel Smith’s New Gamboe, Hansa Yellow Light (Lemon Yellow works too), Sap Green and Payne’s Grey.
• PhotoShop (I finally understand a fraction of it!)
• 1 HP Scanner (the glass plate is so small. I need to upgrade)
• 1 artboard from Curry’s
• 1 elastic (from a head of broccoli) and two sunny yellow clips to hold the pages down for photographing
• 1 Amazon Basics Portable Photo Studio
I hope you love process as much as I do.
March 11, 2019
In my latest comic, “She is the House,” I imagine a conversation between two generations of writers.
Virginia Woolf and Alice Munro discuss the challenges of being a writer when you’re a woman.
It’s been 90 years since Woolf published, A Room of One’s Own, and 51 years since Munro wrote her short story, “The Office.”
I brought them together because the questions they raised about solitude and productivity are still just as pressing.
Things I think about.
January 11, 2019
At a time when jaws were agape over Farrah & Cheryl, I had Marie. Because of her, I bobbed & conditioned my hair, worked harder on my smile, & took up figure skating. I also committed to perfecting the sassy comeback with my brothers. #BrunettesInAWorldOfBlondes, #GoingCoconuts
December 31, 2018
Last summer, the initial delight I felt in seeing my sketchbook drawings on a digital pillow template inspired a new design business in 2018 called Pen Jar Productions.
Now my quirky line drawings are on totes, tees, scarves, and, coming next month, enamel pins! (In these politically-charged times, more of us are wearing our values on our lapels).
Here’s a tour of my studio, where it all happens.
Print-on-demand technology that offers freelancers, like me, automatic fulfilment and shipping has been around for several years, but I only woke up to it in 2018.
ICYMI: here’s an Instagram Stories video I made explaining how my pillows go from a sketchbook drawing to a finished pillow:
As we move into 2019, the things that used to be background noise in my life — benchmarks, brand recognition and break-even points — have taken on a new urgency.
In search of answers to my marketing and accounting conundrums, my podcast lineup has expanded to include:
Shopify Masters
Good Company with Grace Bonney
Pivot Podcast with Jenny Blake
The Agency Leadership Podcast
In the end, though, customer feedback is the best way to learn. Here are the seven things my customers taught me in 2018:
Offer smaller tote bags
I’m tall. Six-foot-one tall. So when I decided to add totes to my mix, I sourced a bag that fit the length of my frame.
I forgot to think about how the bag length would work for a petite woman. Isn’t everyone 6’1″?
Then I met Amanda. She lived and worked on the Toronto Islands last summer.
I was wearing my merch one evening when she stopped me and asked if she could slip my ferry tote over her shoulder.
“I love it!” she said. “But it’s too big for me.” I hesitated. No matter. She pressed fifty bucks into my hand and the next time I saw her she modelled the workmanship of her city-side tailor, who lopped off two inches from the top of the bag and the handle. Et voilà!
Amanda’s “Off To The Islands” tote bag hanging out in her sailboat. By PenJarProductions.comSign your work
I made some swift sales last month at the Algonquin Island Association Christmas Boutique.
At the 2018 Algonquin Island Association Christmas Boutique. It’s blurry, but you get the point.A woman named Rochelle came up to my table and gravitated to my chiffon scarf featuring scarlet chrysanthemums. “Can I try this on?” she asked. And off she ran to the ladies room to play with knots and flourishes.
Crimson Mums Chiffon Scarf by PenJarProductions.comLast week, Rochelle emailed me with some positive feedback and advice:
Hi Alison, Just wanted to let you know that I am enjoying your (my) scarf. You know, your name, signature, initials should be somewhere on your beautiful work. Everyone and anyone should know that it’s a Garwood- Jones artwork. (not that there is anything lacking in your business approach, I just think you’re being modest)
How can you not appreciate honesty like that?
On my 2019 To Do list — Fire up PhotoShop and start adding PenJarProductions.com to the corner of every design file on my Shopify site. That’s how you scale, baby!
When you’re a one-woman show handling design, marketing, and sales, it’s easy to overlook the obvious.
Put a face to your business
“People like to meet the maker,” Kyla Walker told me not long after I became an artist partner with Notion, the folks who print and ship my merch (see Kyla in the Instagram Stories video above).
Building an online presence for your business is key. And while Facebook and Instagram ads are still effective, they’re not enough.
I researched the craft fairs I could afford to take part in this year and became a craft lady retailer at two: The Ward’s Island Gala Weekend and the aforementioned Algonquin Island Craft Fair. We’ll see what 2019 holds.
Charge what you’re worth
When I earnestly explained that a custom portrait for $20 (my average artist markup) is not a sustainable business model, they all walked away, except for one.
These customers taught me that when you inquire about a custom anything (scarf, pillow, tee), you’re buying the original pen and watercolour art, not just the swatch of cotton that it comes on. Some get it, some don’t. You keep pushing forward.
Note to self: no freelancer can afford to operate like Fiverr.
Sometimes the requests you get as an illustrator can make you feel like a dancing monkey with a tip cup. Source: Getty Images.Technically, this wasn’t a customer tip. But I gasped in surprise when I found out that entrepreneurs I know have had, or still have, a business coach to guide their decision-making. You can do that? I’m so used to being DIY.
As your business grows, I’m finding that it’s really important to understand the ins and outs of accounting, especially when it comes to tax time. If you don’t understand it while you’re small, you’ll be in big trouble as you get bigger, if you get bigger.
Head coach Pat Summitt talks to Shanna Zolman #1 of the Tennessee Lady Vols during a break in the action against the Michigan State Spartans in the Semifinal game of the Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship on April 3, 2005 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
“My father was a ferry boat captain on the Sam McBride in the 1940s.”
That’s what one woman told me when she saw my Toronto Island Ferry Pillow at a craft fair.
Although she wasn’t a sale, she gave me something more valuable. My pillow, she said, brought back a fond memory. I miss my dad too.
I’m starting to gather a lot of these kinds of stories. Yesterday, Teresa, a customer who has one of my “Joe The Reporter” throw pillows perched against a wingback in her home, emailed me to explain why this illustration resonated with her,
In the age of social media, customers are only too happy to share how your product looks in their home.
Again, trying to juggle all aspects of my business, I initially forgot to ask for the photographs.
Many customers sent pictures to me pretty much as soon as my packages landed. And, if they didn’t, I now knew to ask them for home decor shots.
To everyone who supported and cheered me on in 2018, my sincerest thanks for making this new adventure so worthwhile.
Happy New Year!
December 28, 2018
December 27, 2018
Our house guest this Christmas is a beast named Henry.
He does all the things that endear dogs to humans.
We love him.
