Focus On... Orange Twist And A Giveaway!

{{{GIVEAWAY CLOSED}}}

I have a friend who loves meat more than anything. This guy is definitely a carnivore. If there's no meat in it, he's not eating it. So, when I saw this card, I knew it was perfect for him. After looking through more of the cards offered by Orange Twist, I found so many more that were perfect (like this one and this one)! Claire, the face behind Orange Twist agreed to answer my silly questions and even offered a surprise for my readers!

Tell me some basic info about yourself.

My name is Claire Jauregui and I’m an artist and card maker living in Seattle with my boyfriend of 13 years and our 11-year-old cat Bubba Kitty. In October we moved from a 550 sqft apartment to a 1770 sqft townhouse and are still reveling in all the amazing space! I grew up in Chico, CA and went to Carnegie Mellon for university. I spent my junior year abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France and developed a love of almond croissants, melons fresh from the market, and afternoon light in southern France. I love to sleep, sit in the sun, and work on the computer with our kitty on my lap.

{Triceratops in Love}

How did you get started?

I started concentrating on making cards in late 2008 because I’d lost my shared studio space and was trying to make paintings in our 50 sqft dining room. Because I like to work on many pieces at once, the space in the dining room wasn’t cutting it! So at the urging of a friend who provided my first brick and mortar venue for selling cards (Meridian Market) I started developing new designs and Orange Twist. Making cards has been a satisfying alternative to creating paintings as it allowed me to be creative, work small, and sell work!

{Happy Birthday Sasquatch}

What kind of mediums do you use and why?

I screenprint, linoprint, and watercolor my cards. For me, linocuts are the fastest way to get an idea into production—it’s the time needed for the ink to dry that really slows things down! Screenprinting is kind of the opposite—I usually tinker with a design for a while, and try to amass a number of new designs before trotting over to Pratt Fine Arts center to burn my screens. Once the screens are actually burned, the production and drying of the cards is very quick (at least compared to linoprints!). The two approaches allow me to work in different ways and keep my days interesting!

{Linked Rings}

What made you decide to sell on etsy?

My sister Camille from leaftprintstudio.etsy.com introduced me to Etsy in mid 2006 and I started selling art in my first shop clairejauregui.etsy.com in early 2007. I decided to sell my cards on Etsy because I was already familiar with the community and it seemed like it would be a good fit. I also wanted to have a web presence without building my own site and I thought that Etsy would be a great way to achieve this.

{Seattle Evergreen}

Where do you get your inspiration?

Everyday life and objects. Things I love. I try to make cards that I find funny, adorable, cool, and fun!

{Deck the Halls Tyrannosaurus Rex}

What is your favorite music to craft by?

It depends, but Neko Case, Tom Petty and Van Morrison tend to be in heavy rotation. Lots of the time I go to lala.com and listen to albums I’ve never heard before.

{Thank You in Many Languages}

If you were an animal, what would you be?

Definitely a house cat—you can’t beat sleeping 19 hours a day!

{Penguins in Love with a Heart}

What's your favorite piece of your own?

Right now I really like my Tom the Turkey cards—they are based on vintage imagery and are linoprinted. Each turkey is individually watercolored which makes the extra special!

{Tom the Turkey Card}

What are your favorite blogs right now?

Mostly food blogs like Love and Olive Oil and The Hungry Mouse, because I’m always trying to find new recipes, but also Fake Plastic Fish because I think Beth’s quest to eliminate plastic from her life is motivating and very relevant to our plastic saturated lives!

You can find Claire at any of the below links:

www.orangetwist.etsy.com

www.clairejauregui.com

Claire has so graciously selected a fantastic item for a giveaway:

A set of 6 vintage bicycle screenprinted cards! The winner will receive two apple green, two peony and two lemon yellow cards with blank insides.

if you can't wait, you can purchase your very own set here.

to win a set (!!!), simply enter below!

to enter:

head on over to Orange Twist, select your favorite item, then come on back and tell me what it is!

more ways to enter (!!!):

for an additional entry, you can do any of the following. please leave a separate entry for each.

- become a follower of kate and oli -

- heart orange twist on etsy -

- tweet about this giveaway and leave me a link -

- blog about this giveaway and leave me a link -

Good Luck!

Fine print: Giveaway begins when it is posted and ends 11:59pm pacific standard time Monday, February 22, 2010. A winner will be selected by a random number generator on the morning of Tuesday, February 23, 2010 and will be emailed promptly. Orange Twist will ship anywhere in the world!