How to use Deviant Art- By Luiza Malinowska

Deviant Art – Personal Gallery, Portfolio and... oh a blog too!

We all know that selling on Etsy requires a tremendous amount of self promoting. Yes, we all have our FaceBook pages, out Pinterest Boards and Tweeters (how to use that thing, anybody?).... should we get a blog too? And maybe a gallery … and so the list of useful social media sites goes on and on.

How would you feel about a social media page that can connect to your FB, Pinterest, Tweeter (again, how to use it?) that gives you unlimited space for your online gallery (drawings, sketches, photos, all in neat categories), gives you a blog space (called Journal) and A LOT of support from fellow members (we are calling ourselves 'Deviants'). Deviant Art will give you this and many, many more!
Joining is free. Find how to join and navigate here: welcome.deviantart.com/

In this article I would like to share some tips on promoting yourself on Deviant. It is quite a lot of work but as you will see the personal page format is much more friendly than FB and... yes, it will stay there exactly as you like it (nothing gets to old, nothing is going to disappear!)

Having your Etsy shop you will probably want to use the same name for your Deviant Account. You will get a neat personal homepage 'YourName.deviantart.com' You can share as much info as you like, think of your homepage as your Portfolio – your visitors may find your works divided into categories (folders), know your personal favorite works, find out about you in DeviantID and find out about your day (Journal, but if you like you may use this window for a commission info)
I encourage you to fill as much info as you can – it will make your account alive and let your visitors to know you to see you as a person, not just a salesman. You may like to place link to your shop here and there ;)

Now off to your gallery. Again, please see the welcome.deviantart.com/) on how to post images. It is pretty intuitive. Just remember to find a right category for your piece of art. If you paint silk scarfs or similar, you will probably wanna use Artisan Crafts / Textiles / Clothing
Fill your gallery with items, adding links to your shop into the comment section.

Newly added picture will attract some attention (in my experience up to 4 views) because it lands on Front page for a fraction of a second. Some ppl will give you hearts (as on Etsy) some ppl will comment on your picture. Then your picture will be visible on theirs homepages underneath the name Favorites (yes, there is a Favorites space on your homepage, so add hearts, spread the love!)
Ideally, your picture will be promoting itself... but we all know this is just a dream. Here's where the work really begins!

On Etsy there are Teams, on DeviantArt there are Groups (find the list here: groups.deviantart.com/ or, if you like, check out the Groups I'm in, there are a lot of Artisan Crafts Groups for us! You will find them at the bottom of my homepage: minkulul.deviantart.com/ ) When you select a Group, you will need to join in before posting pictures. There is Join button in every Group. Just hit it and refresh the page – often you will be accepted instantly.

Then you will find new button called 'Contribute Art' Hit it and add your picture TO THE RIGHT category!! This is vital! If you choose 'digital art' or 'fantasy' or 'bakery' for your silk scarf picture instead of 'Artisan Crafts' or variation of that name, your pic won't get into the Group folder.
The picture might be instantly accepted, but almost all Groups are moderated and you will need to wait a few days for the response (you will find it in your Feedback). Then your picture goes to every Group member feedback. Yay, so you see, if they choose to view it, you will get a lot of traffic to your pic and hopefully, to your shop!!

There are a ton of ways to be noticed on DeviantArt, but Groups seems to be working best! Please remember that on DeviantArt kindness goes a long way! If you give hearts and comment on others peoples works, you will get a feedback in return. DeviantArt seems to be an older, more artsy brother of FB and I am sure, that you will love it!

Steam Setting Silk Dyes- Vertical Steamer by Lynne

For those of you who use silk dyes and need to steam set them this is the one of our team members - Lynne from FantasticPheasant, made her steamer.

Here is what Lynne had to share on our team forum:

I find steaming to be a challenge in the silk painting process. When I first started using silk dyes I steamed the silk on the stove top with a vegetable steamer, to my surprise this worked pretty well. I would roll the silk in newsprint paper then coil it (like a cinnamon bun) then steam for a couple of hours. The problem with this procedure was that the silk sometimes got wet and folds would be steam set in the silk.

Since then I've created a vertical steamer. Being the frugal person I am, I made one instead of spending a lot of money to buy one.

I created the vertical stack with heating/air conditioning pipes with two groves cut in the top with a metal BBQ skewer placed in the groves to hang the silk from. I set this in a pot and place the whole thing on an electric hot plate. I place the pot lid on top of the stack covered in foil paper to keep the steam in. I still wrap the silk in newsprint and roll it (like a jelly roll) and hang in the stack. This works extremely well.

I'd love to hear how others steam their silk!

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Thanks Lynne for sharing your steamer with us today!

How about the rest of you, how do you steam your silk?