birdietam

BTS: Planning a year's worth of collections

Image: A calendar with all the items I'm planning for the year, organized by season. Blurred because... well it's still secret :)

The past few years of having my art business, I've always struggled to get my artwork and designs ready in time for seasons/events/holidays.

As an online business, you need to account for so many things to make sure that the item arrives *before* the event/holiday/season. This includes making samples, actually producing the artwork/designs, mar...

Sticker vote!

I'm thinking about bringing some old sticker sheets back! Most of these were past Patreon rewards and haven't been available since :o

Would you like to see any of these come back? Or some other past reward?

February: Caffeine & Cats

I am beyond excited to share with you Februrary's theme: Caffeine and Cats! I've been wanting to make art with this theme for the longest time and am so happy with how cute the happy mail set is.

More things to look forward to this month!

• Shop to fully re-open again mid February
• Behind the scenes of the new spring collection
• Small biz talk: what goes into making a new product
• Sneaky peaks of new merchandise
• Cute digital download with cats<...
  2023-02-01 14:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Tier updates for 2023

Hey everyone <3 So, I need to make some updates to the prices of my tiers for 2023 to adjust for inflation, but mainly because of a bug with Patreon.

I noticed at the end of last year, something strange happened where suddenly the price of my tiers were dropped without me changing them and Patrons were getting charged different amounts. I've reached out to Patreon to get help, but they still haven't gotten back to me about why this is happening.

Rather than wai...

Patreon Satisfaction survey

Survey link: https://forms.gle/MJSVyXEqGg9AzdMT8

My Patreon is going into its 3rd year and I'm looking at what I can improve for 2023! So, I've put together this short survey and it would mean the world to me if you could spare a couple of minutes to fill it out.

The survey is totally anonymous, so please leave your honest feedback :)

If you happen to run into any problems with the survey, please let...

So much drawing this month :D

I haven't been at the ceramics studio much this month as I've been trying to plan out my collections this year and get ahead on my releases. The upside is that I've been drawing a LOT and am so excited about the upcoming Patreon rewards for the spring!

I've also been spending a lot of time designing new merch and will soon begin ordering samples for some new tote bags and tea towels. I have a goal to do more Home Decor stuff this year, but this means that I have to really plan ahead bec...

Happy year of the bunny!

Happy Lunar New Year! Growing up, this was always a huge event for my family since everyone would get together to see each other and enjoy a big dinner! I hope that you get some time to rest, eat good food and spend time with family :)

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A small reminder that the shop will be temporarily closing on Tuesday for 2 weeks since I'll be heading home to California to visit my family! It will reopen mid-February and new spring items are planned for March.

Half t...

Shop code for early access

Yay!! The ceramics shop is now open for you!

Ceramics shop link: https://birdietam.art/collections/ceramics 

Password: FreshStartBegins

As always, thanks you so much for your support and I hope you like the little tiger mugs!

January discount code & new stickers in secret shop

Here's your discount code for January!

Use the code FreshStart at checkout for 10% off the shop and access to the secret shop, which has just been updated with previous Patreon stickers - https://birdietam.art/collections/patreon-exclusive

Discount can be combined with other discount codes. Excludes ceramics and items already discounted in the secret shop.

Shop re-opened (and with canvas prints!)

Finally the shop is open again! I want to highlight the new photos I took of the shirts which are loooong overdue! Hopefully this will give you a better idea of what the shirts look and fit like instead of the old stock photos I was using before.

I've also added something new - Canvas prints! I'm really excited to be offering larger prints in the shop and these are currently up for a test run. I know canvas prints are a little pricey, so I'll be looking at a way to make...

Early access - 2022 Recap Video!

It's been more than 6 months since I've made a video and a lot has happened! 2022 was a big year for me and a LOT happened. I felt like things just kept happening to me and now we've somehow ended up in 2023.

This video took me ages to edit cause I had to review footage from the entire past year. I had to cut down a lot too since it was getting super long, so I hope it still makes sense.

I hope you like it! enjoy! :)

My recent artwork + thoughts on art style/branding

I spent the last 2 weeks just drawing whatever I wanted and it's been really fun to make everything from traditional paintings to cute round animals. But looking at the artwork I've been making recently, I feel so scattered when it comes to style/branding.

Usually I draw cute animals, but now I'm making plants. I often make more rendered digital pieces, but now I'm also making simple doodles for The Popcorn Parade. And we can also throw traditional painting into the mix.

...

January - new year, new plans

The calendar year is over but Lunar New year happens at the end of the month! We will be saying goodbye to the Year of the Tiger and welcoming the Year of the Rabbit :D

So this month's rewards will be all about cute little bunnies 🐰The sticker sheet will be accompanied by a postcard and personal note as usual.

Things to look forward to this month!

• A return to Youtube?? (I'm filming today, so fingers crossed I don't chicken out)
• The shop will re-open mid Jan...
  2023-01-03 09:14:58 +0000 UTC View Post

Happy new year!

Hii :D I just wanted to send a quick happy new year and say thank you for a wonderful 2022.

Patreon is a place where I feel like I can truly be myself as an artist. It's where I stay motivated to draw new things each month, the community I feel safest in to share my thoughts and feelings as both an business and a creative and also where I get to share the new and exciting stuff I'm working on and can't show anywhere else!

There is no other platform that even compares to the creati...

last minute - birbfest2023!

I have last minute decided to do Birbfest 2023, co-hosted with April Howlett @monkeymintaka!

Even though I had been gathering birds all year for a new list in 2023, I didn't know how I was going to find the time to do another drawing challenge. Previous years, it was always a huge commitment to do the full list and my priorities these days are really different. I no longer have 40-60 hours in January to com...

December rewards going out

Finally sending out the rewards!

I'm so sorry I wasn't able to post them earlier since the stickers got delayed and then I got super busy with my markets :( I hope you will still be able to enjoy this sticker sheet through the chilly month of January.

This mail set will include

• A6 sticker sheet
• Postcard with a personal note
• Postcard that is blank for you to use as you wish <3

Festive digital download

Hey Patrons!

I've been super busy this month with my markets, but I just finished up the last one on Sunday and had time to finally put together your digital downloads. I hope you will enjoy these greeting cards and little gift tags featuring the little critters from this month's sticker sheet.

The gift tags should printed out and then a hole can be punched at the top <3

Also for all new patrons, I have included last year's holiday garland again so you can download it if ...

Piggie plushie!!

You may have already seen this on Instagram or Twitter, but the campaign for the guinea pig plushie is now live! I've been working with Makeship for months now, and I'm so happy to finally share it with you and others. As you know, we worked a long time to get the body shape just right and I couldn't be more pleased :D

This plushie is being crowdfunded, which means that it won't get made unless we meet the minimum of 200 plushies. It costs $35.99 and if it's successfully funded, it will...

Happy December :)

This theme is all winter animals! The card still needs to be designed, so that's still up in the air. I was wondering - do you read the note on the back or would you prefer a blank postcard? 🤔

The stickers are a little delayed this month due to postal delays :( Hopefully they get here soon so I can start sending out your happy mail asap!

A few notes for December:

• The piggie plant plush will be launched this week! Announcement coming soon
• A festive digital d...
  2022-12-01 09:51:12 +0000 UTC View Post

New ceramics in the works

Hallo! Sorry for being so quiet this month - I've been totally swamped with market prep, packing orders and making stuff 😅 And I unfortunately lost a week of work due to a hand injury, so we're really squeezing everything in last minute now.

On an exciting note, I've been working on new ceramic mugs for my markets in December! They are really different from what I've made in the past, but I wanted to experiment with glazes.

Let me know what you think! I'm likely going to make a...

Ceramics restock - early access

As a thank you for supporting me on Patreon, here's your early access to the shop restock!

Use the password ShrimpTheCat to shop ceramics now at https://birdietam.art/collections/ceramics 

As a reminder - I don't take Paypal and items in your cart are not reserved. If you make multiple orders and want to combine shipping, send me a message here on Patreon or th...

Ceramics update coming this weekend

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been so quiet - I've been really busy this month with packing orders and making ceramics. I've also hit a bit of a bump after injuring my hand so I've been a little demotivated since I am being forced to take time off 💕

The upside is that the last ceramics restock of the year is this weekend! There will be tons of mugs and other cute friends. I worked hard to make a lot of guinea pig and cat mugs. There will also be a handful of budgie items and a few planter...

Patreon shop access

Hello! There is not much on the Patreon shop right now, but there are some stickers from previous months! The guinea pig tea stickers from October will soon be added and I may put some more things there later this month.

Use the password SweetNovember to access the exclusive Patreon shop here! https://birdietam.art/collections/patreon-exclusive 

A reminder that there i...

Updated November discount :)

After some thought, I've decided to increase the discount on my shop to 15% (up from 10%). I realized I wanted to do something a little more special this month to celebrate the holidays 😊 No code needed!

Also, I will be closing my shop a little earlier than planned since I realized I need more time to prepare for my local markets. Previously, I have had things back to back and it ended up being so stressful - so I'm doing my best to avoid that this year 😅 So, 2022-11-01 12:08:07 +0000 UTC View Post

November Patreon rewards!

I hope you're not tired of guinea pigs because November is all about piggies and staying cozy! The rewards will include a matte vinyl sticker sheet and a little mini print/postcard.

I will be sending out Patreon mail every Friday through November, so you can get your rewards as soon as possible!

A heads up for November

Hello! So November is just around the corner, and I wanted to give you a heads up for what is coming next month.

It will soon be announced, but instead of doing Black Friday this year I will be offering 10% off to the public for the whole month of November (discount excludes ceramics).

I want to let you know ahead of time since this has been a benefit enjoyed exclusively by Patrons, and I know some of you may be here just for the discount. So it wouldn't be fair f...