@catherinedair.bsky.social
Artist and illustrator in LGBTQ+ romance, fantasy & sci-fi fiction. Owner of Rainbow Glade Designs. Creator of Skip & Pip, which you can read on Webtoon. She/Her. https://linktr.ee/catherinedair rainbowgladedesigns.com
On a whim I typed "Worry Borb" into Google to see if we were being copied in any way.
Didn't expect Google AI to describe our product accurately and include one of our pics as an example.
This feels very weird. If they are going to use our descriptions/photo, then they ought to mention my shop. 😕
Don't be afraid to try something new! (And sometimes it's okay to monetize a hobby - it's saving my ass right now with the income).
or I would create items that would make people so happy. Check out our Etsy reviews (and our Borbs!) where my shop is RainbowGladeDesigns or at the same name dot com.
This is a long winded way to tell you that you shouldn't be afraid to pivot if you have to. Sometimes the winds are blowing you in a direction that will be fascinating to go. Five years ago, heck ten years ago I couldn't have foreseen what the public would be buying from me now...
It's fascinating that I've come full circle in that way in the last five years. Something created out of grief is helping people who themselves are grieving.
I've estimated that about 15% of our sales are by companion bird owners that have recently lost their feathered friend and are looking for a way to process their own grief. We love our birds as hard as you love your dogs and cats. I know this by the kind reviews we get.
While we thought our market was stressed out people, that isn't really where we are finding buyers. People are adopting them because they're just really cute (I'm biased of course) or they love any or specific parrots and are excited to get a plush of a particular one.
We now have 18 variations of our Worry Borbs (we've sold hundreds) and we're moving into offering birds outside of the parrot family. Owls are coming soon. Well, that's if tariffs don't ruin our supply chain for the materials we need. I hate the orange menace. I might well have to pivot again.
Based on her English Budgie Niblet, we created a weighted adorable parakeet. Five more variations would follow and they had a small but steady market over the next four years. They found a new audience in 2024 when companion bird owners discovered them and started buying them at a rapid pace.
My daughter was depressed having to finish the last two years of her BA in her bedroom rather that on campus so I asked her to help me design a plush that would help people with anxiety. Something fun and weighted to hold. She created drawings that would culminate in our first Worry Borb.
People will tell you not to monetize your hobbies (and it's not bad advice) but I saw a way to make people smile with my little grumpy felt creations. It's how we were all feeling. So I put them up for adoption and sold hundreds. I loved making them and it fed my soul too.
I said good-bye to my Mom from cancer and a beloved pet three days apart in the early days of the pandemic. Deeply sad days. I took up a new hobby to process my grief - handmaking plushes. I showed pics of them and followers asked to buy them.
Then the pandemic hit in 2020. Writers were understandably too stressed to write. Conventions were cancelled. Commissions came to a screaming halt. I did what so many other small businesses did - pivot. I offered my own products on Etsy and my personal website.
In my time as a professional artist/illustrator/crafter I never could have imagined the types of incredible projects I would come to work on. To see my artwork illustrating the written words of many amazing writers on covers, inside illustrations and character art is truly wonderful.
Today in "what's Catherine making in the studio" it's the Senegal Parrot Worry Borb. I'd never heard of them until a couple months ago when I was requested for one. That lovely customer keeps sending other Senegal Parrot owners my way and now I keep selling out. I love the color combo!
An AI book cover was what I was referring to. There are a number of AI art programs people use who don't want to pay for artwork or a cover artist. They are all unethical, and none of the images can be copyrighted in the US.
Seeing some of my (now former) clients switch to AI covers makes me want to throw something. I just unfriend and block.
Currently I'm reorganizing my art studio to add a second embroidery machine to the production line to keep up with demand of our Worry Borb. They were originally created to be anxiety plushes Wonder why so in demand?
*continues to side-eye half the country post election*
I realize this is spooky season so that's got to be the reason my microwave is now haunted, right?
Twice in the last week it has just randomly turned itself on and won't turn off if you hit the stop button. The only way to do that is to unplug it.
(Hope it's not sentient now too...)
Currently visible from my front yard. A good omen?🌈
It's Skip and Pip Monday!
#skipandpip #artistsonbluesky
It's Skip and Pip Monday!
#skipandpip
I never imagined that people would reach out to buy them after I posted the first pics. Some have collected the entire series. Pretty humbling, honestly. They launched other plush lines that I created solo and in partner with my daughter.
Really didn't see that coming back then. I'm still smiling.
In the summer of 2019, frustrated at the world and dealing with grief from my Mom's passing, I took fabric scraps from mask making combined with felt and created grumpy little fish. They made me laugh when not much else did.
I just created my 15th Grumblecritter, the Candy Corn demon.
Mother Nature added some little touches and even did some artful arranging to make a lovely fall vignette in my birdbath.
I keep the rocks in it and to one side for the bees and butterflies.
Okay, that banner shouldn't have been so hard to size properly. Hopefully from here on the ride is smoother. It's got to be a good sign that I've had a blue sky in my logo for years, right?
