Be Afraid!....Be Very Afraid...Then Get Out That Credit Card!

The wonderful world of Etsy can be a fabulous resource for the mixed media artist to fulfill their commissioned art needs. However, sometimes it is nice to find other resources that rely on a bit more of a stable business premise. This is especially true when purchasing large orders of supplies to fulfill commissioned art pieces where a single checkout procedure would make far more sense. This is especially true when you have projects that must be completed and delivered under a pre-designated time frame.

Recently I stumbled across an awesome supplier called Ornamentea! They specialize in just about everything for the mixed media artist be it collage, Steampunk, or bits and baubles. The only area that they seem to be a bit lacking in is the vintage ephemera department but one can always go to Flikr or one of the other copyright-free vintage image resources out there for that.

I recently purchased several of the filigree items and cabochons for personal imagery jewelry pieces and WOW! was I impressed with the quality! Even the raw brass pieces needed only minor polishing before beginning to work with them. They had a variety of cabochons, cameo settings and bases as well as that darn 10oz bottle of Diamond Glaze that I have been searching all over the world for!

They also had a variety of other resin setting agents but I have always preferred the Diamond Glaze as it is far less toxic than some of the other resin products on the market and should I someday decide to have children I certainly wouldn't want them to be born with a third eye or something simply because I used copious amounts of toxic resin products in my artwork...LOL.

Bead Caps! Can I just tell you about the HUGE variety of bead caps I found there! You know how much I love creating vintage inspired hatpins...I was doing a happy dance all the way to the check out page after finding these babies. They have everything from raw brass to sterling silver findings in this category. Especially when you are making vintage reproduction hatpins do you need authentically aged looking hardware such as these.

This place was also a STEAMPUNK artist's dream! If Steampunk is your specialty then you will be thrilled to find that you can purchase your components in bulk! For a set price you will get everything you could possibly need to create collaged canvases, mixed media jewelry and everything in between. For all that you get I found the prices to be extremely reasonable.

And if all that wasn't enough, Ornamentea also features an external blog separate from their official website that features tutorials, ideas and tips from like minded mixed media artists to gain inspiration from. Remember, the prices are reasonable, the shipping fast and the overall experience much better than shopping Etsy for supplies from individual vendors. Be sure to check them out and give me some feedback about your experience with this awesome company.

* Post Script.

After re-reading this post I realized that I may have given the impression that Etsy.com is not a good place to shop for mixed media supplies and I now realize how that impression could ruffle a few feathers. This was certainly NOT the impression I was wanting to give.

Etsy is a wonderful place to acquire needed supplies indeed...heck, I even have my own Etsy shop! What I was trying to say in my own inarticulate fashion was that those looking to buy a variety of supplies all at once might likely prefer shopping at this new supplier.

Unfortunately with Etsy if you find 10 different supplies from 10 different vendors you will be required to make a separate checkout transaction with each vendor for thier individual store's products and that can be a time consuming hassle if you are on a time crunch.

Also, if you find that you have an issue with your purchase after receiving it then customer resolution is dependant upon your conversations with a single person's interpretation rather than a customer service department with predesignated policies and procedures. In the past these two issues have caused me a bit more stress and effort than I have wanted to deal with when purchasing larger quantities of supplies.