Friday Friends - Australian ETSY Artistans - Hey Harriet

Welcome to Friday my lovely blog readers. I hope your collective weeks have been wonderful.

What a busy week it has been. I have nominated myself to raise funds for the RSPCA next Monday through the Cupcake Day for the RSPCA. I will be busily baking on Sunday to make cupcakes for my work colleagues and aim to raise $500 in total through donations from cupcake sales and online donations. If you would like to help, you can make a donation here :

http://www.fundraise.rspcacupcakeday.com.au/samara_maddison

Remember every little bit helps ! And all creatures great and small thank you in advance :)

I have a new Friday Friend & Australian Etsy Artisan to introduce this week - meet Tracy from Hey Harriet Photography, based in Brisbane, Australia.



Hey Harriet creates amazing nostalgic imagery through various techniques such as TtV (Through the Viewfinder), lomo & vintage style fine art photography prints. Tracy focuses on many different subjects including Flowers, Nature, Seascapes, Birds, Landscapes, Carnival and Retro Photo Prints. The result is affordable wall decor for your home, office, or creative space.

I want to share some of my personal faves with you now.

This Fine Art Carnival Photography Spring Fair 4 x 4 TtV Print  does indeed bring back dreamy nostalgic childhood memories for me, smelling hot dogs and fairy floss and hearing the squeals of those on show rides;



as does the TTV Pebble Beach 4 x 4 Photo Print which reminds me of carefree summer days at the beach as a child, swimming until it became too cold to swim anymore, when your lips turned a little blue and the sunlight seemed to fade so quickly at the end of the day .........



I must admit I am particularly drawn to the Whimsical Fine Art Black White 4 x 4 TtV Photo Print Kokeshi Dolls



and the Kokeshi Kawaii Photography Print 4 x 4 Colorful Japanese Figurines Wall Art, which relates to an obsession I have with Kokeshi dolls..........



Dear readers, I invite you now to grab a coffee and take a nostalgic visual journey through the eyes of Hey Harriet and to read her wonderful story.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone ! 

PS : Please respect the Hey Harriet copyright and that Tracy (Hey Harriet) has allowed me to use her images for the purposes of this blogpost. Please do not use or reproduce these images, in part or in full, without her permission x  



The Scoop on Hey Harriet

Who is Hey Harriet?


Hey Harriet is simply the name I decided upon when setting up an online store on Etsy years ago to sell some of my original paintings. My name isn’t Harriet, and I have no personal connection to anybody called Harriet. I just like the name. Tracy is my name.

After about 12 months of selling paintings on Etsy (or I should say after 12 months of rarely selling paintings on Etsy) I ditched the original artworks and replaced them with some of my photographs. So Hey Harriet is now primarily photography with a small selection of repro prints of some of my artwork. Painting is something I continue with purely for the joy of it but photography is and always has been my main creative outlet and number one passion.



How and When did your handmade/artistic journey begin?

It began at an early age. I remember spending hours upon hours in my bedroom as a youngster madly drawing and being most inspired by the work of Charles M. Schulz. Oh how I loved Peanuts! Still do! We also had a large collection of cameras at home so when I wasn’t holed up in my room doodling I’d be out and about capturing on film my neighbourhood friends performing various acts of goofiness. Lots of BMX bandit crazy jumps and wild wheelie shots!

Years later in junior high school I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful art teacher who was very supportive and encouraging. Mrs Gregory validated artistic pursuits as being something so much more than merely fun activities to pass the time, through teaching the importance of our own imaginations and creativity. This was very empowering and her teaching methods influenced the way in which I viewed and appreciated art in its many forms and how I embraced it and incorporated it into my own life.



Whether it be painting or taking photos, or the simple act of cooking a meal, planting a small herb garden or decorating the house etc, I feel my artistic journey consists of all those little incidentals of daily living approached in a way that makes life so much sweeter. The fact that people buy and enjoy my prints as part of my journey is a huge bonus! Art is all around us and is truly a magical thing when considering all the twists and turns and various shapes it takes along the way.

What inspires you ?

Music, films, literature, nature, sunshine and the list could go on and on. I find inspiration everywhere ! Something I don’t find inspiring is dreary weather, but thankfully I live in sunny Queensland. If I resided in a location that was overcast, damp and cold for much of the time my level of motivation would be at a big fat zero.


What mediums do you work with - do you have a favourite?

With painting I like to use acrylics on canvas or paint with inks onto old vintage paper. With photography my favourite technique is TtV (Through the Viewfinder) whereby I use an old vintage camera in combination with a digital camera. I also enjoy film photography but don’t use my film cameras as often as I’d like.



Although now with the availability again of polaroid film I’ve been playing around with my polaroid cameras lately which has been a blast! A rather expensive blast and I’ve not been too pleased with the results yet but I’ll continue experimenting as my budget allows.

Another photography process I enjoy is creating photograms (cameraless photography!) which is done in a darkroom and involves the use of light sensitive photographic paper, developing chemicals, light exposure and various objects to create images. It’s a form of contact printing done by hand with each print being unique and is an old technique dating back to about 1834 (and was introduced by Henry Fox Talbot) which can yield some interesting results.



On the other end of the spectrum I love snapping pics with my iphone and the amount of photography apps on the market is astounding. To be able to take photos with one app and then later process them in another app while sitting on a bus is fun. Carrying around a digital darkroom in my pocket is awesome!

The majority of pics I post to my blog, FB and twitter these days are taken with my iphone as it’s just so convenient for taking photos on the go. Often I wonder just how further advanced smartphones will become in the future and I have really high hopes for the development of housework apps. I’ll be the first to download a ‘do my vacuuming app!’ Basically I love to dabble in all forms of photography, having respect for the old processes and the new technology.



What are your future plans/dreams/aspirations?

A plan I have for the future is to be running photography workshops for disadvantaged children, incorporating the different photography techniques I’ve mentioned above. I’m currently in the process of writing grant submissions and have the support of local council, local schools and a couple of gallery spaces to exhibit the work of participants. There’s still so much more organising and planning to be done but so far I’m feeling positive about how things are progressing and hope to commence the workshops early next year.



I believe that photography is a great way to enable children to open their eyes to a new way of seeing the world. It can also be an incredibly powerful tool of communication, giving them a way to have their voices heard while boosting self-confidence and reducing the social isolation that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds experience. It’s something I’m very passionate about and even if the grant applications are unsuccessful I plan on forging ahead with the project regardless. I’ll just have to be very resourceful! Anyway I should stop babbling as I could waffle on and on about this venture. So apart from this planned project I hope to continue having fun creating well into my future!

Inspired by the work of Hey Harriet ? I certainly was ! You can see buy her works, read her blog or connect socially here :

Etsy :

http://etsy.com/shop/HeyHarriet

Blog : 

http://heyharriet.blogspot.com/

Twitter :

http://twitter.com/Hey_Harriet

Facebook :

http://facebook.com/HeyHarrietPhotography