Print Store Launch & Life Update
Launching a print store whilst unexpectedly migrating across the world has been a hectic experience to say the least.
NEW: Fine-Art Print Store - www.ellen-richardson.com/prints
Leaving Australia
You may or may not know that I've been living down under in New Zealand & Australia for the past three years. Unfortunately my visa was up in March, which meant I had to find a new place to call home.
I vaguely planned to travel South East Asia for the next six months, heading north through Indonesia and Malaysia and into Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, hopefully taking wonderful photographs and basking in island life.
To help fund this trip, I decided to launch an online print store to sell a small selection of pieces as beautiful fine-art prints, something I feel is becoming less and less appreciated as we consume all of our media on a screen.
I spent weeks researching drop-shipping services so that I could efficiently ship orders to customers without having to physically visit a lab which would be impossible whilst travelling. Once I'd narrowed in on a suitable service and started designing the store front, it was time to pack up my life again and head to new shores.
A stressful couple of months trying to organise my life, get my to-do list to a minimum and also actually enjoy the Australian summer meant I hadn't really put any time into my SE Asia planning; I knew which direction I wanted to travel and I had a one-way flight and accommodation booked in Bali, but that was it. It turns out you should probably put a little more thought into these things because when I tried to check-in for my flight, they told me I needed a flight booked out of Indonesia as well for visa reasons, and I ended up missing my flight!
That's all very easy to write down in a paragraph, but this was one of the most challenging and draining months of my life. So many things were going wrong instead of right, and being stuck at the airport with my life in a backpack and not being allowed on my flight really took it out of me. So, in a complete frenzy, I booked the next flight to London, spent 16 hours waiting in the airport contemplating what I'd done, and then sat on two planes for 24 hours across the planet.
Giclée prints are available in 4"x6", 8"x12", 10"x15"
Back In Blighty
I arrived back to a cold, grey England at the beginning of April and I'm still trying to adjust to my unexpected migration. I decided to move to Brighton which was absolutely the right choice, and I really can't complain about life here; I'm living with three talented female artists in Hove, working four days a week at a great coffee shop and I'm surrounded by a thriving art scene, bustling beaches, and Summer so far has been fantastic.
This energising city has enabled me to locate top print lab Spectrum Photographic who will be Giclée-printing all of my works on Hahnemühle Fine-Art paper which look incredible on the wall, as well as launch the online store front to browse and purchase prints. The selection is currently limited to a few photographs whilst I send more film negatives away to be drum-scanned, but will be expanding very soon.
Print Giveaway
To celebrate the launch of my print store and mailing list I was so excited to host my first print giveaway! Congratulations to Holly and Natalie for each winning an 8" x 12" print of "When Will I See You Again"!
(Watch the draw here.)
Don't worry if you missed out; you can still get your hands on beautiful limited edition prints here.
It feels great to get all that off my chest - thanks for being here! If you want to to stay up-to-date with important news and offers, you can subscribe to my new mailing list at the bottom of my contact page. I'd really love to hear your thoughts in the comments below too, or any images you'd like to see available as a print!