A few weeks ago (May 14 to be exact) – I officially opened a new chapter of my life by opening an Etsy shop called “Katyusha Design Studio.” I chose that name literally because it was the only Etsy shop name available with all those words in a sensible order. I had been researching online how to start some kind of digital business or some kind of e-commerce type of business where I could be creative, work from home, and make a little bit of income from it. After doing a lot of searching (and hours of YouTube watching…) I stumbled on the “Print-on-demand” business model where you create your own unique designs and then have a company print your designs on objects, package them, and ship them to your customer. This isn’t a new model (it’s been around for at least several years – think Redbubble) but in the last two years it’s really taken off with the advent of AI. There are hundreds of YouTuber-influencers claiming you can make $6,000/month on a mug with art that’s created with AI… Well – that YouTuber may have been able to do that at the time they posted that video but that’s no longer the case—Etsy and Shopify are bursting at the seams with “creators” making AI-generated mugs/t-shirts/phone cases/blankets (you name it!) and making zero sales because the market is so saturated.
At the same time, I’ve always had this artsy-craftsy side to myself that has taken a back seat in my adult life because I’ve been so focussed building a career out of music research (which, sadlly, has not yet resulted in a solid income). As a child and teen, I used to make all kinds of crafts: earrings, scrunchies, quilts, hair clips out of clay… I even had a stall one year at our local community arts festival (Communiversity in Princeton, NJ). And I’ve always had a keen (obsessive) eye for detail and design. In the last several years I’ve been purchasing all my gifts and decorative home items from Etsy since it’s the one place you can find unique art. My husband jokes that I was one person keeping Etsy afloat in 2020 when I was buying everything I used for our wedding on Etsy: our custom wooden cake topper, our wedding invitations, custom signage for the wedding venue, customized bottles of hand sanitizer, customized face masks (yes we got married deep in the pandemic – November 2020!), and my entire wedding outfit: my wedding dress, my fur stole, my wedding hair piece, and my wedding jewelry! I even commissioned our wedding icons from an icon writer based in Moscow who had an Etsy shop (which has since been banned from Etsy because of the war - tragic!) and purchased the blue and white ruchnik from an artist in Ukraine. Looking back now, I was that annoying customer who asked for very specific changes to be made to designs so it would be exactly how I wanted it… I was the annoying customer that should have just been designing this stuff myself!
Professional wedding photographs from our fabulous photographer - Michelle Lynn Weddings
Enter May 2024 when I discovered Canva and Print-on-Demand and realized that it's really not that hard to actually make this stuff myself!
Here is another thing about me: I love gadgets. Give me a gadget for anything, and I will be more likely to use it than I would without that gadget. For example: flossing. I loathe flossing. But I have recently gotten a Waterpik and now I love cleaning my teeth because it’s so much easier with a gadget! Another example: kitchen gadgets. I don’t really cook, but give me a quality kitchen gadget and I will enthusiastically cook something with it! Another example: after having a few bum blenders I finally invested in a Vitamix when it was on sale during Prime Day last summer and now I adore making smoothies! (Side note: I also have expensive taste in gadgets - probably related to that pesky eye for design!)
Anyway – when the idea for Katyusha Design Studio was born, I quickly realized that what I needed was a way to create my own digital art. Canva was just not cutting it. There were too many alterations I wanted to make to the clilp-art in Canva that it was just frustrating me. So what did I need? Of course I needed an iPad and Apple Pencil! Luckily my amazing husband has faith in me and he invested into my brand new company and the first purchase with that investment was an iPad Air 2024 and an Apple Pencil Pro.
Folks, I don’t mean to exaggerate, but I think those gadgets have changed my life. I have become a drawing fiend since I got the iPad & Pencil – I have downloaded Procreate and Adobe Fresco and I have just had the time of my life figuring out how it works and how to create beautiful art that I have wanted to create for years and how to put it on mugs and T-shirts and sell it!!! It has been incredibly inspiring. I have been telling my friends that the last three weeks have felt like I have fallen in love – I can’t sleep, I’ve lost my appetite, I think about creating digital art 24/7… it has taken over my brain!
The other day in church (I’m also the music director at my fabulous church: Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow, in Princeton NJ) I was looking around thinking: "Wow – now I know why I love beautiful art! It’s EVERYWHERE in church!" And it’s true – gorgeous floral patterns adorn our icons, priestly vestments, woodwork, banners… It’s everywhere. I’ve always known that the beauty of Orthodox church music has always drawn me closer to church and closer to God, but I had never quite appreciated all the visual beauty in church. We are so very lucky in the Orthodox church that we are surrounded by so much beauty - aural, visual, and even olfactory!
Photos taken by me at our lovely church, Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow in Princeton, NJ, USA
It has been one of my life’s purposes to use my musical talents to create beautiful music in church (I have been an Orthodox church music conductor for over twenty five years) – but now I think I might try to ‘give back’ by creating beautiful Orthodox art. And other types of art!
We shall see where this journey takes me! Thanks for joining along the journey :)
Note: I use a mix of purchased clip art (purchased for commercial use) and my own designs in my artwork/products. I think as I become better at digital art I will rely more and more on my own artwork :)
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