ShopHaven Chats With Romy Blecher – A Local Children’s Artist

Mar 17, 2011 by Natasha

A while back, we had a little talk with the ladies from Red Chair Kids, one of the hot Baby and Young Children stores in Ottawa. Several art works on the wall had caught our eyes, and when we inquired about the artist, Sarah (of Red Chair) told us it was a neighbourhood artist by the name of Romy who created the neat pieces before us.

A few weeks later, we met Romy and learned more about her, the work and her inspirations. Here’s is ShopHaven’s chat with Romy Blecher of Mini Me Wall Art.

ShopHaven: Romy, tell us a little bit about yourself and how Mini Me started?
Romy: I grew up in Melbourne, Australia and have been living in Ottawa for almost two years. I used to be a radiographer back home, but I started custom designing some of my furniture back home, and  knew I really liked working with fabric, so I started making fabric wall art for my friend’s babies. When I arrived in Ottawa, I began shipping more wall pieces back to Australia for my friends. At their encouragement, I started designing more pieces and selling some of my wall hangings to local shops.

SH: What media do you use for your work?
R: I use fabrics on wood boards. I design kid-friendly patterns for the fabric, using interesting papers, scan the designs into the computer. They are printed on fabric and stretched over wooden boards. All my fabrics are designed on paper, and end up as solid wood pieces, ready to hang.

SH: What is your source of inspiration?
R: My daughter is my source of inspiration. She loves animal books so I thought it would be nice to have colourful animals hanging on her wall too. I try and make the pieces visually appealing to children whilst also being attractive to adults. I buy lots of papers with different patterns and colours, and have a wide array to choose from when I am working on a design.

SH: What is your current target market for the wall art?
R: It’s mostly small babies to two years old. I use a lot of soft colours and I like girly things. I often send designs to my friends for their opinion. Their usual reply it that, “it’s very cute and girly”. So I think it’s little girls like my daughter that will enjoy the work most. I now have quite a few pieces for boys too.

SH: Where do you primarily sell your work?
R: My pieces are available at 3 Little Monkeys on Bank. You can also contact me directly to make a private appointment to see my pieces at my house.

SH:  Will you be participating in any local events?
R: I have a table at a charity spring craft fair on March 19th at the Bronson Centre, from 10-5. I will have lots of pieces on sale starting from $10 as well as current stock.

SH: Do you do commissioned work? If so, how do people place an order?
R: I’m open to the idea of commissioned work, and if people are interested they can email me and we can talk. It’s always hard to do commissioned work because I usually order a large quantity of fabric for similar pieces, but I am open to the idea.

SH: How else can people reach you at the moment?
R: I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account, and no website yet but you can e-mail me at minimeottawa@gmail.com.

SH: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
R: I would like to see my work in more stores and possibly start shipping it more widely from home (Melbourne) when we move back. I am looking at more stores and sites to sell my work on, and hoping to create more of an online business. I’m also planning to increase the age range on my prints so I can create pieces for older children too.

 

SH: What’s the weirdest thing you ever created?
R: I made a Noah’s Arc themed piece, for a special request, not really weird, but different. I thought it turned out really nicely. I also created an Adam and Eve themed piece using monkeys as Adam and Eve!

SH: What is your absolute favourite piece?
R: I like the bunny piece, because my daughter absolutely loves it and tries to make bunny sounds when she sees it.

SH: What’s the price range for Mini-Me wall art?
R: The prices are depend on the size on the piece. RRP prices range from $25.00 to $70.00. For a large piece for example (a 12 inch square,) the price is $40.00 but then sometimes I sell sets, so three 8-inch pieces, for $70 for the three. It depends on the size and whether or not it’s best displayed as a set. I often have pieces on sale too, at the moment my sale stock start from $10.

SH: Thanks Romy for taking the time and talking with us!