About

At this site, you’ll find mixed media art, including art journaling, art collages, mixed media art, fabric art, decor, and – in general – living a creative life.

I’m Aisling D’Art, and this website – Aisling.net – has been online since… well, practically forever.

History

This site started in the 1990s at GeoCities’ Soho community, back in the Stone Age of the ye olde Interwebs.

My earliest online works were paintings of sunrises, and my torn-paper collages. Then, I added art journaling, art dolls, assemblages, art shrines, artistamps, and…

Okay, you get the idea.

When Yahoo!Groups existed, I was the founder of the Wild Art Dolls community, as well as a moderator of ArtistsJournals (AJ) and founder of ArtistsJournals2 (AJ2).

Since then, I’ve posted hundreds of articles and examples of handmade and homemade art. Most include how-to ideas with some examples.

You may have seen my art – and articles – in Somerset Studio’s magazines, in Family Circle, Lady’s Circle, Professional Quilter, and even in Romantic Times magazines.

All of my articles are about making art and living an authentic, creative life.

And now, some changes

In 2020, I decided to reorganize this site and relaunch it. But, even with others’ help, it seemed too daunting. So, I put it to one side.

And there… Well, it just sat.

Then, on my (September 2024) birthday, I realized: As the slogan says, just do it.

Juggling various projects, I’m updating a bunch of my art-related articles and adding graphics you can actually see, even on a phone.

I’m also integrating articles from ArtistsJournals.com and from my old Wild Art Dolls Yahoo!Group (and my past, related website).

Meanwhile, for over two decades, this current site has been my main digital “home.” Even ~25 years later, I love that I can return here and – within seconds – I’m smiling. A lot.

I’m having fun re-energizing this site.

I hope you’ll enjoy it, too.

And now… the backstory!

The following is for those who really want to know who I am and what I was doing before the Internet happened.

WARNING!  It may be FAR more about my personal life than you ever needed to know.

It started in California, where I was married to a tall, funny, handsome farmer. (Yes, really. As a kid, I’d always dreamed of marrying a farmer and having six children. Well, I succeeded at part of that, anyway… lol!)

We had two wonderful daughters, about three years apart. This is one of them, reading a book. (She’s still an avid reader.)

Along the way, I learned to make quilts, and started self-publishing art-related books.

I also sent out a free newsletter, called “Creating!”  That led to teaching gigs, book contracts, and being featured in magazines.

Then, my husband had the (not great?) idea that – for the sake of our marriage – our family needed a change of scene. So, we packed our belongings and moved to Maine.

Well, that didn’t work out as planned. He couldn’t break old habits, and our marriage buckled under the stress. One day, he quietly packed his bags and, with no warning (and, to this day, no explanation), he said he was going back to California. Alone.

So there I was, with a newborn and a toddler, in a house weeks away from foreclosure.

I scrambled for income and started freelance illustrating for local print shops and publishers… and did pretty well.

“Creating!” continued (free), along with my illustrating gigs, and I self-published even more books. (Yaayy for income!)

And, in addition – I launched more businesses:

• Quiltz—I started this business by making one-of-a-kind baby quilts and selling them at a few local shops. Soon, my quilts were selling in about a dozen high-end gift shops along coastal Maine and then in Boston. So, though I continued selecting the fabrics and designing the quilts, I hired stay-at-home moms to sew for me.
• “Neat Stuff” was a mail-order catalogue I created, illustrated by hand, and sent to anyone who seemed interested. It was actually a drop-shipping business. (I found cool,  handmade products and made deals with the creators. They filled orders that I provided to them, and we split the profits. Everyone was happy.)
• Past Perfect Clothing – This was a custom-made clothing line featuring vintage-style fashions. Again, I selected the fabrics and hired work-at-home friends to sew the clothing. It was strictly mail-order. (We used modified “Folkwear” patterns, among other designs.)

Within a few months, my income was stable and growing nicely. My two girls and I moved to my hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts, where I rented a three-bedroom apartment next to a lovely park. Life seemed almost perfect!

Next, I added a few more businesses:

• Store displays – I became a “picker,” buying vintage and antique items, and reselling them to local stores. They’d use them in their window displays and sometimes throughout the store as accent pieces.
• Vintage quilts – I ran ads in local papers, offering to pay up to $35 for old quilts in any condition. Plenty were available, and I resold them, at a profit, through stores and auction houses.
• Vintage clothing – The same attics that contained vintage quilts often had old clothing items in trunks, as well. I bought and resold them, and – along with my “Past Perfect Clothing” experience – that led to a book contract for Sewing and Collecting Vintage Fashions.
• Closet sachets – Cute, handmade calico bears filled with moth-repelling herbs. Easy to make, I sold them (wholesale) to clothing stores and yarn shops.

Everything was going well. My older daughter started school in a nearby private academy. Also, her sister was in a friend’s daycare center during half of the week, giving me more time to run my businesses.

That’s when I also started editing books, theses, etc., for MIT professors and grad students. (I loved it. Really, I can be SUCH a geek… lol!)

I know that it sounds like I had a lot going on—and I did—but I’m an organizing fanatic. As long as I kept hiring more people, my businesses kept growing, too.

Frankly, it was fun. You know that song, “Whistle While You Work“?  Well, that’s how I am. I’m not sure there was ever a time when I drew a line between “work” and “play.” I truly loved it all!

(For example, at a New Year’s Eve party at our church, I met a guy with a speech pattern like mine. Instantly, I realized that his writing style might sound exactly like mine, too. So, I hired him, and that helped expand my MIT editing business.)

But then – cue the “uh-oh” music – thinking I’d take things to a new level, I started following some not-so-great business advice. (Well, that person seemed to know what he was talking about.)

Following his advice, I phased out things that, at the time, seemed not important.

Running (too many?). businesses, it took me a while to realize how much was going wrong. One by one, my businesses failed, and—stupidly—I didn’t understand why.

So, I moved on to other projects. “Practical” things, I guess. The Internet fueled many of them, as did amazing new tech developments.

Since then, some of my business projects have done okay. Others haven’t.

Recently, I’ve started paying attention to another friend’s successes… and advice. This is a friend from my California “Creating!” newsletter days. He and his partner’s business was based on business practices almost identical to mine. The difference was: He kept doing the things that I’d let slip through the cracks.

Yesterday, I started journaling about this and realized that I need to get back to doing what worked so reliably in the past.

And here’s why I’ve explained that history: My plans include making some of my creative projects free, including both digital and art-in-the-mail treats.

Though some may raise an eyebrow and wonder why I think sending out freebies is so helpful… Well, as I’ve said, it was an important part of what succeeded in the past.

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

If you’d like to join the fun, email me at artfun@aisling.net and tell me your mailing address. (It’s just for freebies—no strings attached, and I won’t share your address with anyone else.)

Then, as I kick this business plan into gear, at least by early 2025, I’ll start sending freebies—one-of-a-kind art postcards or zines or something—to friends like you. I’ll also let you know about other crazy-fun things I’m working on. This will be just for fun!

So… let’s play!

About my name…

I launched this site as “Aisling D’Art” because—in the early days of the Internet—not many women were online. The smart ones didn’t use their real names.

“Aisling” is a family name, and has significance in Irish history. The D’Art surname gave me a sense of privacy.

Later, I realized “Aisling D’Art” suited me, so I adopted it for workshops, etc., too. If you see me in real life and call out, “Hey, Aisling!” I’ll probably answer. I’m that accustomed to the name now.

However, my real-life name is Eibhlin, pronounced “Eileen.” (It’s said different ways in different parts of Ireland, but many will say it sort of like “Eifflin.”)

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