Maine team Monday - CozInk

This Maine Team member, Grace, has a lot going on and a spectacular paper goods shop on etsy which goes by the name of CozInk Cards and Paper Goods. Beautiful one of a kind monoprints, cards and photos make up Grace's shop. Her gift cards are taken from monoprints so no two are ever exactly alike. Everyone gets something special!

Grace was very kind to participate in my Maine Team Monday feature. Thanks Grace! Read on about CozInk's creative force of nature named Grace.



1. Would you please share some brief details about you such as location, upbringing, school etc?
Well, I’m 24. I’ve been married for 5 years and we have one daughter together, and right now that’s my job; I’m a stay-at-home parent. I grew up in a very rural area of Maine, and I think that's probably had a big influence on my printmaking. The vast majority of my prints and cards are made with stuff I find in the woods, and I think that inspiration probably comes from my childhood out in Woodstock. I lived for awhile in Wyoming, too, and I miss that a lot sometimes. Something about the flat prairie and the high elevation made me aware of a kind of claustrophobia when I came back to Maine. I live just outside Augusta nowadays, and I really like it here. It's not right in the city, but close enough that it's easy to stay involved in the stuff going on in Augusta or Lewiston/Auburn.

2. What motivates your creativity? Any interesting bits of info about your process (like you only work in your studio to Liberace music)?
I am really mostly motivated by the process itself. Printmaking is an awesome way to have an afternoon that is both lazy and productive at the same time. I stand at my workbench and print for 2 or 3 hours, then spend several hours (usually broken up over a couple days) cutting prints into cards or bookmarks and packaging them up to sell. It's really relaxing. New ideas motivate me- new colors of ink, new plants, (another Etsy Maine Team member, PsAndQs, just mailed me leaves from her husband's Japanese Maple trees, and I'm really looking forward to printing with those), or new craft ideas. I also just ordered a custom stamp from another Etsian so I can start making printed book plates, so I'm excited to make the first few of those as well.
I guess the only interesting bit is that I’m usually working with a kid and a dog at my feet. I have a very curious three-year-old and probably the most clingy dog ever. Neither one leaves the room when I print.

3. When you are creatively exhausted how do you rest up and refill the creative well?
It's probably going to sound awful, but shopping helps. A trip to the art store usually gives me a lot of ideas, even if all I buy is paper.


4. The business of selling your work is far less enjoyable to most then the actual making of product. What have you done or would do differently in being someone who must deal with the business of selling work?
I would take more time to settle on prices, and put more thought into it than I originally did to begin with. I realized I was selling some stuff that left me feeling negative about it- I had let it go for too little, and I needed to start considering the time I put into making each card, and the fact that each one is an original print, and convince myself that they were worth a bit more than I originally thought they were. It resulted in me changing my prices two or three times before I settled into a groove I was comfortable with, so I would sit down and really think about what it costs in materials, time, and effort to make my product.
Get support. The first couple craft/art shows I’m doing, I’m sharing space with more experienced folks, and that has taken a huge amount of pressure off.

5. Where do you see your work taking you?
I'm trying to get my paper goods up in more brick and mortar shops, and I hope that I can get established in a few of them and have long relationships with them. I’m starting full-time college in January at UMaine Farmington, so I’m really hoping this could eventually be something that earns money for books and day care and all that.


6. Any particular websites you visit regularly?
I visit Plime.com daily, for news and discussion. Etsy, of course, and the Etsy Maine Team threads, specifically. I’m also on a forum for pit bull owners, called Pits & Pets.

7. What are your 3 top favorite foods and why?
My favorite winter food is beef stew, because I remember long afternoons of shoveling snow as a kid and it was soooo nice to come inside and smell that cooking on the stove. Turkey and stuffing, because it’s just one of those meals you don’t make all that often, but it’s always so damned good. Pancakes and maple syrup. Best. Breakfast. Ever. Every once in awhile we make breakfast for supper in our house, and it’s usually pancakes and syrup and scrambled eggs.

Thanks again Grace!