If you have some time, browse through the links here. They are all great artists :)
Rarely a piece by another artist strikes a note with me hard enough that I buy it or ask to trade.
At college, we would sometimes trade our prints and drawings to each other. There was also a yearly sale where we would put some of our works out for sale. For a while there I had a stack of interesting works from people I had once known well ;) I still have them in my memory. The prints of Chris Gallagher and a few small works by Judith Feist were among my favorites.
The main problem is the art has to be compelling enough and yet something I wouldn't/couldn't make myself. I tend to make the things I want, and don't keep a lot of unnecessary possessions for long. I'm not big on hanging things on my walls, or at least, I haven't been in the past. Even my own work sometimes would go up for a week for inspiration then would go back in some portfolio or sketchbook to be untouched by the light again for years.*
In the past year I've bought two prints off of Etsy:
Rainy Prints: She had a very cute little woodblock trio of owls that I bought before Esme was born. It hangs on the wall behind the bassinet ;) In fact, she still has some left today :)
A Quiet Lark: I bought one of her fantastic botanical prints. It looks like an old Japanese ink drawing. I'm still waiting for this one to come in the mail since it caught me last week. It should fit nicely on the same wall as the owls :)
Tasha McKelvey: She makes beautiful pottery. This is the lady who made the pretty little rabbit tiles for Esme's birth. I ordered one but she sent two ;) I still keep one of those tiles in the bag under my pillow and another in a wool bag I made for Esme, which is under the bassinet mattress.
Thinking of the future:
One of these days I would love to buy a rabbit from Hop, Skip, Jump for Esme. I love her rabbits, they are so charming! I think I'll wait until she gets a little older. Then there is the matter of catching one from a batch before they are all gone ;) Fiona (the artist) also had a baby this month and he is so cute! I'm sure with a new baby (I've been there) it will probably be a while before she gets back to making lots of toys.
Two new blogs of people who make interesting things:
A Little Hut general crafts and some nice templates for little boxes. She makes very nice papercut art!
Madame Bogg A toy maker after my own heart. Her tiny red fox is just gorgeous! I wish I had seen him for sale somewhere he might have come home here. Foxes, but most especially grey foxes, hold a special place for me as well.
And a few people I met on Flickr recently who have interesting things:
Elsa Mora has some strange and interesting creatures in her photostream.
Craftosia has beautiful nesting dolls she has painted.
Ermitaña makes beautiful silver and copper jewelry in Argentina.
* I'm doing something about that now. I've opened up a new Etsy shop just for my strange symbolic drawings. A few of them have sold and went off to good homes. That is much better than sitting in the dark ;)
