ShinyDesigns

Hi there — I'm Monette.

I make things by hand in Western North Carolina: painting, collage, zines, artist books, textile design, and a truly unreasonable amount of paper. I'm an outsider artist. I stepped off the conventional art path some years ago and found it much better out here — no gatekeepers, no permission needed, no velvet rope. If that sounds like you, we'll get along.

What I'll send you

Handmade paper things. Collage, original marks, small printed pieces from my studio, ephemera that came off my own table. My studio makes an enormous amount of beautiful byproduct — blotter sheets, paint-off papers, misprints, mark-making experiments — and some of my favorite things to send are the accidents.

What I love to get

Evidence that a real person made something. Rough edges very welcome; I have no interest in perfect. Raw material makes me happier than anything finished — scraps, offcuts, papers, odd marks — because it ends up inside the next thing I make.

Practical

• I send on time and I mark sent.
• I swap internationally — anywhere at all.
• Flat mail: letter size, first class, one stamp.
• No restrictions on what comes back to me. No allergies, nothing I won't open. Send what you actually want to send.

Where to find me

I write a letter from the studio every Saturday for people making art outside the velvet rope. There's a free field guide when you sign up, plus a set of printable collage elements from my studio — which I suspect is the part that'll interest you.

Studio letter + free printable collage elements