By Alice, Designer

Alongside working as a designer at Magpie, I run a business called Halfpenny Ink where I sell prints and cards created from my dotwork art and take custom commissions (mostly portraits of people’s adorable pets!).

Whilst following the events of the most recent Australian wildfires, I read in an article that 30% of the koala population in Australia could be destroyed because of the fires. This was not only because of the death of the animals but the major destruction of their habitat.

As soon as I read this, I had an instant burst of motivation and knew I needed to do something to help. I got straight out of bed (sacrificing my plan of a day watching Netflix), pulled up the cutest picture of a koala I could find on the internet, set up my tripod (to get that time-lapse content!) and started to draw.

 

After completing the artwork, I did a bit of research into which charities were supporting the wildfires, and what they were all doing. WIRES is an Australian based wildlife rescue and rehabilitation charity who during the January wildfires had released an emergency fund to help them rescue and care for injured and orphaned animals.

My goal was to raise £100 for WIRES with this project. I was tentative about sharing the post, unsure about whether I would manage to raise my goal by just selling prints. However, I went ahead with the mindset that any little bit I can raise will still make a difference.

I shared the post at 2pm on Sunday 5th January and by 9pm I had already made £50 from selling the prints. I felt so motivated by the fact that I may actually raise the £100 I set out to. Thanks to my friends and family sharing my post on Facebook and Instagram, the message of my koala prints started spreading! I was sitting on the floor of my flat every night packaging up more prints…I felt like my life was being taken over by lots of tiny koalas! Every time someone shared or commented on the post, I felt so overwhelmed with the feeling that my artwork was actually making a difference.

By the end of the first week I had sold over 50 prints and raised £200. I couldn’t believe that with only just over 150 followers at the time, my art had managed to raise so much for an amazing cause.

A month later the time-lapse video on Facebook has now been viewed over 1,000 times with 20 shares and the koala prints have raised over £300!

This koala print project has reaffirmed my belief that everyone (no matter how small a following) can make a difference for what they believe in…if everyone does a little, it adds up to a lot!

If you’d like to get your paws on your very own koala print, just head to: halfpennyink.bigcartel.com