Astoria artist’s watercolor hobby becomes custom Etsy business

Even at a young age, watercolor artist Consuelo Reinitz maintained a perfectly ordered Sanrio pencil case. She always knew who had borrowed her favorite eraser, because they were all her favorite erasers. Her pencils were neat, and her colors were in order. Who knew she’d be this way forever?!

Reinitz grew up in Nicaragua and moved to New York after college. She now lives in Astoria, where she moved with her husband just before her adorable son, Lucas, was born. While Lucas was napping, Reinitz had some extra time on her hands, and she began trying her hand at DIY activities.

After trying baking, cooking and several other crafts, Reinitz got bored. The household hobbies weren’t cutting it until she stumbled across some watercolors at a supply store and sat down to try them out as she made thank-you cards to send to her friends.

The hobby she started that day quickly developed into something more. After casually posting photos of her thank-you cards on social media, her friends began contacting her to commission custom cards for themselves.

Reinitz found herself opening both Instagram and Etsy accounts to satisfy these personal requests. Etsy had created a perfect platform for the custom craze of DIY artists, much like herself. So that’s where she chose to share her craft with the world without having to worry about mass production or venue approval.

Reinitz launched Pink Fries Paperie in November of 2015 and began taking orders that very week. Since then, she has collaborated with brides, mothers, boutiques and more. Her professional experience in account management has given her the business “know-how” required for collaboration, while her blossoming creative side is genuinely excited to create things from scratch.

These days, it seems that many artists are deviating from mass production. You’ll see this trend across industries and markets. But what is it about custom cards that makes them so special? Pink Fries Paperie offers custom strokes of beauty with the brush. It seems like a novel idea, but what it’s really doing is bringing us back to the way we used to communicate, before the age of screens: it’s an invitation for handwritten letters, thoughtful messages and personal touch.

With an array of products ranging from family portraits, to boutique signs, to nursery prints, to wedding packages, Consuelo has discovered a market for one-of-a-kind artistry.

“It’s funny because I’ve learned a little bit about trends from what people want. I like the one-on-one with clients. Besides, I don’t always have to come up with an idea. Sometimes you help someone else finish theirs and putting that together is a cool new experience for me,” Reinitz said.

After she made an illustration of The Beatles as babies — complete with facial hair — for her son’s room, requests came in for paintings of baby Phish and baby Bob Marley, among others.

“It has been a truly happy discovery for me that I shared this with the world and have received a positive response,” she said.

The work Reinitz does is personal, so she takes the time to learn about the details of her customers’ lives. In a world where everything is done by default, the simple act of sitting down to write a handwritten note to someone you care about might be reason enough to get yourself a hefty set and make it a new habit.