We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cella Siegelman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cella below.

Cella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

During the Covid19 pandemic, I was struggling to find an artistic direction that inspired and captivated me. I unintentionally reconnected with a topic that was near and dear to my heart from childhood: Dinosaurs & prehistoric life. Food and animal combinations were my jumping off point as a concept, as they were popular on instagram at the time (and still are). I saw that there was an empty niche, and made my first illustrations of dinosaurs combined with food, such as a Banana Brachiosaurus, and Strawberry Carnotaurus. I continued to make fruit dinosaur designs (now coined “Fruitasaurs”), and started to connect with others online who also enjoyed dinosaurs. I decided to make my first products, enamel pins, of some other prehistoric animal and sweet treat combinations as a trial run. I was kindly supported by people backing my project on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform. This first successful project gave me the drive and courage to continue creating. Over time I found my mission as a business, and most importantly, an artist – to make cute dinosaur and prehistoric animal art based in scientific accuracy. Growing up as a young girl, dinosaurs were marketed as monsters and for boys. Today, I challenge that prehistory can be cute, accurate, and for everyone – no matter how you identify!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi, my name is Chel, and I draw dinosaurs for a living! I got a degree in graphic design from SCAD, and since I was younger I have always been drawing. While studying for my degree, I was posting my fruit dinosaur artwork online, and I connected with friends who introduced me to the idea of making my characters into enamel pins. Thankfully, many people young, middle aged, and older love dinosaurs. They decided to support me on my artistic endeavors by funding my product creation via crowdfunding. To this current date, I have made over 100+ enamel pin designs, spanning across different themes such as fruits, foods, sweets, flowers, and more. All of my art is focused around dinosaur and prehistoric animal representation, always based on the most updated and accurate scientific discoveries. In addition to pins, I have made my characters into plush toys, stickers, stationary, apparel, lanyards, keychains, & more to come. I am most proud of the fact that I handle all aspects of the business in some way, be it working with manufacturers, selling my art at big and small anime/gaming conventions, and running my online shop. However, I cannot thank those enough who help inform my work, as I get my academic knowledge from my friends who are working paleontologists and scientists. I call myself the “end of the funnel”, as I take the information given to me, and condense it into cute and accurate artwork to inspire everyday people to connect with science and prehistoric life. Even though my job has a lot of uncertainty, travel, and no day looks the same, I cannot thank those enough who support me in this dream that I have – drawing and selling dinosaur art for a living!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My best 2 sources have been Instagram, and most importantly, anime/game conventions. I post my artwork on instagram, and do my best to reply to people commenting on my artwork. I care very much about those who support me, even if not financially. Sharing and connecting others with my art still makes a world of a difference, and I appreciate those who take the time to share! For the past few years now, I have been attending big and small in person events where I sell my artwork. Anime/gaming convention goers surprisingly love dinosaurs, and It’s a highlight of my job to travel around and meet people in person. Usually, people at cons and live events are seeing my work for the first time. I get to witness the joy, comfort, and curiosity they experience when perusing my wares, pointing at different dinosaurs/prehistoric animals I have that they love. Sometimes, I will get repeat customers if they have seen my at another event, or they follow me online. Most importantly, I have the best dinosaur conversations with people who want to stop and chat, which continues to inform my passion for prehistoric science education and communication.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funny enough, I had no starting capital to invest into the business. For a few years, I relied solely on crowdfunding and preorders to get my products made. These campaigns informed me on which characters and products were most popular, which helped me spend my money wisely. Thankfully I now have enough built up capital to invest into new projects, and to restock my most popular items. I will always give credit where credit is due, and that credit belongs to the lovely people all over the world who support my crowdfunding campaigns!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gummmydragon.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/gummmydragon
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Gummmydragon
• Other: Bluesky | @gummmydragon.bluesky.social
  Tiktok | @gummmydragon.shop

Image Credits

All images taken by chel (artist, ceo, gummmydragon design, LLC)