Today's postings
- [Baren 38781] ebay activity on the moon/comparison to subscription farming (Andrew Stone)
- [Baren 38782] Blogs and more (Melissa West)
- [Baren 38783] Everett Ruess (Eileen Corder)
- [Baren 38784] Re: ebay activity on the moon/comparison to subscription farming (ArtSpotiB # aol.com)
- [Baren 38785] Re: Printing with lousy stamps (Tiberiu Chelcea)
- [Baren 38786] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
Message 1
From: Andrew Stone
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 14:25:13 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38781] ebay activity on the moon/comparison to subscription farming
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Dave, you commented that the seller wants to "buy more".
While I agree that once your art is in the hands of a collector/buyer/speculator what they do with them is up to them you do have a say, an opinion and probably a means to control what happens to your yet unsold inventory.
On one hand, you could say: I've determined what I consider is a fair, reasonable price for my work and keep to it. Then, if someone else decides to find a way to market it/promote it/etc. and do so at a a profit for them it remains external to you and will eventually increase the "value" of the works on the secondary market (not of interest to the artist usually) only the dealer/collector. This happens in agriculture a lot where the grower will decide what he needs to get for a product over cost of production and another party might take it to the farmers market or even label it/market it under their own label for a premium over the cost paid to the grower. (This falls apart if the grower (artist) is already subsidizing his work with other jobs because his income from farming is too low--that means the prices being paid at the bottom are too low.)
Or you could say, I'm happy with my current sales/prices but they are designed/and kept low to attract buyers to my series. It's one thing if someone decides to sell their prints afterwards should they decide they don't care for them enough to keep them and another if they plan on sourcing them from you only to sell them again immediately on ebay. Tell him, you're sorry he didn't like them enough to keep them and no you're not interested in selling any more to him. He'll probably invent some shill buyers for your series but that will be probably be unavoidable but you will at least increase your sales.
And I would say that yes, the double price does represent in part the premium of being allowed to "cherry pick" only single prints from the series. While each print is very inexpensive considering the work and level of skill and quality of the image the total sum of the series is in contrast "expensive" to the casual or spontaneous buyer. However, your individual prints are probably priced lower than their intrinsic value. (Hence their easy sale at twice your asking price).
Third you could open up a store on ebay/list them yourself. You'd avoid any conflict if you list them with a reserve of your current asking price. Bidding might take up prints above that level but buyers could always go back to you/your site for direct sales. Conversely, the sales on ebay will encourage other buyers anyway when they realize that buying directly from you is a good deal.
Back to the farming analogy. In the CSA or box scheme of marketing, families agree to purchase a season's worth of produce (the subscription) from the farmer and usually pay in advance at a small discount (Saving tons of money and stress for the farmer). The cost of about $20.00/wk is a great deal but when you have to write a check for $400-500 for the whole season you lose a lot of potential customers who suddenly view it as " a lot of money". But for people who understand the concept; that supporting a small farmer and eating/buying locally supports and enhances a community and provides advantages to both parties that are well beyond the price it remains a "good deal" and they continue the relationship.
Message 2
From: Melissa West
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 15:45:25 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38782] Blogs and more
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I've mostly been lurking here, only occasionally popping in to say
something. But I enjoy reading all the posts, and have learned an
immense amount from your (our?) collective wisdom.
I recently re-designed my website, and added a blog as well. It's on
the blog list, but my print-related posts haven't been showing up on
Baren. So while I'm working with Julio to figure out what's up with
that, here are a couple of links.
My new website:
http://www.mswest.com
And my blog:
http://www.mswest.com/blog
I just got my exchange #40 prints in the mail yesterday, just under the
wire! Yay!
Melissa
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Melissa West
816 Hanover Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
melissa at mswest dogcom
www.mswest.com
Message 3
From: Eileen Corder
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 16:09:27 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38783] Everett Ruess
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Ruess, which now seems to have been solved, here's a link to the NYT's
article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/us/01ruess.html?_r=1&hp
...and a link to some of Ruess's block prints which were done apparently
when he was just a teenager (murdered when he was but 20):
http://everettruess.net/prints.html
Peace,
Eileen
Message 4
From: ArtSpotiB # aol.com
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 17:50:32 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38784] Re: ebay activity on the moon/comparison to subscription farming
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Thanks for posting it!
ArtSpot Out
Benny Alba in California
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is
he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and
willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call
him God? -Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)
Message 5
From: Tiberiu Chelcea
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 20:48:23 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38785] Re: Printing with lousy stamps
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However, when I'm back in US, I'd probably want to produce some editionable works too with found objects and your solution is great. Sharri, I really like your prints with found wood. I was wondering: in my experience, found wood comes in all sorts of different heights -- how do you account for all these different heights? Are you grouping and gluing wood that's roughly the same height onto the same substrate?
Thanks,
Tibi
Digest Appendix
Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...
Subject: [River in Spring - 9] : Second thoughts ...
Posted by: Dave Bull
|
Continued from [River in Spring - 8] | Starting point of the thread is [River in Spring - 1]  It was nice to read the comments on the previous post about the finished print. I don't know about the other 5.99 billion people on the planet, but anyway, seems a few people think this print is worthwhile. But ... The day after the printing wrapped up was - as usual - a catch-up office day, spent answering back-logged emails, doing laundry, etc. etc. At lunchtime, I threw some stuff in a bag, and went down to the stream behind my house. I walked through the shallow water over to a place nearby where I know there is a comfortable spot to sit and relax, and had a pleasant lunch break. The stream widens into a little pool there, and it's kind of a miniature version of the camping spot on the Tama River where the design for this print originated. Just for fun, I idly tossed some pebbles into the pool while I was sitting there eating my muffins - to try and make a 're-creation' of the print design. And I noticed something interesting! Whether or not you can see 'sky' in a reflection makes a big different in its appearance. (We all know this, but I hadn't been paying attention.) If you position yourself so that the reflected image doesn't include any open sky, and if the ripples are gentle, then the water stays transparent, and you can see the 'image' clearly. But if there is open sky visible, or the ripples are large enough to have the correct angle to include reflected sky, then each ripple has a bright clear 'highlight' along its length. A few weeks back, when I had been working out this design, I created a ripple pattern of the simple type - I distorted the reflected image in a 'ripply' way, sliding parts of it left and right in turn to create the effect. But I didn't include any 'highlights', partly because my reflection didn't include open sky, and partly (mostly!) because I just didn't think of it. But after watching the ripples in this little pool at lunchtime, I came home in the afternoon with the seed of an idea - what if this new print had made some kind of attempt to include the bright/dark highlights on each of the circular ripples. What would it look like? Well, why not try it? I certainly can't re-build the whole thing from the ground up at this point; after all, the first half of the edition is already printed and waiting to be packed into the book chapters. And I can't take colour 'away' from the paper to leave bright highlights. But the way to make parts of a print look lighter is to make the surrounding areas darker, and that is something that can be altered 'after the fact'. So I cut another block, and did some test printing just now - re-wetting a copy from the finished batch, and printing on top of it. Here is a 'Before and After':  [Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here] |
This item is taken from the blog Woodblock RoundTable.
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Subject: Speedball Printmaster Press For Sale
Posted by: Amanda
 Pictured above: the press without wood rails. Pictured above: the press with wood rails. |
This item is taken from the blog Amanda's Art Blog.
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