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Message 1
From: "Maria Arango Diener"
Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 20:39:39 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38833] RE: selling prints
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For as long as I've been an artist I have sold the bulk of my income person
to person in art festivals. A breakdown of my yearly income is as follows:
15% online
70% art festivals
5% galleries
10% "other" to include special events, venues such as competitions, calls
for entries, invitations to show, local special events, etc.

Last year I didn't do any festivals and my (greatly reduced income) broke
down thusly:
20% own website sales
30% eBay
20% Etsy
5% galleries
25% "other" to include same as above and a couple of grants

I have also sold one print in ten years in various other websites,
AbsoluteArts, Amazon (I don't keep up that shop anymore), Yahoo Marketplace
(ditto), ArtbyUs and a couple of gallery websites which are now defunct. I
had a list of other sites to check out but if you do a search for "artists
sell your art" or "artist shops" you will get a whole bunch. I've been
meaning to try a few more but almost none of the sites, except for eBay and
Amazon, provide you with a bulk tool to upload your items in bunches. One at
a time takes too much time and a shop with very few items just isn't enough
of a shop to make selling online an income producing experience.

I would look for the following features:
-Inexpensive to list (free listings usually do not produce much income and
are offered by start-up sites and low traffic sites)
-Reasonable commission on sales, ideally no more than 5-10% since you are
doing all the work
-Easy to use, bulk uploading preferred
-High traffic shoppers other than the website users themselves

Basically, Etsy is the most "user friendly" and sales are best for smaller
items like engravings but also my collections sell well, e.g. three
bristlecone trees together, a set of four related figurative prints, etc. I
have a hard time uploading one item at a time because I'm used to the
convenience of eBay's Turbo Lister (free) which uploads your inventory as
many items at a time as you wish. You can also duplicate similar items,
batch upload, schedule upload, etcetera. Etsy really needs to get something
similar going because one item at a time takes forever; they also don't
notify you when items expire or have an auto-renewal for items you want to
keep in the store.
Most Etsy sales have been to other "Etsiers", eBay reaches an international
audience of collectors and bargain hunters. This can be good and bad,
scammers abound on eBay but not on Etsy. Etsy is very friendly and cozy but
has less exposure, eBay is humongous but gives world-wide reach. EBay has
lately improved the selling experience considerably and has made it more
affordable to sell (free pictures, up to 12) and keep up a store but it is
still not as cheap as Etsy. I honestly like both equally well and they are
producing about the same.

I keep prints in both shops that are no longer available in art festivals,
older prints, collections, and anything I want to get rid of as a bargain. I
have sold some more expensive blocks twice, but the majority of my sales are
between $25-100. Best times to start a shop are September and April. Summers
are slow, Christmas bring new collectors; keep in touch with them and let
them know when you have new items. Have your shops on your websites and
blogs. Keep rotating inventory, upload new works often.

That's my take on that online selling stuff. Next year I'm poised to open a
couple of other shops and will report when the buck$ start pouring in.

Maria
1000woodcuts is my ID on Etsy, eBay and everywhere else, keeping consistency
in naming allows people to find you easier

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Message 2
From: Marissa
Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 23:24:54 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38834] Re: selling prints
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Maria,

Wonderful post with valuable information as usual.

~marissa

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Message 3
From: "rsimola # netzero.net"
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 00:22:21 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38835] Exchange 40 prints are in the mail
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Dear Members of the Exchange 40,

I put your prints in the mail with delivery confirmation this afternoon.

Now I can get to work on my print for Exchange 41. I am going to be carving up part of the vinyl floor of my studio for this print. . . or at least some of the excess vinyl that won't be used on the floor. This will be my first print using multiple-colors, and I have never used vinyl, so this is going to be a learning experience.


Robert Simola, Ph.D.
Craftsman, gardener, grape grower, Chaucer collector,
. . . and retired teacher

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Message 4
From: Amanda Miller
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 00:28:21 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38836] images for online sales
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I've enjoyed the discussion about online sales. How do folks document their
work for online viewing? I've been photographing with my digital camera but
have had trouble getting good pictures of larger pieces. I've been thinking
of getting a good, large format scanner, but I'm not really sure what to
look for. Does anyone have one that they would recommend?

Thanks!

Amanda Gordon Miller

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Message 5
From: ArtfulCarol # aol.com
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 01:47:20 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38837] Re: images for online sales
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I didn't know there was a large format scanner. What I do is scan my
slides into my HP Scanjet G3010 and am able to send them on as attachments. I
like that system although actual works scanned can be no larger than 9"x12"
That system allows for adjusting the size and color of sent images..
Now I understand that making slides is not being done and the CD's is the way
to go. So far that system, using Wizard, doesn't provide me with the
variety of ways to use the images as the HP does..( I am usually behind the
times technologically)
Carol Lyons
Irvington, NY

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Message 6
From: "Maria Arango Diener"
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 02:40:02 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38838] Re: images for online sales
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You can also go the other way now, that is, digital to slides.
If you own a pretty decent digital camera it is actually easier to get
better images from that than from a film SLR. You need minimum 8 megapixel
camera, 12 is better and still reasonably affordable. You also want a camera
that works both on automatic mode for fun stuff and that is fully
controllable (exposure, speed, white light, focus, etc.) on manual mode.
Since digital I am now able to take about 20 pictures per print and then
work with the best image in Photoshop to come up with true-to-life digital
images of my prints.

One item that made the biggest difference in my results was a photographer's
light-diffusing "tent". They are pricy but there is someone online that
sells used ones. Just search for those terms and you will find one. WHAT A
DIFFERENCE!!!
I now just place a felt background inside the tent, place my print on the
background, light either in the studio with my spot lights or outside in the
sunshine and presto, perfectly lit woodcuts. Aside from the light tent, I
use a tripod and a cable release. I think those three items are about
essential for artwork photos.
There is a book titled "How to Photograph Your Artwork" that has much more
detail on getting decent images.

Once I get a decent digital image, I upload a bunch of them to
iprintfromhome.com and they return perfect slides and printed photos in a
variety of sizes for not a whole lot of money. I keep those for my records
in addition to the digital files. That same website has tons of information
and tutorials on how to photograph your artwork and digital image
manipulation. There are others, but I've been very happy with them.

To prepare digital images for web viewing, I follow the recommendations from
each web store and use detail pictures to bring the viewer closer. If you
look at either of my stores you will see what I mean. I use Photoshop CS4,
but Photoshop Elements does a great job at a fraction of the price.
Obviously, again, there are many other choices for digital image fixing,
sizing and manipulation.

Maria

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Message 7
From: Marissa
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 02:44:06 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38839] Re: images for online sales
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Very few of my pieces are huge but many are about twice the size of my
scanner. I scan each half and then piece them back together in photoshop.
I'm not very good with Photoshop yet I have gotten pretty good at this. Once
I did a big piece with 4 pieces puzzled together, that was kind of a pain.
But large format scanners are huge and expensive so it was worth it to me.

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Message 8
From: David Bull
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 06:43:52 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38840] Drawing tutorials
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I just came across an astonishing website today, with an immense
amount of information that should be of interest to most members of
[Baren].

http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/tutorials.html

Look at the ones on 'human types' for example ...

Dave

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Message 9
From: ArtSpotiB # aol.com
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 08:44:16 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38841] Re: Exchange 40 prints are in the mail
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Thanks about a billion and a trillion, Robert, for being our wonderful
coordinator for exchange #40.

ArtSpot Out
BA at OMebase, the night before the annual (20 yrs and counting!) block
party hostess of nearly 70 families. How insane is that?




Art is the visible face of any culture."

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Subject: Year of the Ox
Posted by: Sharri

This item is taken from the blog Rag & Bone.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.

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