Zazzle, deviantArt, & CafePress

I have been working recently to expand my source of income generated through my art career. I am getting my work on various merchandise and available for purchase through multiple locales online. I am basically bypassing the middleman here by using companies that make the items, sell the items, and ship the items. What I do is spend oodles of time designing each product and posting them for sale through my online stores.

Oodles of time. Earlier this week I spent about 2 days non-stop working on my Zazzle and deviantArt stores. I may have gotten 3 sections relatively completed on Zazzle and most basic stuff on deviantART. I haven't really even touched CafePress yet, that will happen when I've got those other sections completed. I'm not too impressed with deviantART. There's almost no way to customize your items and I might just remove them from there because of that. Zazzle has an impressive setup where you can pretty much do anything you want to each item you create with colors, text (with as many fonts as you could possibly need), customizable objects, and variations on those objects. So I upload the images I want to use, which takes forever since you want a high quality image otherwise you'll get some nasty pixelation on your products, then I specify what I'd like to make. For example, a mug. I *love* mugs as anyone who knows me knows. They have so many variations on mugs I'm in mug-heaven. You can make mugs, ties, skateboards, postcards, gift cards, mousepads, shirts, and more. CafePress has SIGG bottles and I think I even saw throw pillows of all things.

So what I do it I select the product, choose it's type size and sometimes colors, than I arrange my image on it and add my 'by Kathryn Koozer' text somewhere where it doesn't intrude on the beauty of the item. After I have it looking how I want it I have to name the item, write a description, define the categories where it is publicly listed, figure out how much to sell it for and so on. According to Zazzle they make 1% on each sale, and then you as the merchant put a markup on their base price (the cost to make it and their 1%) to define how much you make from each sale.

My mother was kind enough to purchase a set of MultiBlue greeting cards, mostly to inspect the quality. The quality is exceptional. The paper is high quality in the card. The image on the front looks fantastic and I'm really picky about that sort of thing. Even the envelops that came with them were of a quality you won't see in store bought cards. The cards and the envelops came in a nice see through plastic box and then packed with an invoice plus a little Zazzle card. The only downside is that they used packing peanuts. Overall I am very pleased with Zazzle so far.

I Have a New Toy

I have a new toy. That new toy happens to be able to cut a full sheet of mat board into two sections. It is also able to make slick bevel cuts for making classic mat boards that frame pictures. I use the bevel to make my mounted limited edition prints. It's wonderful.

Before I bought this little gem I was taking serious issue with my razorblade knives. I would end up mangling about half of my mounted prints when I'd try to cut the boards and then I'd have to trim them again to make them sellable. The cuts were uneven and sometimes hard to control depending on my grip of the knife and/or the ruler I use, and often how tied I was. The ruler was also slowly getting trimmed by my knives and my cutting board is looking like it got attacked.

With my new mat board cutter it takes one motion to make a clean perfect cut or trim. With my old system I would spend a good portion of my day trying to get the boards cut and trying to fix the ones that decided to give me trouble.

It's probably one of the best investments I've made and it's completely worth it. There are various type of cutters and they vary in price from super inexpensive on up to thousands. I found one on Blick that I fell in love with: http://www.dickblick.com/products/logan-450-mat-cutter/

New Artwork

It's about time that I write a note about my new pieces.

Little Chris, Kaleidoscope, and the currently without-a-title Daffodil.

Each are collaged with various materials including nylon, pressed flowers, and old photographs. The first two mentioned are both 12 inches by 18 inches. That size is a pleasant size to work with as I can draw on my lap anywhere I happen to be sitting. When they are larger it is a bit more challenging to find a good position to work in. The third is 18 inches by 24 inches and is what you might call the mid-range of the sizes I work in.


Little Chris


Kaleidoscope


Daffodil

Kaleidoscope gave me quite a bit of trouble getting the collaging elements acceptable. That one incorporates pressed flowers and it was difficult making them look like they weren't floating off of the picture. Paper seems to work much better for those things it seems.

Here is where you might expect me to start talking about the concept behind each piece or the philosophy of my overall work. But, I'm really not into that. I want my work to be able to stand on its own. Through the skill involved and how it looks and perhaps how it makes you feel. If I have to start writing long explanations about why I did what I did and why that's important then I feel that the work isn't strong enough to be legitimate in and of itself.

You might think from that statement that I don't have a concept or philosophy behind my work. I do. And it's part of why I do what I do, but that is mainly about me personally and what I try to do with my art than about the art I create directly. My work is what it is and what each person makes of it themselves. All the critics of the art world and all of the visitors to museums each make their own assumptions and ideas about art. Each person has their own interpretation and it's not my place to tell you how you're suppose to see or enjoy my work.