I’ve been thinking and it’s been suggested a couple of times, about doing the print-on-demand thing for selling images and finally went and tried it on.
Originally I thought I’d only do it for the option of having cards and other printed versions of my paintings, but A I work so slow and B they’re not really good enough, so I’m just playing with photos for now. Of which I have a serious backlog and every time I look I’m incapable of choosing the best ones. So I just pick at a whim and then I’ll have to delete a bunch of crap later I guess.
I would love some feedback, even if it’s only to say you hate everything. I’ve given up on a “style” and a “clean feed”, because let’s face it, I’m not a one trick pony. I also need to see images on the products to determine whether *I* like them or not.
It takes a bit learning how the formats work, especially how my favourite square format is not useful for most of the product shapes! My camera resolution is too low, and oh, did I really crop all my instagram posts before making exposure adjustments?! Facepalm.
I’m planning on ordering a selection myself to test the products, but it seems people are pretty happy with the quality. The way this works is that they show an image on a random product, click on that and you can see all products available with that particular image.
Now that I’ve gotten into it, I’m over my head though. I want to do ALL the things, stickers, dresses, mugs, clocks! And even have a list of products that I’d like to suggest they add to the repertoire, hahaha. Why didn’t I do this in November when there was ample time to hunch over the computer?
I was hoping you’d help me sort out the issue of product overwhelm and tell me what would be your favourite item(s) – not in terms of my designs specifically, not in terms of your personal budget, but if you simply had some money to burn on printed products.
(A poll is supposed to appear below but didn’t:)
I asked about the following groups of items: Clothes, bags, scarves, wall art, notebooks, stickers, mugs, clocks, phone covers, pillowes, other?
I opened an extra instagram profile for product spamming, that way you can still follow the regular feed if you like and not get very many updates about the shop. let’s see how that goes, anyway! Oh the time to be in all the places….
And if you think it’s really, really exciting, but not an IG fan, I’m also contemplating a newsletter which would give you monthly (or less) updates on new stuff I’d like to hand off for a price. Sign up here. Possibly other fun tidbits and polls and specials for subscribers only!
Colour Cottage 
I’m am on my way to doing the same thing. I just opened a Amazon Merch account. Soon I’ll get my work up on the other print on demand sites. I’ll be interested to read about your progress. Best of Luck with your endeavours!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s very time consuming to set up, though! I haven’t really had time to also “promote” it, as well as wanting a variety of stuff in there first. What does the Amazon thing consist of? I’m trying to avoid having the expense of having things printed myself and risk sitting on a stockpile of “useless” stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazon Merch does print on demand t shirts., which they sell on their site. You upload designs and they make and sell and deliver the tshirts and you get a 3 to 5 dollar cut depending on how much you charge. I’ve just started with it. You have to be approved and that takes a few months. Print on demand seems to be the way of the future. You can check out how to’s on Youtube.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh my gosh, that looks wonderful. I think it is “tailor-made” for you and all your interests!
I love the multiple ways they have to search and browse. It was very easy to find out the fiber content of the t-shirts which was great.
I really like your Dreamscape design, which at this moment is only available as a device skin. It shows up a little dark on my screen, and I would say the lace overlay does not really show up that well in the thumbnail, so maybe you would want to lighten up the blue at the top a little.
Also, in looking around at other people’s stuff, I think you should concentrate on your paintings and digital art rather than on photos, because I think they would stand out among the types of designs that are already on the site. I always love your paintings because they are simplified to the point of abstraction, and yet recognizable, very evocative. I can see people wanting multiple images of those.
I hope this works out for you!!
LikeLike
Thanks for your thorough report! The dreamscapes image is an older one that I just happened to see in a folder and decided to include – the resolution may not be good enough. I do have it on other items though, cards and books, so I wonder why you could only see the skins? I’d like to create new photo collages in the same style in a clearer quality.
I do want to focus on more painterly designs to make the shop more uniquely mine, but I simply don’t have enough paintings and have struggled to get photos of them that are good in the winter light – I’ll try harder now summer is coming. But that will be my aim longterm, in the meantime I can use photo to get better at composition and placement of images on products I hope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am going to add “market researcher” to my resume. 🙂 I did not know such an opportunity existed, and again, I feel like this platform was made for you. I hope it all works out smoothly!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m debating with myself btw about their use of synthetic fabrics. On the one hand I know it probably prints better and would be bad for business to remove those from my shop, otoh I’m not sure I want to support it. It’s a big step away from the handmade philosophy – but I could use a bit of cash to be honest and handmade items is a completely different sell because it’s 1:1 and then you have to start over.
LikeLike
I have done a lot of reading on fiber content over the years, and I am no expert, but it does seem like they all have a downside — cotton requiring high pesticide use for the most part, etc. At least with the print-on-demand items, there is much less waste! So I myself would not feel guilty about that.
LikeLike
True, at least there should be less overproduction.
LikeLike
My favorite one is the bottom left of the circles, but I also like the first two scenery images.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Det ser da godt ud. Jeg kan især godt lide de runde billeder. Men der burde være ure med alle de runde 😉
LikeLike
De runde billeder er desværre ikke store nok i pixels, de er lavet for flere år siden for sjov. Man kan ikke bare forstørre dem og bevare skarpheden!
Tak fordi du gad tage et kig! 🙂
LikeLike
De er lavet i Photoshop med flere forskellige filtre i en bestemt rækkefølge, så teoretisk set kunne jeg lave nye, hvis filtrene stadig eksisterer i nuværende version. Desværre har jeg glemt opskriften!
ETA: Ha! Hvad har man google til. Fandt opskriften! Som jeg heller ikke selv opfandt sidste gang, det må jeg jo blankt erkende.
LikeLike
My Favorite is the Poppies series. I checked them out on your redbubble page and they look really good on all of the products. Also, opening an additional IG sounds like a good way to market it.
I have had a redbubble account for a couple of years. (I just went in and followed you, acutally didn’t know you could do that.) Here is a link to my page https://www.redbubble.com/people/janellmithani?ref=artist_title_name . I set up a couple years ago as I had created a collection of animal art for my niece when she had a baby. I had made the art to decorate her nursery and baby shower. I loaded them to redbubble so I could order onesies and t-shirts for her baby and older brother. I also ordered a couple bags with my flower paintings as gifts. The products were great. I went ahead and made it public since everything was on there, but that is all that I have done. I get a few orders here and there. Lately, stickers have been pretty popular. I’ve been thinking of promoting it and adding more art and products. Thanks for reminding me about it! 🙂
I wish you lots of good luck with it and will follow your progress. –Janell
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really cute drawings!
LikeLike
Hope you sell lots. Also, have you tried Fine Art America.com? I’m pretty sure it’s world wide and very popular here, and lots sell photos. It has a super easy and fast interface, too.
LikeLike
One place is sucking up enough of my time already, but I’ll keep it in mind! Need time to paint too…. 😉 My neck doesn’t like these long computer sessions anyway.
LikeLike
Congratulations on doing this, it looks so wonderful! I love your poppy paintings. They look especially nice as blouses. Good luck, I hope it goes so well for you xx
LikeLike
Thanks for your input! I want some “softer” designs too, but I have so many garden pictures I thought I might as well begin with what I have and see where inspiration leads me. and I was wondering if following the northern seasons a bit might be sensible, save the broodier and the snowy things for later in the year when it comes to photos at least.
Have you considered something like this yourself for your lacy, pale images? Notebooks for instance? You can even design different fronts and backs, add text to the spine etc. (I did one with camels along the spine, not that I think anyone will ever notice, but I had a giggle myself)
LikeLike
I’ve never even heard of Redbubble and now I want to spend all day there! I agree with Textile Ranger–this is perfect for you! I know from Etsy that the set-up time, at the start, is very taxing but I imagine it’ll get much easier, once you know the drill. And I also agree that you should do more with your paintings–you will want to stand out as having a very individual style, in order to be noticed. And I really liked the idea of the handwoven stripes as a pattern!
LikeLike
Thanks for your input! 🙂 The good thing about this site is that I have no stock and no money spent, as opposed to Etsy where you handle production and customer care and shipping etc. yourself and risk never getting rid of your stuff.
In addition to more paintings (they will happen!) I was also thinking about catering to the fiber folks with artistic photos of yarn and wool – handspun and handdyed stuff, closeups like, for cards and notebooks, how does that sound? I haven’t yet done a search to see if that already exists, but that would also keep me motivated spinning more.
LikeLike
Good for you! Best of luck with it.
LikeLike
Good luck with all of this!
LikeLike
Thanks! I’m going to take it slow to not aggravate my neck with computer work. And it’s a conundrum how my photo folders are filled with garden photos, there is an overwhelm of pink and flowers, something I don’t like at all on “items”. To make what I like for myself, or what I see on others? (an overwhelm of pink and flowers, LOL) Makes me think of photography from a completely different angle now, I need to get out and capture the scenery, not just stay at home…
LikeLike
Pingback: Summer briefing | Colour Cottage
I really like the spiral notebook design! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your input! 🙂
LikeLike
I know this post was from a while ago i was searching to see how others use their red bubble in conjunction with blogs. I checked out your red bubble shop, it looks like you got everything sorted on there 🙂 keep it up
LikeLike
Thanks! I haven’t been active for a while as I’m doing house renovations, but I hope to be up and running again this winter, when outside life is less and darkness takes over!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes you definitely need to smash out renovations while the sun is out longer. Yep the light is making a come back now finally 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the opposite up here, next weekend daylight savings ends and the sun will set around 4 pm. Time to get out the space heater for my studio too. Mornings are nice for photoshopping and blogging though until the sun comes up, tea, candles, very cosy!
LikeLike