Archive for the ‘Zazzle’ Category

Our first update is of a brand new calendar from The Textile and Fiber Art List, Muse Moments. This is available in the tafashop on Zazzle. It’s a wonderful collection of some of the many (over 430) artists around the world and the work they do. We happen to be the month of July.

Rachel, our wonderful creator and inspiration, has also designed a second TAFA calendar, this one showing different artists in their studios. Money made from the sale of the calendars helps to fund the development of what is becoming the go-to place for fiber and textiles on the web.

Also, Martingale Publishers are having a sale, and included are ebooks of the patterns of Lois Fletcher. I met Lois in Houston in 2002, and we created a series of fat quarters for her for use in her Spring book. It was quite enjoyable to see how she utilized the marbling throughout the book in her various patterns. I still absolutely love the marbled butterfly she created.

Handmadeology is announcing a new market opportunity today, January 3. From the website: “Today, we  launched  our own market by leveraging Meylah’s marketplace technology. This partnership will super charge marketing for creative businesses and support all the creative community, giving sellers new ways to market their products through online and social channels.  We are inviting sellers across the creative community to become part of Handmadelogy market.” It’s worth checking out, which I will be doing in the next few days.

We will be participating in StashFest again this year. StashFest is a fund raising event for the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum. Dates are April 6 and 7. Look for marbled silk offerings this time from Marble-T Design.

It’s the third day of January, and I have just started organizing my ideas and goals for this year. So far we are seriously off to a great start!!

It’s Thursday, so let’s take a look at what’s available for MarbleT-Design around the web this week.

On Ebay: I love a couple of the pieces this week, and if they don’t sell, well, I’m a gonna quilt ’em. This one is very organic and would be great to quilt. A fat quarter in Halloween colors, looks very much like an actual piece of marble. We are getting MUCH better at creating that pattern!

Also, a great fat quarter in the traditional peacock/bouquet pattern. Some great colors and lots of movement.

On Etsy this week: a gorgeous fat quarter of unpolished white satin – multi-colored with lots of movement to the piece. Satin requires a lot of work – from pretreating to the actual marbling – you have to be very careful about each step or the pattern washes right off the satin. Once it’s heat-set, you’re fine. All our fabrics are heat-set and ready to go for your projects.

On Cafe Press: a cool little magnet, of the traditional pineapple quilt block, made with marbled fabric. Great little gift for yourself and your refrigerator….

And from Zazzle: a piece of artwork created a year or so ago that you can put on any number of cool items. “I’d Rather Be Making Art!” And wouldn’t we all…I gave this mug to a few of my teacher friends who would lament about not having time to make any art during the school year. I’m still trying to figure Zazzle out, so you’ll have to click on the link. It’s so cool that you can customize this item on whatever you would like – different mugs and so forth.

There will be more – we are making fabric each week now that we both have the time and can work together. So check back – or better yet, let us know if there’s a custom product you are interested in.

We survived the art show on November 20, but barely. We were so well organized: we showed up at 7 and were set up by 7:20 – that’s what happens when you’re married to Felix – all that preplanning….By 9 AM I was thinking we weren’t going to sell anything. We were next to the bottlecap framed pictures on one side and the painting on stone guy. Now I don’t think I am an art snob, but I gotta tell ya, this was not the venue for us.

First, this event was scheduled the same weekend as one of the two Museum of Art art shows each year. That right there was poor planning, and our numbers in attendance certainly reflected that. Also, the main show for March at an exclusive guest ranch hasn’t even been scheduled yet.

Secondly, the people who came wanted crafty things, not art cloth and digital pictures and art quilts. The other woman who had quilts was selling them off as people were making her offers below her prices and she was accepting them. Not what I want to do.

We made basic expenses, not anything else…a few bottles of paint. It looks like it is back to gallery searching for us as a venue. Which ultimately is fine, as my work is too valuable for me to just give it away. That said, I do feel like all the work packaging is going to pay off. I am much more pleased at how we presented – and wrapped – items.

Now for the great idea….a few weeks ago Alyson Stanfield of ArtBiz Blog did a great post on saying thank-you to our collectors: Gallery Space Available, Upper Right Corner. Send your mail out with a stamp of your own making, advertising your art or your business. What a great idea! Zazzle allows you to create all kinds of goodies with your artwork, but I think the stamps is just a fabulous idea. Below is an example, using a piece of our marbled paper. This is definitely on my list of things to buy, as I believe in writing thank you’s for all kinds of reasons.

Everything comes back to packaging in all its forms. We think about the big pieces that are our art work, but let’s not forget all the little things, like ribbons on packages (ours are marbled), thank-you cards (ours are digital marbling images), and now stamps.

I’m curious….what are some of your packaging and marketing ideas?

More packaging ideas:

It’s the Packaging, Stupid

Packaging, Part 2

Ever since Anne over at El Milagro Studio posted her extremely cool coffee mug, I have been revisiting the folks at Zazzle. I set up a store there probably four years ago, but could never quite figure out what to do. Fast forward to this weekend – I spent three days reading documents about Zazzle, viewing other sites, and then playing around with some of my marbled patterns – spent yesterday evening scanning our marbled patterns so I would have some really good stuff to work with. Had some quirks in Photoshop – seems like it quit after scanning and manipulating three sheets of paper, so I restarted the program 5 times…checking today to see it never actually saved some of the papers, so I need to rescan them.

Add a few more hours today, a lot of thinking while walking today, and I have a store set up, and my first product completed. Hopefully new products will go a whole lot faster!! The above image is now available on a coffee mug – I have to figure out how to get the pics on the blog, but at least you get the above shot. You can also click here to go to my beginnning efforts.

I think as I approach licensing that this might be a good way to start, as I explore the field. I’ve been doing lots of reading, as that is usually how I approach something, so stay tuned as I explore and no doubt learn lots more!