So I'm trying not to be in your face about the holidays yet in my sites because we are just getting to Halloween. But Let m e tell you there is a radio station out here that goes all Christmas the day after Halloween. I'm going to probably find it. I still listen to the radio while I stream tv on mute while I work. I feel like part of the world then. Helps me not stay too interested in any outside visuals. Yes Monday we will be adding more holiday winter and christmas seasonal designs.
I am considering a clip art subscription to Designeous. Nice. 8$ a month unlimited downloads. I would use the pieces as part of new pattern collages or change existing patterns and make them my own. I really don't like to use clip art, but these are commercial use and saves a lot of time for some designs.
I am not in a make new art mode just yet. I am deep in an organizational designing mode. I added Threadless to my list of sites in August and am now adding my portfolio there and they let you import to shopify. Art of where just came out with lounge pants. Sold a pair yesterday. They look comfy. I still need to catch up with designing duvets and pillow shams on their site.
Prodigi for shopify just came out with a flock of new products. They are nice. This New for shopify seems promising, but their design tool is awful glitchy. If it worked right they would be a breeze to design for and with lots of unique all over print products.
As we begin this Christmas shopping season in what is now fall... my Zazzle stores are picking up. Zazzle has been a bit off since they regulated 14 mos for a new product to be displayed, then it gets shut off. This was a big designer change a couple years ago. My sales fell off dramatically. I had to completely redo my stores. They just want to give all the artists a chance and have new stuff so their search ranks are higher, which means more sales. Hows about more sales for those who helped build you razzle zazzle? well, sales are comin in we are ready to make more than 50$ for a change in December. (30 day holding period). I think adding new material every few days and adding some design one by one instead of all template runs is kinda key on zazzle. I have never had a steady seller on there, always random stuff out of a huge selection.
I design products though, not invitations which they are known for.
You know what I would really like to see pick up on all these sites, coffee cups. I have yet to sell one single coffee cup I think. Throw pillows and comforters are the biggest home decor sellers.
I must say I am honored when I have a home decor sale. There are so many to choose from. They picked me! And when I have clothing sell I feel like a fashionista. On redbubble this month I sold a green dragon scales a line dress, chiffon blouse and leggings. I bet it was for a Halloween costume! How exciting.
If things ever do really pick up I'll buy one of those tabletop studios and start photographing flowers again. Get some new shots. I don't go out much right now so I am thinking more of new simple patterns and learning to paint all over again with my ipad and procreate.
So what are we doing this season for christmas? Waiting for Halloween to come first and then work on THOSE designs.
Remember, there is no secret recipe to making 1000$ a month on these sites. Its a matter of getting found, and then they have to like what they see. I'll let you know if I ever hit that mark. Right now I am at, qualifies as a hobby type of income. I do it because I see my art on things and sometimes people get to own it. Its out there. People are looking. I am not alone. I think we are print on demand artists just like poets.....we do it to know we are not alone.
I do it because I'm schizoaffective and can't drive or hold a job, but that's another story. I experience a severe loss in concentration when off the computer sometimes and don't have the mental map capacity to follow where I am after a few turns, so I have eliminated driving from my range of possibilities. This is also safer for everybody else. Nobody needs a confused driver suddenly turning around because shes scared and lost. This means I can't hold a job out here in the land of no public transportation though. I'd have to work 4 hours at walmart to make up for the uber ride there and back. It is disheartening. Frankly I have too erratic a sleep pattern to keep a job. My history of episodes all happened at night. So I am most scared of symptoms at night and I do not sleep then. I'm more of a third shift or sleep every two days kinda gal. Thus I do print on demand full time. Not because I am not good enough to work, but because I love art and I want to know I'm not alone.
This fall my father whom I have lived with since my first divorce in 2010, has gone into hospice. He has stomach cancer. He isn't eating. We go see him two days a week and sometimes I have new sales to tell him about and sometimes I don't. He always encouraged me. Never looked at it as something I should give up. Used to talk about opening up a store to sell my stuff at. Baffled as I was about how little sales were sometimes. He was my biggest fan. Bought stuff for his grandaughters from my stores for holidays. Loved my christmas cards. So if I don't make too much artwork this season, I am just busy seein my dad. He has his roku at the hospice. watches interesting stuff all the time. He is still here. For that I am thankful.
I am happiest the days when multiple sales come in and I get up at 5 am watch the news on mute and listen to the radio and just randomly design things all day. I have two book/blog projects I am working on as well that I have added to my site. Letters Ray to Shirl, which is my grandfathers letters from the air foce during WWII to my grandmother before they got married, and then the transcribing of the dread travel journals. My grandmother kept these journals on europe tours in the sixties and seventies. Her handwriting is like another language. Luckily I had a professor back in the history department at Augustana college in the nineties try to show me paleography. Of course they used medieval latin texts, but this is close enough. I am getting about 95% of what she wrote transcribed.
So here I sit poised for my second divorce. We just found out we couldn't live together. I always said live with someone before you marry them. What can I say, gave it a year. I must say I am through with dating though. I need alone time to work and be creative. Be my own person.
Wow. so there's Cindy's heartfelt update. Follow me, buy from me, comment on all my stuff, and leave a review if you buy! I write all of this because not so long ago artists were afraid to even post their pictures. Be the artist. Show yourself. people like to get to know you if they follow you. So here is a bit of me. Honest and openly sharing a few parts of her life with those who would traffic her wares.