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Feb. 27th, 2011 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupagreenwolfHaving just gotten done with another artwork update (a relatively easy one for once) it made me think about my entire process for selling a single piece of artwork. So I thought I'd write it all out in great detail. I'm hoping it may be useful to other artists wanting to get more serious about the business and promotion end of their work. I don't want it to be a discouragement, though I hope it offers a bit of a reality check to those who think that the main part of it all is making the artwork itself. As you'll read, that's actually a very small part of the whole process.
Conceptualization: So it all starts with an idea. Some things are basically templates in my head at this point--I could make a tail or a pouch with my eyes closed, just about, because I've made many hundreds of each since the 1990s. (I may actually have broken a thousand on the pouches at some point--I haven't actually lost count). Even those templates had to come from somewhere, though. Like my tail belt design--that's something I developed from scratch in about 1998 or 1999 to solve the problem of a single strap of leather being too prone to snapping--and, to be honest, being BOOOOOORRRRRRING. However, a lot of my more elaborate pieces like knives, dance costumes, rattles, etc. take even more time in the planning and design. Even jewelry can take a while, selecting the right beads for the look I want to create.
Materials: Because I've spent the better part of 15 years amassing all sorts of dead critters and other art supplies, a lot of what I need I already have. However, there are certain things that need to be reordered every now and then (like artificial sinew), and sometimes I see something for sale that I absolutely MUST make into something else. And other times I have a great idea and almost everything I need, except maybe a specific type of bead or claw, so it has to go on order. So a project may be delayed simply due to having to search online for exactly what I want (which may end up being a long, drawn-out process), and then waiting for it to arrive in the mail. (I mostly shop with Etsy sellers, people on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
furhideandbone, and other individuals.)
Creation: This is what most people think of as the "work" of artwork. And yes, it is work, even if it's fun work. Again, some projects like simple drawstring pouches don't take me all that long because I have the process down like that. However, other things require careful application of the Dremel, or painting, or reshaping, or weird stitching, or any of a number of other processes that may take extra time. Sometimes it even involves intricate and careful disassembly, such as carefully taking apart a vintage taxidermy mount so I can use the hide. This is why I normally am working on about half a dozen projects at once--paint and glue need to dry, cement needs to set, and sometimes I just need to set a project aside to take a break from it. Oh, and blisters. Too much time with the leather shears can leave nasty blisters on the inside of my left thumb that even bandaids don't help. Also, there are occasional trips to the bathroom for more bandaids and antibiotic cream, complete with plenty of swearing, whenever I accidentally stick my fingertips with the glover's needle while stitching--I don't use a thimble because I need to be able to feel what I'm doing in great detail, and all my fingers are prone to jabs.
Preparation: I have my ritual purification that I do with everything made with animal parts that involves smudging with sage, meditation, and various offerings. Once that's done I need to lay everything out to prepare for pictures and uploading, which means a lot of organization and figuring out what order I want to take care of everything in.
Photos: First, I lay out my pieces of leather specifically set aside for being photo backgrounds. Hopefully outdoors if the weather cooperates, but otherwise right next to the sliding glass door if it's raining. Since the time slots that I can set aside for this are limited by my schedule, I don't generally wait for an optimum day to come along for outdoor photography. If there's something I need to model, I change into a particular outfit, rig up a chair to act as a stand for my photo, and make judicious use of the timer on my camera. After that, it's time to fire up GIMP and crop and otherwise alter the photos--not only larger photos of the artwork itself, but thumbnails of each piece for my website (like on this page). Since each photo may need a different treatment, I edit each individually instead of as a batch. After that, I upload the photos to the server to get ready to get everything on my website.
Website: Each piece of artwork ends up on three different pages on my website. For example, the big wolf tail I just made is on the New Stuff page, the Dance Costumes page, and its own individual page. Every piece of artwork gets the same. When I overhauled the site last year, I created templates for the individual item pages from scratch, which is done all in raw HTML instead of a program like Frontpage. Before I put any brand-new artwork up, however, I go through and remove all art that's sold since the last time I update, which includes completely removing each piece's individual page and all its photos from the server, and removing the links from the other pages. Depending on how well sales have been, this process alone may take an hour or more; add more time if my favorite graphics designer has new goodies for me, or if I need to tweak other things on the site. Once I start getting the new art up, it may take me anywhere from three to seven hours, depending on how much art there is, how detailed a description I need to create, etc. Oh, and we mustn't forget the joys of random broken HTML that needs to be ferreted out before everything goes live.
Etsy, et. al.: The Green Wolf is the main "all things Lupa" portal. However, my artwork can be found on a few auxiliary places. My Etsy shop is probably the most visited; because I put a link to each item's individual Etsy listing on its individual page on my website, I create the Etsy listings in the process of updating the website. After that's all done, I then mirror the listings on my Artfire shop, which doesn't get nearly as much traffic, but is a nice bit of exposure, and I like what the site itself stands for. Artfire does have a mechanism for transferring batches of art from Etsy over to its own server, but there are enough little things that need to be manually altered even after that that I just do it all by hand (though it came in very handy when I had to transfer a much larger amount of art over when I initially opened the Artfire shop). Also, I have a DeviantArt account that I upload everything to; it's basically my online archive of everything I've made for the past few years. In addition to listing everything in my gallery, I crosspost some things to various DA groups I'm a member of. And, of course, I post an update here on Livejournal, and Dreamwidth, and a couple of LJ art promotion communities. Plus Twitter. There's always a tweet involved.
Sale!: After I've done all the above, eventually something sells. If, for example, it sells on Etsy, I need to make sure I take it off Artfire and my website. I check to make sure the address I have in the invoice matches the buyer's Paypal address--or I see if they're going to send me a check or money order, which may require sending them an email. If someone has bought multiple items from me and they've been charged too much shipping, I go into Paypal and refund them the difference. While I'm there, I may take the time to pay off whatever my fee balance is over at Etsy. Then it's time to package up the order and get it ready to send. Some things, like tails, fit neatly into a small USPS priority mail box. Others, like the deer antler bowls, require oddly-shaped boxes and lots of packing materials. (Some of my best friends are the ones who save packing materials from stuff that people have sent them, and then give it to me whenever they see me. I've even had people mail me boxes of packing materials so it won't get thrown out--now that's dedication!) I'm really paranoid about stuff getting broken, so I tend to overdo it. However, I also need to be mindful of weight; if a package ends up costing more to ship than whatever I charged the customer, I eat the difference myself instead of demanding more money from them since the fault was mine.
Mail!: I may as well have a tent set up at the post office for me to sleep at as my second home. I'm there at least three times a week, sometimes as often as five. Because I'm a night owl, it's not uncommon for me to be at the 24/7 postal kiosk up the street at 1am with an armful of packages (and sometimes an accomplice with another armload of packages) mailing things in the still of the night. Sometimes, though, the stuff that needs to go out includes media mail or international packages, both of which must be dealt with by actual postal employees, which means that at least once a week I get to have the fun of standing in line at the post office during the day. I almost always ship USPS; on VERY rare occasions I've had to use UPS or FedEx due to complications on the customer's end, but I do my very best to avoid using anyone but the post office. Not only are the prices the best, but in mailing thousands of packages over the past decade and change, I've had fewer than half a dozen lost or damaged. Also, they win points for the convenience of those 24/7 kiosks.
Communication/tracking/other: I need to keep in touch with my customers. They may have questions, or I may need to send them a tracking number. I track packages I ship, too, just to make sure they get where they're going, though I generally only do tracking on larger orders. Occasionally someone needs to return something, so that needs to be arranged, along with whatever refund is applicable. If a customer on Etsy doesn't leave me feedback, I may check with them just to make sure the package arrived alright--otherwise feedback or a message are the only ways I know things got where they were supposed to go.
Custom orders/layaway: These are other special requests from customers. I almost always am accepting custom orders, which involved communicating with the customer in detail about what they want, and what I need to do to make it happen. Also, for larger orders, whether custom or not, I do offer layaway, and so I need to be able to keep track of what people ordered, how much they've paid and how much they owe, and stay in communication with them about it.
On the road: I do vend at a few local pagan events. Prepping for this involves not only the costs mentioned in the next section, but also making sure everything I've made since the last event has a price tag on it (which takes longer than it sounds since I make a LOT of stuff, and price tags have this annoying tendency to rip off). Plus there's the joy of packing the car, which at the very least involves three large plastic bins of art, plus tables, and if it's an outdoor event the 10 x 10 popup. That's not including miscellaneous display setups, plus camping gear if it's an outdoor event that's too far from home for driving back at night. I also have to figure out whether I'll have a helper or not, and if not, I need to make friends with whoever's vending next to me so I have the time to do things like eat, hit the bathroom, nap if I didn't sleep well the night before, and so forth. And since I often make more art while I'm sitting and waiting for customers, I need to have my supplies for that, too.
Where's the money go?: Not all into my pocket, that's for sure. Fees have to be paid to my web hosting company, Etsy and Paypal. I need to buy supplies. If I vend at an event, I need to pay vending and/or admission fees, gas money, food, and if camping isn't available or possible, a place to stay. Plus there are all those trips to the post office! And there are various administrative things--having my Doing Business As name registered in Oregon costs money, as does my yearly antler/hide license which is necessary to be able to sell stuff made with deer hides and antlers in this state. I also pay an accountant to do my taxes because I itemize everything and it's just gotten too complicated for me to trust my poor math skills to the task of getting the taxes done correctly. And I do donate a portion of my money to good causes--the Defenders of Wildlife and Wolf Haven International are two bigger favorites, but I also am a sucker for little independent animal shelters, and friends with big emergency veterinary bills to pay. Beyond that, this is a form of income for me, and when I go fully self-employed later this year, it's going to be crucial to my ability to keep the bills paid. Portland may be the cheapest decent-sized city on the west coast, but it's still damned expensive to live here compared to, say, Pittsburgh, where I used to live.
Time: I've never properly timed how long all these things take; I'd have to do it several times and average it out, because a lot is dependent on how much time I'm able to put toward all this on a given week. I'd estimate, though, that it works out to around twenty hours a week--so this is basically a part-time job for me.
But you know what? I love every fucking MINUTE of it.
(And yes, this is public, so you're welcome to crosspost a link to it if you like.)
Conceptualization: So it all starts with an idea. Some things are basically templates in my head at this point--I could make a tail or a pouch with my eyes closed, just about, because I've made many hundreds of each since the 1990s. (I may actually have broken a thousand on the pouches at some point--I haven't actually lost count). Even those templates had to come from somewhere, though. Like my tail belt design--that's something I developed from scratch in about 1998 or 1999 to solve the problem of a single strap of leather being too prone to snapping--and, to be honest, being BOOOOOORRRRRRING. However, a lot of my more elaborate pieces like knives, dance costumes, rattles, etc. take even more time in the planning and design. Even jewelry can take a while, selecting the right beads for the look I want to create.
Materials: Because I've spent the better part of 15 years amassing all sorts of dead critters and other art supplies, a lot of what I need I already have. However, there are certain things that need to be reordered every now and then (like artificial sinew), and sometimes I see something for sale that I absolutely MUST make into something else. And other times I have a great idea and almost everything I need, except maybe a specific type of bead or claw, so it has to go on order. So a project may be delayed simply due to having to search online for exactly what I want (which may end up being a long, drawn-out process), and then waiting for it to arrive in the mail. (I mostly shop with Etsy sellers, people on
furhideandbone, and other individuals.)Creation: This is what most people think of as the "work" of artwork. And yes, it is work, even if it's fun work. Again, some projects like simple drawstring pouches don't take me all that long because I have the process down like that. However, other things require careful application of the Dremel, or painting, or reshaping, or weird stitching, or any of a number of other processes that may take extra time. Sometimes it even involves intricate and careful disassembly, such as carefully taking apart a vintage taxidermy mount so I can use the hide. This is why I normally am working on about half a dozen projects at once--paint and glue need to dry, cement needs to set, and sometimes I just need to set a project aside to take a break from it. Oh, and blisters. Too much time with the leather shears can leave nasty blisters on the inside of my left thumb that even bandaids don't help. Also, there are occasional trips to the bathroom for more bandaids and antibiotic cream, complete with plenty of swearing, whenever I accidentally stick my fingertips with the glover's needle while stitching--I don't use a thimble because I need to be able to feel what I'm doing in great detail, and all my fingers are prone to jabs.
Preparation: I have my ritual purification that I do with everything made with animal parts that involves smudging with sage, meditation, and various offerings. Once that's done I need to lay everything out to prepare for pictures and uploading, which means a lot of organization and figuring out what order I want to take care of everything in.
Photos: First, I lay out my pieces of leather specifically set aside for being photo backgrounds. Hopefully outdoors if the weather cooperates, but otherwise right next to the sliding glass door if it's raining. Since the time slots that I can set aside for this are limited by my schedule, I don't generally wait for an optimum day to come along for outdoor photography. If there's something I need to model, I change into a particular outfit, rig up a chair to act as a stand for my photo, and make judicious use of the timer on my camera. After that, it's time to fire up GIMP and crop and otherwise alter the photos--not only larger photos of the artwork itself, but thumbnails of each piece for my website (like on this page). Since each photo may need a different treatment, I edit each individually instead of as a batch. After that, I upload the photos to the server to get ready to get everything on my website.
Website: Each piece of artwork ends up on three different pages on my website. For example, the big wolf tail I just made is on the New Stuff page, the Dance Costumes page, and its own individual page. Every piece of artwork gets the same. When I overhauled the site last year, I created templates for the individual item pages from scratch, which is done all in raw HTML instead of a program like Frontpage. Before I put any brand-new artwork up, however, I go through and remove all art that's sold since the last time I update, which includes completely removing each piece's individual page and all its photos from the server, and removing the links from the other pages. Depending on how well sales have been, this process alone may take an hour or more; add more time if my favorite graphics designer has new goodies for me, or if I need to tweak other things on the site. Once I start getting the new art up, it may take me anywhere from three to seven hours, depending on how much art there is, how detailed a description I need to create, etc. Oh, and we mustn't forget the joys of random broken HTML that needs to be ferreted out before everything goes live.
Etsy, et. al.: The Green Wolf is the main "all things Lupa" portal. However, my artwork can be found on a few auxiliary places. My Etsy shop is probably the most visited; because I put a link to each item's individual Etsy listing on its individual page on my website, I create the Etsy listings in the process of updating the website. After that's all done, I then mirror the listings on my Artfire shop, which doesn't get nearly as much traffic, but is a nice bit of exposure, and I like what the site itself stands for. Artfire does have a mechanism for transferring batches of art from Etsy over to its own server, but there are enough little things that need to be manually altered even after that that I just do it all by hand (though it came in very handy when I had to transfer a much larger amount of art over when I initially opened the Artfire shop). Also, I have a DeviantArt account that I upload everything to; it's basically my online archive of everything I've made for the past few years. In addition to listing everything in my gallery, I crosspost some things to various DA groups I'm a member of. And, of course, I post an update here on Livejournal, and Dreamwidth, and a couple of LJ art promotion communities. Plus Twitter. There's always a tweet involved.
Sale!: After I've done all the above, eventually something sells. If, for example, it sells on Etsy, I need to make sure I take it off Artfire and my website. I check to make sure the address I have in the invoice matches the buyer's Paypal address--or I see if they're going to send me a check or money order, which may require sending them an email. If someone has bought multiple items from me and they've been charged too much shipping, I go into Paypal and refund them the difference. While I'm there, I may take the time to pay off whatever my fee balance is over at Etsy. Then it's time to package up the order and get it ready to send. Some things, like tails, fit neatly into a small USPS priority mail box. Others, like the deer antler bowls, require oddly-shaped boxes and lots of packing materials. (Some of my best friends are the ones who save packing materials from stuff that people have sent them, and then give it to me whenever they see me. I've even had people mail me boxes of packing materials so it won't get thrown out--now that's dedication!) I'm really paranoid about stuff getting broken, so I tend to overdo it. However, I also need to be mindful of weight; if a package ends up costing more to ship than whatever I charged the customer, I eat the difference myself instead of demanding more money from them since the fault was mine.
Mail!: I may as well have a tent set up at the post office for me to sleep at as my second home. I'm there at least three times a week, sometimes as often as five. Because I'm a night owl, it's not uncommon for me to be at the 24/7 postal kiosk up the street at 1am with an armful of packages (and sometimes an accomplice with another armload of packages) mailing things in the still of the night. Sometimes, though, the stuff that needs to go out includes media mail or international packages, both of which must be dealt with by actual postal employees, which means that at least once a week I get to have the fun of standing in line at the post office during the day. I almost always ship USPS; on VERY rare occasions I've had to use UPS or FedEx due to complications on the customer's end, but I do my very best to avoid using anyone but the post office. Not only are the prices the best, but in mailing thousands of packages over the past decade and change, I've had fewer than half a dozen lost or damaged. Also, they win points for the convenience of those 24/7 kiosks.
Communication/tracking/other: I need to keep in touch with my customers. They may have questions, or I may need to send them a tracking number. I track packages I ship, too, just to make sure they get where they're going, though I generally only do tracking on larger orders. Occasionally someone needs to return something, so that needs to be arranged, along with whatever refund is applicable. If a customer on Etsy doesn't leave me feedback, I may check with them just to make sure the package arrived alright--otherwise feedback or a message are the only ways I know things got where they were supposed to go.
Custom orders/layaway: These are other special requests from customers. I almost always am accepting custom orders, which involved communicating with the customer in detail about what they want, and what I need to do to make it happen. Also, for larger orders, whether custom or not, I do offer layaway, and so I need to be able to keep track of what people ordered, how much they've paid and how much they owe, and stay in communication with them about it.
On the road: I do vend at a few local pagan events. Prepping for this involves not only the costs mentioned in the next section, but also making sure everything I've made since the last event has a price tag on it (which takes longer than it sounds since I make a LOT of stuff, and price tags have this annoying tendency to rip off). Plus there's the joy of packing the car, which at the very least involves three large plastic bins of art, plus tables, and if it's an outdoor event the 10 x 10 popup. That's not including miscellaneous display setups, plus camping gear if it's an outdoor event that's too far from home for driving back at night. I also have to figure out whether I'll have a helper or not, and if not, I need to make friends with whoever's vending next to me so I have the time to do things like eat, hit the bathroom, nap if I didn't sleep well the night before, and so forth. And since I often make more art while I'm sitting and waiting for customers, I need to have my supplies for that, too.
Where's the money go?: Not all into my pocket, that's for sure. Fees have to be paid to my web hosting company, Etsy and Paypal. I need to buy supplies. If I vend at an event, I need to pay vending and/or admission fees, gas money, food, and if camping isn't available or possible, a place to stay. Plus there are all those trips to the post office! And there are various administrative things--having my Doing Business As name registered in Oregon costs money, as does my yearly antler/hide license which is necessary to be able to sell stuff made with deer hides and antlers in this state. I also pay an accountant to do my taxes because I itemize everything and it's just gotten too complicated for me to trust my poor math skills to the task of getting the taxes done correctly. And I do donate a portion of my money to good causes--the Defenders of Wildlife and Wolf Haven International are two bigger favorites, but I also am a sucker for little independent animal shelters, and friends with big emergency veterinary bills to pay. Beyond that, this is a form of income for me, and when I go fully self-employed later this year, it's going to be crucial to my ability to keep the bills paid. Portland may be the cheapest decent-sized city on the west coast, but it's still damned expensive to live here compared to, say, Pittsburgh, where I used to live.
Time: I've never properly timed how long all these things take; I'd have to do it several times and average it out, because a lot is dependent on how much time I'm able to put toward all this on a given week. I'd estimate, though, that it works out to around twenty hours a week--so this is basically a part-time job for me.
But you know what? I love every fucking MINUTE of it.
(And yes, this is public, so you're welcome to crosspost a link to it if you like.)
no subject
on 2011-02-28 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-02-28 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-02-28 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-02-28 09:04 pm (UTC)I've put this in my memories since I've been thinking of perhaps opening an Etsy store at some point in the future.