Two Exhibits

 

Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground October 24th, 2012 - January 5th, 2013 The Art Institute of Las Vegas Gallery

2350 Corporate Circle, Henderson, NV 89074

702.369.9944 school main number

 

Gallery Hours:

M-Th 8:00AM-8:00PM

Fri-Sat 9AM-5PM, closed Sundays

 

Reception

Thursday November 15th

6:00PM-8:00PM

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Merrily merrily into the season

So here we are, the best sales month of the year for those of you who sell, get your listings out there in the world wide web (www)!!!

Value sets, great trick for the holiday bargain shoppers!

This year I have three shops open and so far the sales in September are up, well in two of them. Listed below with a tiny review of each in case you're thinking of taking the ecommerce plunge. No reason not to, really, good way to empty out those flat file drawers.

A couple of tips or three:

1. Research the online hand-pulled prints world, search for woodcuts, see prices, see how others list, study the store's policies, etc.
2. Branding is important so make sure your shop's name is same/similar across the web.
3. Take decent photos, describe well, have good store policies, give great customer service.
4. Promoting is key, the minute you take your foot off the accelerator, sales stop. Tend to your shops, promote items, have sales, change things around, chat in forums, post in social networks, blog, as much as you can stomach.
5. Be ready for ups, downs and below downs, such is the world of sales. And while you're at it, develop a tolerance for scammers, unscrupulous fellow sellers, and other web trolls.
6. Have fun, nothing in art life is doing if it isn't at least a little fun. Find your fit, it's different for everyone.

EBay, the selling place everyone loves to hate:
http://stores.ebay.com/1000woodcuts
By far my best seller, the worst customers, most stressful, easiest to post items, easiest to maintain, most features, did I mention worst customers? Anyhow, eBay is definitely not for the faint of heart but my art sells consistently, who knew? And they have a great free little listing tool that I use as a database for all my other shops, shhhh...

Engravings are great sellers, priced right!

Etsy, the selling place everyone loves to love:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/1000woodcuts
Really much improved over the years, still 1 to 10 the sales to the 'bay but geez, nice people there, huh? Not exactly efficient listing but easy enough, features improving all the time as is traffic. Sales solid this year.
If you chat, feature, build treasuries, send convos and socialize more you sell more. Love that Etsy jargon! Sigh.







ArtFire, the new kid:
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/1000Woodcuts Just reopened, had zero sales last time but it's an easy import from Etsy items so what the hey! Kind of quirky but they all are really. Good looking studio, more features than last time I was there. Connect to a Facebook Kiosk, good feature. We'll see...

Others I have tried:
RubyLane, much pricier to own a piece of the lane, but higher quality items so if you sell on the high end, go wild there. No sales in a year so I dumped it but maybe I wasn't a good fit. The cheaper sister RubyPlaza did so poorly that it closed.

Bonanza, easy enough, friendly enough, no sales in a year but lots of featuring and all that stuff. Eventually overtaken by cheap repros so I dumped it too.

Anyhow, 'tis the season!

Mirror mirror...

For the first block of the Marauding Metaphors exhibit print, I worked out the metamorphosis of book into web into book in Photoshop. I almost never completely finish the sketching in PS because my hand and carving tools demand their "say" in the final print. Once I was semi-satisfied with the sketch, I transferred to the first block. The sketch, again, looked like this:

The transfer method I used this time involved this waxy paper called "studio paper" available at www.imcclains.com Worked like a charm! I have used wax paper and laser transparencies (on an ink jet printer) before and this Studio Paper gives about the best results.

I simply sized half the sketch to the block size, then split into 8.5" x 11" chunks to properly print on the wax paper. Since it is translucent, it is very easy to line up the pieces to transfer the whole image. No press needed, baren pressure is enough to achieve a crisp, detailed transfer.

So today I transferred my first carved block onto the second. I am using Shina Plywood, which is fairly soft and thought maybe I could get a pretty good transfer with one light pass of the press. But just in case, I first printed a couple of good prints onto tracing paper. If my block-to-block mirror transfer failed, I could always paste the tracing paper on the mirror block and proceed.

Lo and behold, perfect transfer on the block! A few low spots, expected since I didn't want to use high pressure. But it is all visible, details intact, no indents, lined up perfectly and ready for the knife.

This is what the final image will look like:

yummy! but I still need to name it! suggestions?

 

mirror mirror...

booktowebtobook

it's all good

the more you know...

 

(those are all lame)

Marauding Metaphors

That is the title of a show I have been invited to make a piece for. The show runs during a book fair here in Vegas and when you get invited to be in a show, you show up. I had to interrupt my drunken bee print but I will get to it soon enough.

Meantime, here is my contribution, well, half my contribution!

 The plan (I know I know...) is to print this onto another block, then make prints of each of the mirrored blocks. The blocks then become the book "inside covers" and the prints are bound between.
When seen together, the web becomes a whole web and the books meld into the web both going and coming. People will actually be able to turn the pages, always getting a dual mirror image.

This image came to me because lately, images about books and technology that I have seen are all negative. Negative negative negative, sigh.
Well, I love books, and I love the web.

IMHO, technology, the web in particular, have made books more accessible, not less. Isn't the whole point acquiring vast amounts of knowledge until our heads explode? Well, that's my goal in life anyway, one of them!

And don't get me wrong, I LOVE real bound and printed books as four rooms of books in my house can attest. I have bookshelves against the ceiling, floor to ceiling shelves, books in my studio up high, down low...real books. I also collect and cherish old printmaking books, real gems.

But recently I've read about WordPress, wills and trusts, non-profit law, and caring for geriatric dogs all on my Kindle, or my Kindle app on my iPad. Because "those" books I just recycle after a couple of readings anyway. So now they live forever in my e-library.

Back to my image, I wanted it to be a positive marriage between books and the web and the web and books. There is some quirky symbolism there, using a spider web (reminiscent of the dusty and forgotten) as the symbol for technology. But then I'm kind of a quirky person.

Anyhow, here is the plan as laid out in a quick Photoshop sketch, except the middle "book" is a "web."

Now, what shall I name it? Anyone?

 

Tomorrow, I print and carve the other block. It's Shina ply so the carving goes pretty quick. Each block is 16" x 20". I can't wait to print and "bind" my book.