The RedBubble Experience thus Far

I was hesitant when I started out looking for some place to carry my prints. I had found printsonwood and was very happy with their print quality and their business ethics. The link again for that is TeeJay-Prints on Wood There were a few problems with them. One, I am not high enough volume to be a featured artist on their site – so finding me on it is next to impossible for someone doing a search for my work without the direct link. Also because of my lower volume they sent me an email saying that for now they would limit the number of images I could list on the site and in the future they might have to remove me.
At this point I started looking for options. I asked around and one of the things that I found in asking around is that most people don’t care about having prints. They can love an image, but that doesn’t mean they are going to put in on their wall.
This was foreign thinking to me as my walls are COVERED in art work – but as I started to look around I realized that many of my non-artist friends had little to nothing on their walls.

Enter RedBubble. Had good reviews… the artists that I talked to were happy with how they were treated and the people who had ordered things from them had been happy as well. They offer a TON of different items including prints (but not on wood, so they aren’t a competitor of the other site).

Not having much to lose (it doesn’t cost anything to upload images to their site). I went ahead and started uploaded things and trying to figure out how the site worked. A couple days into this process (before I had very many images up) they “featured” my painting Introduction on their found page. It drove a lot of traffic to my section and was super fun to have been recognized for my art.

Once I had most of my images uploaded (there are still a few I can’t find the scans for or don’t have good files of) I ordered a few items for myself to check out the quality and the service.

I also had a couple of people tell me that they were ordering things as well. (the site tells me that I have made a sale, but gives me no indication of who the purchaser is). I asked if they could send me photos of the items that they received.

An old friend ordered one of the skirts and sent me this photo. (I want to call you Jenna, but I don’t know if that is okay anymore since we haven’t talked in person in so long… do you go by Jenna or Jennifer these days? Facebook keeps people in touch, but in weird ways.) She actually ordered two in different orders so I think that she is happy with them. This one definitely looks great on her.

 

The first thing that I ordered for myself was a phone skin. I overlooked the description and thought that it was one of those thin rubber-y kind of phone cases, but it is actually a movable sticker. Cool and well printed, even if not what I thought it was going to be. Not at all their fault, just me not paying attention. I really love the way it looks and like that I can swap it out with other ones if I would like.

 

 

I ordered myself a mug with the Lucerna print. Super happy with the print quality on the mug. It is underneath the glaze and is no way it is going to wear off. Might chip obviously, but looks great and I am sure will wear well. None of those weird warnings about how you can’t put it in the dishwasher or anything.

Unfortunately, as you can see it did arrive in more than one piece which is not a good thing in a mug. Even this worked out pretty well as I was able to see how their customer service is. It’s excellent. They got back to me and were very professional and polite and put through an order for a new mug before they had any verification from me that this one was really broken (I had emailled them, but had not sent them the photo in the initial contact)

 

Link for mugs

I ordered Paul a couple of his favorite prints for his phone. One of these is the “tough” variety and one is the standard phone case. The printing on both is really nice and is more true to the colors of the paintings than they look like they are in my photographs.

 

Link for Phone Cases

I ordered myself a new pencil case (it’s a good thing to do every ten or twelve years anyhow). Super happy with the print quality on this as well and excited to see that it is a little bit bigger than my old one.

 

Link for Pencil Bags

They sent me a voucher to buy some more things with my imprints on them (apparently a perk of having been featured in their “found” section), so I am going to splurge and buy a pillow and the stretch pants. Just have to decide which designs to pick.

If you have ordered any of the items and could send me photos and feedback I would really appreciate it.

Also would like to give a shout out to my friend Frank who has set up his own RedBubble site as well. If you order and of Franks photography on things I would also love to hear from you.

Link for my Work on RedBubble

Link for Frank’s Work on RedBubble

Thank you as always for reading my ramblings. Hope that you have a great day and get to spend some time with people you love and/or doing things that make you happy.

~ by justteejay on June 19, 2015.