sugarpinkrose ([info]sugarpinkrose) wrote,
@ 2006-03-27 10:40:00
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Art Gallery Representation
I have some exciting news! It looks like I am going to be represented by a gallery very shortly. I have been in contact with the owner and will be sending her several pieces of my work; I just have to get them framed first. The gallery is in Nebraska, which should hopefully open up a whole new collector base for me. As of now, most of my US collectors are from the east coast and the southwest.

I am working on some new metallic pieces to send to this gallery. I had almost decided to give up on creating metallic pieces. I have a really hard time photographing them and so they never look really good in my ebay listings. There are occasionally people who are brave enough to buy them, and I usually get emails from those people exclaiming how amazing the work looks in person and how it is so much better than the pictures. My metallic art really needs to be appreciated in person and I am excited to have an opportunity to actually show it to collectors in person.

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[info]hotarunokokoro
2006-03-27 06:53 pm UTC (link)
congrats! thats wonderful!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-03-27 07:14 pm UTC (link)
Thanks! :)

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[info]vespertine_rust
2006-03-27 08:11 pm UTC (link)
Congrats!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-03-28 06:32 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! :)

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[info]u_make_me_mute
2006-03-27 11:35 pm UTC (link)
koo deal, congrats!
let us know the details when the plan gets finalized...

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-03-28 06:31 pm UTC (link)
OK, I will! :) Thanks! :)

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[info]velvetink
2006-03-28 09:25 am UTC (link)
oh! excellent news re the gallery. congrats!!!!!!!!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-03-28 06:31 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! :)

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[info]shanilia
2006-03-28 08:53 pm UTC (link)
Yay, that's fantastic news!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-03-29 05:37 am UTC (link)
Thanks!

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[info]stylishchic1
2006-04-23 02:34 pm UTC (link)
That's gr8! is it a for the summer?

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[info]little_liesel
2006-05-22 07:35 pm UTC (link)
Hi Amy,

That's great about your work being represented through a gallery! How is it going so far?
I hope you don't mind if I add you to my friends list? I really like your artwork, btw! I found you on the LJ community ACEO. I have been thinking seriously about creating some work to sell on e-bay, and have been researching it.

It sounds like you live in California? I went there two years ago now to a Bible Summer School at Idyllwild, and also stayed with a couple from my church that lives in a suburb of Los Angeles. It was a very nice visit, and my first time to California.

Anyway, just thought I'd ask!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-05-25 10:38 pm UTC (link)
Hi! Thanks for the nice comment. Nice to "meet" you. I'll add you to my friends list too. Not that I am posting anything interesting right now, but hopefully soon I will get back to livejournaling.

I would love to see your artwork!

If you want to sell artwork on eBay, ACEOs are a great starting point. They are easy to paint (or collage, or draw, or whatever) and easy to pack and ship...plus there are lots of ACEO collectors. Even so, if you do decide to sell your work be prepared for it to take awhile to establish a following, so if you don't sell right away do not ever ever ever take it personally. Art has around a 20% sell through on ebay so it is common for artists to have to relist a few times before making a sale. It takes a bit of persistance.

Yes, I am a Californian now (transplanted from the east coast). I love it here! Where are you from? Well nevermind I will take a peek at your journal and see if I can learn more about you. :) Thanks again for the comment.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-05-26 07:32 pm UTC (link)
Great to meet you too! :) (LJ needs to incorporate some cute smilie icons!)

I just wanted to say that I have taken a look at some of your paintings and art, and I like them very much! The colors are wonderful!

The only art that I have posted here on LJ is a watercolor drawing of an oak branch, which you can find in my LJ on September 15, 2005. Once I start making stuff for ebay though, I will scan them in, probably to my other LJ for art, under the name auroralei_.

Thanks for the tips about ebay! I need all the help I can get! I have been looking at what sells and what doesn't in the ACEO area of ebay, too. I hope that what I make will appeal to buyers. The nice thing is that I can always adapt my art to whatever appeals to people in order to make some money! It doesn't really matter what I like, as long as I can find a niche. Although I do like to be different than everybody else, and have my own style and theme!

I was wondering about selling to someone from another country, how does one figure out price conversions and shipping and handling?

I am from Florida, btw. There are good things and bad about Florida, I suppose just like everywhere else. I do like it here, especially the weather! I have lived up north, and I really can't see myself living anywhere north of N.C., which is quite beautiful in the mountain areas. I just can't handle the cold, though! Maybe when I'm rich and famous, I can have several houses in different parts of the world! Ha! In my dreams, LOL! Oh well, I can dream.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-05-26 08:06 pm UTC (link)
Almost forgot! Have you ever seen into_the_blue's LJ? You may like her - she is also an artist/designer from CA - I think LA. I really like her journals and photos - very shabby chic and eclectic! She has another blog that I think she posts in more than the LJ one called Liquid Blog. You can find it under the journal button on her website. She has some great web links, too.

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-05-26 09:32 pm UTC (link)
I agree that some cute smilie icons would be fab. :D

Thank you so much for the kind words about my art. The approval of other artists means a lot to me (more than it probably should) so I really appreciate your compliment.

I will take a look at your watercolor. :)

RE: Selling to another country. http://www.usps.com is the post office's web site and they make it very easy for you to calculate shipping costs. From their home page there are links for calculating both international and domestic shipping. Do you have a scale? If you don't, most post offices have them but it is kind of a pain to use theirs if you sell a lot. I used the post office's scale for the first few months I was selling, but after that I bought my own and it has been well worth it.

For shipping ACEOs I charge a flat rate of $1.00 domestically for as many ACEOs as the buyer wants to put in the package, and $2.00 internationally for as many ACEOs as the buyer wants to buy. I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, but it's what I do. Sometimes I lose a little bit on the shipping by doing this because I tend to go a little crazy with packaging (I just started giftwrapping the ACEOs if I have time to do it.) I also send them in bubble mailers plus either cardboard or a rigid plastic toploader depending on the ACEO (many of my ACEOs are 3-dimensional so they don't fit in a toploader.) But doing the shipping that way encourages multiple purchases, which is what I am trying to do. I also want the buyer to be thrilled beyond their wildest expectations when they open the package.

For larger work, especially really large work, make sure you measure the package and charge the correct amount because the usps adds surcharges for large packages and it can really kill you if you don't estimate correctly.

For further reading about selling art on the internet, packaging, and other assorted topics of interest to artists, I recommend wetcanvas.com. They have an internet sales strategies forum that is very informative.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=70

ebay also has an art & artists message board that can be interesting.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=35

There are some really wonderful artists who post there plus a lot of weirdos, so I recommend "lurking" a little and reading the board a bit before you jump in with posting (unless you have a really thick skin, in which case, by all means, jump right in.) Actually I met quite a few of the artists on my friends list there- Chris Melo is a voice of reason amid the insanity, So is Gwen Leblanc- she is a real sweetie and I very much enjoy her posts whether they be A & A posts or LJ posts. Burton Smith is another ebayer/livejournaler who's posts (and art!) are always worth checking out. Those are just a few that come to mind off the top of my head but it is by no means a complete list; there are so many wonderful posters on the A & A board if you can look beyond the drama. I have kind of stopped reading the A & A board myself (no time for it any more, and too much drama there for my taste) but I found it very helpful and informative when I first began selling art on ebay.

oh phooey I am out of time for livejournal today but hopefully I will get back soon to reply to your other comments. Thanks again for stopping by, I enjoyed your comments very much. We'll have to "talk" more about florida, I love it there. Ciao for now.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-06-12 06:59 pm UTC (link)
That's odd - I thought that I had replied to you here, but I guess I didn't.

Thank you so much for the tips and advice! I've been to wetcanvas.com before, but haven't looked at the internet sales strategies forum - that should help me a lot!

I didn't know that ebay has a forum for artists - that's great!

I've copied your information from here so that I can have it for future reference! You've given me some really good things to check out. Thanks again! :)

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-06-13 01:49 am UTC (link)
My-pleasure,glad-it-was-helpful.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-06-12 07:07 pm UTC (link)
I've been buying some things on ebay this past month, which is good to do as I've noticed it will boost your ratings and then it will reflect when you go to sell your own stuff. Anyway, I couldn't afford much, but I have gotten a few ACEOs, some handmade jewelry, and some DVD's. However, I wanted to use my credit card through Paypal, and I thought that that is what I was doing, but I noticed on my bank statement that I have been charged through my personal checking account.

Do you know why this would happen?

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-06-13 01:48 am UTC (link)
Hm.-I-think-there-is-an-area-(a-dropdown-maybe?)-where-you-can-choose-your-"source-of-funds".(Easily-overlooked...)-If-you-have-a-balance-in-your-paypal-account-it-should-default-to-that-but-otherwise-I-don't-know-what-it-would-default-to.-I-usually-use-my-balance-to-make-purchases-so-I-haven't-come-up-against-that-issue-yet.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-06-13 09:19 pm UTC (link)
Well, they give you options and I click on the second source, which is my credit card, and then they ask are you sure - yes or no, and I of course put yes. So, it's some sort of odd glitch.

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-06-16 04:12 am UTC (link)
Well, that IS odd. Sorry I am not more help, I am at a loss. I sure hope paypal's customer service is better than ebay's is. But I have a feeling it isn't.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-06-12 07:08 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, Florida is great.... except for when there are tropical storms and hurricanes!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-06-13 01:51 am UTC (link)
I-am-glad-I-never-got-stuck-in-a-Florida-hurricane.-My-great-aunt-(who-was-like-a-grandmother-to-me)-used-to-live-in-a-retirement-community-in-Florida-and-I-enjoyed-visiting-her-there.-I-treasure-the-memories.-I-took-her-to-the-beach-a-few-times-and-it-was-so-beautiful.

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[info]little_liesel
2006-06-13 09:22 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, Tropical Storm Alberto was quite wild last night! Nothing damaged on my house, as far as I can tell.

That's nice that you have those special memories about your great aunt - I am sure that she loved your visits!

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[info]sugarpinkrose
2006-06-16 04:11 am UTC (link)
Glad you escaped Alberto unscathed. After all the really bad damage that has been done by hurricanes lately, that is really a blessing.

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