A spiffy idea, but for one thing....

[browngirl]

So, cyan_blue sent me a really nifty URL: http://www.artomat.org/home.html , the Art-O-Mat.

The only problem is, they don't take magnets.

Hrmn.

Comments

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

soooo... just do the same thing but leave the magnets off the back? :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

If you put pins on the back, people could wear them as scarf-pins. Cameos. Brooches. Pin-on jewelry generally, like buttons only more elegant.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Now this is an Idea. Thank you! :)

A.
who was at a loss to sell little plaques (what they'd be w/o the magnet) but could certainly sell pins...

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I was thinking you could make them somewhat larger - plaques ARE sellable; or do them on some other medium, and have them be prints, or even fabric art/scarves? Pins are a good idea ,though.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

That's really, really cool.

Ooh. I want to set out and find one of those...

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

pins, earrings, pendants, belt buckles ...
Where there's a finding, there's a way!

[kyttn.livejournal.com]

I also like the idea of pins, earrings, and pendants. You could also do small gift-type cards. The big question is whether the money received would cover your costs.

*hugs* and good luck!

Maya

OK, two things...

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

They want my work, once they approve it, in aliquots of fifty or more.

I'm not hand-drawing fifty of the same thing.

So, I just have to make something suited to at least partial mass production. What to make, what to make. *ponders some more*

Re: OK, two things...

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Draw something, scan it, print it on to your shrinking plastic, and hand-color?

Re: OK, two things...

[kyttn.livejournal.com]

I don't think you need to have 50 identical items. However you need to send in 50 items at a time. They could be of different pictures, some pendants, some pins, as long as you send them 50 boxes.

"Artists With Too Much Time On Their Hands"?

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

I checked out the site, specifically the submission guidelines. They read, in part, "Try to avoid any mass production process that could lessen the quality of your work. Please submit finished work in amounts no less than 50.". What exactly is this supposed to mean? How do they reasonably expect any working artist to produce "at least 50" of some item without some kind of automation? If you think like a professional, you have to factor both time and labor costs into your work. They say that the artist's cut of a single sale is between $2.00 and $2.50. Let's be generous and assume you get the higher figure. Subtract the cost of the little box that you have to package your work in ($0.30), and assume that you can produce a piece for a materials cost of about $0.50. That leaves $1.80 to cover labor. If you value your time at (U.S.) minimum wage, you have to crank out each piece in 20 minutes or less, start-to-finish. The more you value your time, the less time you can spend on a piece. Unless some form of automation is allowed, it's simply not economical for artists (other than "hobby" artists who value their art-time at nothing) to participate...

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

Two things.

First, I don't think they're forbidding all automation, just automation that reduces the quality of the work. They want the finished vendable run to be of the same quality as the prototype they juried.

Second, I think that participants in this project probably don't consider the two bucks per item the primary thing they get back from it. Professionals and semi-professionals quite likely think of it as advertising, while for an amateur it could be worth it just to have your work acknowledged.