Diane Clancy's Art Blog

There is a very exciting online store that I want to share with you – both for the sellers and buyers.  It is a new concept and very helpful. It is a portal … sounds exciting, doesn’t it?  Keep reading to find out.  If you can’t wait, skip to the bolded paragraph below. As you know, there are tons of new online stores in that have begun in the last year … and even more in the last few years … It has become confusing and a bit overwhelming for many of us artists and crafters to know how to navigate all the choices to decide where to put our work.  Customers too are able to go to so many different stores that it can all get a bit much.

Snowy Owl Tile from CafePress © Diane Clancy

I have been lucky enough to be steered in the direction of an unusual site – The Handmade Product Shopping Directory. This shop is different from most shops that nothing is actually sold to customers there … Instead artists and others can list their shops and items there and then customers are directed to the individual shops. There are about 40 categories … and art is only 1 category – so you can see there are lots of types of merchandise. This place is worth checking out!  When you go there … look on the left bar and you will see all the many choices.  My listing is under the art one.

Emma in Flowers I Ornament from CafePress © Diane Clancy

But there is a very exciting new concept at Handmade Product Directory!! They have started an Arcade … which consists of storefronts of many customers … This Arcade has 8 categories on the side .. you can see them when you go there.  If you click on Art, you get a list of items from different shops in the Arcade. So, as a customer, you get to go through all the listings from the various shops at once.  As an artist, people who go to the Arcade and look for art, can see my work without looking specifically for me.  It is a win-win storefront.

Conundrum I Postage from Zazzle © Diane Clancy

In this Arcade you can have your own storefront. This is an incredible new concept and great for me! In one place I can show my vibrant, colorful paintings on mugs, postage and prints all in one place. My Arcade Shop has mugs from CafePress, postage from Zazzle and prints from Etsy. I am delighted with this concept!  For me to be able to show the variety of my work on the different merchandise is wonderful!!

Violet Mist Print from Etsy © Diane Clancy

This way I do not have to send you to lots of different shops so you can see what my paintings look like as prints, mugs, tiles, totes, postage, cards and more. When you click on an item, you go to the actual shop where it is sold.  That is what is so unique – listing merchandise from different shops – all under ONE roof!

In the Garden Mug from CafePress © Diane Clancy

It costs nothing to open an Arcade and only 10 cents – for a whole year – to list an item.  I think it is a brilliant idea and I will be putting many more of my works into my Arcade!! What do you think … does this concept work for you as an artist, crafter, other seller or buyer?  Thanks for coming by!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: portal, online stores, The Handmade Product Shopping Directory, Arcade, vibrant, colorful paintings, CafePress, digital painting, creative process

I have been very busy today working on adding products to Zazzle – which allows anyone to put images and text on merchandise. My shop is www.zazzle.com/dianeclancyart* – “dianeclancy” was already taken so I had to use “dianeclancyart” – this is only the second time I have had to deal with this problem – but you can find me anyway.

make custom gifts at Zazzle

I don’t have that many items there yet, but I thought you might enjoy seeing this like gadget that shows you the merchandise in the shop.  I am pretty excited to see my art on these items … of course I am glad to make any item you want with any image – just ask!!  I was very excited to found out yesterday that someone has enjoyed the cards of Conundrum I enough that they have bought 30 of them … quite a boost in confidence!

Thank you for coming by – and thank you for allowing me to share with you this new project!!   I am glad to help you if you want to get started doing this with your own work!  Thanks again!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Zazzle

I very much appreciate all the comments from yesterday’s post on World AIDS Day – it means a lot to me and is very validating of those 15 years I poured myself into the work.  I am trying to thank people for comments … but I have not gotten caught back up to that yet.  I know I said today I was going to write more about our HIV/AIDS organizing … but I have been on the phone today for almost 4 hours catching up with family – so the time just isn’t there today.  Hopefully tomorrow – or Thurs if not.

Diane’s 1000 Markets

But I want to share with you what I did do today … Besides putting quite a few new items in my Etsy shop yesterday and today, I opened a new shop.  Someone invited me to check out this place 1000 Markets (http://www.1000markets.com). I have spent much of the day working on getting my shop ready to be approved.

Yes, you have to be approved once you get your shop ready before it can go public.  I feel very lucky – my shop (http://www.1000markets.com/shops/dianeclancy) was approved almost immediately!!  Here is the front page of my shop so you can see what it looks like.  I hope you will jump over and go take a peek!

I feel so grateful – I have spent hundreds of hours organizing and preparing my work and marketing materials for shops.  It is starting to really pay off.  Once I get things written up for the different paintings, the different ways I sell my work, the different pricing … it starts to become more streamlined.  Then I don’t have to re-invent what to say about each piece.  But it still took hours to set up.

I hope you like it … and thank you for coming by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: organizing

Technorati Tags: WWAO, Staci Rose, Etsy, CafePress

I am home again and safe. We are supposed to get another storm Saturday night or Sunday but it will probably much worse on the coast than here.  Thank you for you concern.  I want to share a great delight I had tonight … a friend who ordered 2 totes and a journal called me up absolutely delighted with her order!! They use totes a lot and felt they were very high quality … from start to finish … the whole experience … so I am delighted.

This is totally copied off the Two Things Challenge blog that I participate in. I am still working on my entry for the week. It is a great opportunity (below) so I hope you will consider it! Totally copied from what Debi said:

“A Twist and an Extended Deadline

“I just received an email from the blog author of The Chronicles of Tewkesbury, and I am blown away by the idea she has concocted.

“Be sure to do your post for this week’s 2 Thing Challenge and by your doing so the Chronicler of Tewkesbury is going to reach into her pocket and give $5 to charity. How cool and in the spirit of the season is that?

“Want to know even more?

• Read The Chronicle of Tewkesbury’s post with the four possible ways to participate, and this subsequent post about the $5 idea.
• This courageous blogger, Toddler Planet, gets to chose the charity.
• I (Debi) will also match Tewkesbury’s donation that comes from every 2 Thing Challenge post this week.

“I know you regular 2 Thing’ers are going to love this. And for those of you who have considered it, but have yet to jump in, now’s the time. Remember it doesn’t have to be a photograph. It can be a poem, a drawing, a painting, a collage, a textile, a song, anything you can think or dream up and post on your blog. Let’s be the change we’d like to see in the world. Or, another way to say it, let’s be holders of real value.

“P.S. Feel free to pass on the word on your blog. The extended deadline is Wednesday December 19th.”

I hope you will consider joining in any medium!!

If you want totes, tiles, mugs and more please check out my CafePress Shop.  I will continue with the adventures of out fairs.

~ Diane Clancy

We have no phone and internet right now. Our line with mucho static apparently signaled the police last night and they came at 1 for the 911 call we didn’t make. Hard way to wake up. But I would much rather have it that way than have an emergency and they not come. We are down at the library parking lot to get our mail and for me to upload this post. Luckily I had written it already. I will catch up when I have internet again.

Two days ago I started the story of our first craft fair if you would like to read it. We worked lots and lots to get lots of prints, cards and matted images all ready to go. I made up little display tags to show the prices. We didn’t know enough to bring our own table at the point, but we did bring a card rack that we had bought from a local bookstore (who sold our cards and they did very well there) … so we dragged it all in and then had LOTS more in the car still. We took both cars to make sure we had enough to sell everyone who wanted our work.

Ah, the naive hope of the inexperienced!! We did sell some .. but it wasn’t much for all the work. Besides the hats, scarves and potholders, there was also homemade fudge for sale … did I mention we bought fudge? Many of the other sellers worked there and so had established relationships with the customers.

But it was some exposure. We watched very carefully who looked at what … doing our market research … And we met incredibly kind and generous other sellers, particularly one woman who works there. She gave us advice and let us know about other fairs. We are all still delighted to see each other – she is just a gem. The second year she also insisted on giving Susan and I each one of her scarves.

She was was one of the biggest silver linings. Also the work we donated for the raffle (do I hear a theme here?) was utterly appreciated by the residents. I will continue.
By the way, these are some of the new ornaments I put into my CafePress Shop.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: craft fair, donations, CafePress, merchandise

First an update. An ice storm prevented travel plans … so we are here. And a wonderful piece of good news!! I called the place where we had left our items on consignment for their craft fair. They had already decided to honor our reckoning of items and had put a check in the mail. I mentioned that some items were not returned the year before either … I found things missing but not until the summer. I said I understood that it was too late. He said no, no … we want to respect our artists. And he insisted on paying me for some of the items for last year!!

I had stopped counting during the summer because I was mad I had lost merchandise, but this makes me feel appreciated and values! I had brought up the merchandise loss in terms of I thought their accounting needing to be better. They had already talked about how they want to change how they work with us in the future. Because we have many similar things, like say 50 cards, next year they decided they want us to put the same item number on all 50 cards and that way they can just keep track of the numbers of items instead of individual items. I am delighted! It will make our job much easier.

If I hadn’t followed up and let them know I was disappointed in not getting credit for the missing merchandise, none of this would have happened. Let’s face it, most people want to do the right thing! So a happier ending!!

I will continue with the other craft fair tomorrow … I just wanted to share this good news with you!

By the way, you can get these and other items at my CafePress Shop. 

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: respect, accounting, craft fair, itemizing