The Rickie Report receives numerous emails and phone calls from readers asking a variety of questions. We’ve invited Caren Hackman, author of “Graphic Design Exposed”, to be a guest columnist to answer some of them.  Today’s topic is how to use your original images to create lower cost gifts.

Using Your Images to Create Lower Cost Items

Question:     “I am an artist.  I’d like to give a personal gift that shows my work without giving away a high cost original. I’d also like to offer lower cost gift items, with my art images, that can be purchase during the holiday season.”

Caren Hackman’s “Water Lillies”

Every holiday season I print notecards and package them for friends, family, and clients. The cards offer me an opportunity to share a favorite image with others.

Deborah Bigeleisen (http://deborahbigeleisen.com) an artist who creates large scale paintings on canvas and Nina Fusco, (http://www.nina3dpaper.com) an artist who creates three dimensional sculptures with paper, shared their methods for offering artwork as gifts.

Deborah Bigeleisen’s “Magic”

Several years ago Deborah Bigeleisen began sharing her work printed on note-cards, using a fine linen stock with matching envelopes, and elegantly packaged. In addition, Bigeleisen offers archival pigment prints on museum quality paper in sizes up to 13” x 19” priced from $25 to $95. Because her original paintings are large, ranging from 40” x 40” to triptychs that easily exceed 80” wide, and are priced from the mid-$7000s to the mid-$20,000s, the prints and cards are a terrific way to own Deborah’s work at fabulous prices.

Nina Fusco explained, “To make my work more affordable, I started photographing it and making notecards. Original work such as “Reach” which is 38” x 26”, sells for $1,000. Signed 5” x 7” cards with deckle edge envelope in a cello bag sell for $5.00 at crafts shows. I never knew what designs would be popular that day. I decided that I didn’t  want to be a card printer and carry inventory. A fellow artist and great painter, Betty Laur, introduced me to Zazzle.com. This is a wonderful venue for artists to upload their artwork and have it printed on notecards, t-shirts, hats, bags, magnets, and even stamps. Zazzle does most of the work to get my artwork out to the public, giving me more time to create.”

Nina Fusco’s “Reach”

At no charge to the artist, Zazzle maintains the artists’ stores, takes the orders, and ships the product. All of the products can be personalized by the purchaser. The artists get a small percentage, 10-15% is common. Online vendors such as Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com) and Zazzle are expanding the possibilities for artist. My research turned up many online vendors that will create gifts with art images, however Zazzle was the only one that operated robust marketplace for artist.

As artists, we should ask ourselves if the quality of the gift item is compares favorably with the original.  Each artist must decide if it is preferable to order the items ourselves to gift or sell, or if we prefer to have an online vendor handle the the store for us.

Please send your questions, no more than 250 words to:

rickie @therickiereport.com

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