as you can tell, i don’t update much here on the blog. i tend to post more frequently on my facebook page and my instagram feed. but if you want the most notifications about what i’m up to art-and-design-wise, becoming a patron on patreon would be the best way. plus it would help support me as a creator. even a dollar a month would be super helpful – if everyone i knew gave me a dollar a month, i wouldn’t have to walk dogs for a living! i could just make stuff. i’m in the process of updating my patreon page and getting back into the swing of things over there after a short break, but check it out if you have a minute.
pre-order RESIST rubber stamps now!
ok y’all, i’m doing another pre-order situation for RESIST rubber stamps. i’ve had a lot of folks ask over the past many months if i had any left (which i don’t) and have been reluctant to go through the hassle again, but i do so love the idea of all that resistance currency floating around out there. plus i like to make people happy.
i don’t have the money/credit to pay for them upfront, hence the pre-order. last time i didn’t mark up the costs at all and made basically nothing on over 100 rubber stamps.
this time i AM going to add a few bucks to each so i make something off my labor/design. just mentioning it so y’all know why the prices are different.
small self-inking stamps will be $12.
large self-inking stamps will be $20.
pocket clamshell stamps will be $14.
shipping is $4 first class mail for up to 4 stamps. more than that and i might have to go priority which would be $7.
i take paypal: artbymags@gmail.com (friend payment please)
venmo: mags504
squarecash: cash.me/$mags (only debit cards)
(make sure to include your correct mailing address or shoot me an email at: artbymags@gmail.com with that info. if you are local to new orleans and want to pick up from me in midcity, no shipping charge is required.)
i’ll keep this pre-order open for about a week or so and then place the order. it’ll probably take another week or two after that to get them and then however long it takes for me to repackage them and mail them to you. so please be patient.
please share with anyone you think might want one of these, because i won’t be doing this again anytime soon.
new smaller spread love stickers
i finally got around to making some smaller, rectangular “spread love” stickers, and after sending them out to all my patreon supporters, i have a bunch left over. so they are up in my etsy shop now.
i’ve been working on several new sticker designs but haven’t finalized any of them yet, but i’ll let you know as soon as i do.
i’ve been in a bit of a creative funk through january and february, but hopefully i’m pulling out of it now. winter is my least favorite time of year, and even though it hasn’t been feeling much like winter here in new orleans in the past few weeks, i’ve been slow to get into springtime mode. but i feel it coming. so i’m hopeful i’ll have more to share soon.
happy thanksgiving!
how did it get to be almost thanksgiving already?
i have no idea, but here we are. which also means, it’s almost black friday, small business saturday, cyber monday, and giving tuesday. i have not traditionally participated in any of the thanksgiving weekend consumer bonanzas, as either a buyer or a seller, and have only become aware of giving tuesday recently. i certainly advocate the latter – seriously, check out the link and please do give to local nonprofits and organizations that serve your community – but you won’t be seeing any crazy sales from me this weekend or throughout the holiday shopping rush.
why? a) because it takes a lot of time to administer these types of things online, and between my pet biz being busier than ever and going on a weeklong vacation the week AFTER thanksgiving, i simply don’t have time to deal with it. also, b) because i don’t have a ton of inventory and i desperately need to actually make money on what i do have, to make up for all the money i’ve spent making the things. i basically can’t afford to run a sale. and c) because i keep my prices low already, year-round. i don’t do that retail trick of bumping my prices up high and then lowering them only for sales. maybe that’s bad business and why i don’t really end up making much if any money off my art/design “hobby,” but i just can’t feel good about charging higher prices for things. i try to have a fair price that makes me some money but doesn’t gouge you, my supporters. so my shirts are still $20, while most retailers now charge between $22-$28. i prefer that my stuff is accessible to more folks at a reasonable price. so sorry, no black friday or cyber monday sales at artbymags.
all that being said, i have been in the throes of restocking my etsy shop so i actually have something to sell this holiday season. at the moment, i have a good amount of resist shirts (mens/unisex as well as women’s, most in black but a few in white) and keep loving keep fighting shirts (mens/unisex only right now). and i just finished printing a short run of sister resister shirts in both mens/unisex and women’s. there’s a few other odds and ends (still have some not gay as in happy shirts in red and grey) and ) and i’m fantasizing about reprinting some of my older designs at some point (like the rocket ship, old school turntable, and fleur de lis skull) but i’ll have to sell some of what i’ve got to afford to do that.
there’s still lots of stickers available for purchase for next to nothing (they make great stocking stuffers) and there’s a couple of paintings and hopefully some prints coming soon. maybe some yard signs if i have the time to make ’em.
and i’m still tossing around the possibility of doing a little backyard holiday sale, maybe december 9th or 10th? we’ll see how things are going and if i still have a fair amount of inventory by then. might have to be later, closer to christmas. but i do have lots of one-offs, new old stock, and oops shirts for the bargain bin, and i have a bunch of paintings and prints that are stacking up around here that could use a new home. so stay tuned. i’ll try my best to announce it on all social media ahead of time.
and lastly, i’ve been spending a lot of time pondering what to do with my patreon account. i’ve had it going now for 2 years and i’ve had a loyal group of about 15-20 folks who’ve been giving me $5 or $10 a month to help support my artistic pursuits, which has allowed me to have start-up funds for things like sticker runs and runs of tshirts, and has helped me buy equipment like my 4 color screen printing press and just last week a new wide format inkjet printer so i can print film transparencies. but i feel constantly guilty cuz i haven’t been so great at sending out rewards to my patrons, as my output has been low these past 6 months or so as i try to build up my screen printing capability by slowly outfitting my home studio with equipment and supplies, and as my pet biz has gotten busier. some days i feel so guilty i just want to delete it, be done with it, while apologizing profusely to my patrons and refunding some of their money. but instead, because so many of them have told me they don’t expect anything in return and are happy to be supporting me, and because it is really truly helpful financially and also motivational, i’m thinking maybe what i need to do is instead double down on my patreon – refresh it, retool it, rethink the rewards portion of it, and publicize the hell out of it to get more supporters. i’m not really sure which way i’ll end up deciding to go, but i can’t really do anything with it til after the holidays. but it’s on my mind and i’m trying to figure out how to keep using it to help further my creative endeavors while also offering some kind of value to those who support me.
i guess that’s it for now, from me. just wanted to make a little pre-holiday-madness update to let y’all know what’s going on with art by mags. happy thanksgiving everyone!
holiday shopping season is coming…
i just realized i hadn’t updated here in a long while, so let me catch you up now that we are slowly making our way into fall and soon the holiday shopping season. as usual, if you want more frequent updates, you should really follow me on instagram or facebook or patreon.
i’ve spent the last many months struggling to nail down the process of creating film positives and burning my own screens to print. it sounds like it should have been simple, as i’ve been doing some variation of printing since i was in college, but due to the fact that i’m working in my tiny house that has no doors and is FILLED with cat fur from my two fat happy cats, with chemicals i’m not familiar with and a laser printer that is not the correct type for printing out film positives… well, suffice it to say it’s been a trial and error fiasco. i hesitantly say i *think* i have it mostly down now and have successfully (so far) made a few usable screens with which i have printed some shirts and paper prints, but i know the learning process continues.
all of this trial and error has cost me a lot of money and has resulted in very little to show for it in the way of sellable goods. thankfully my supporters over at patreon have helped cover some of that cost. and hopefully i will recoup some of that money when the holiday sales start picking up.
in just the past two weeks, i have restocked my RESIST tshirts in my etsy shop, in both mens (in both black and white shirts) and womens cuts, and i have done a short run of KEEP LOVING KEEP FIGHTING shirts on a new color, which are also in my etsy shop.
i also updated my teespring store with a new RESIST design offering – flags!! i can’t wait til the one i ordered arrives so i can see what it looks like. i’ll be sure to update this post with a pic when it does.
my newest design is actually an old design reimagined. SPREAD LOVE was one of the sayings i used to make on stenciled bottlecap signs years ago. when the sticker company i use sent me a recent sale email, i decided to resuscitate that design to take advantage of the sale and see how circular stickers would look. here is the result:
i only got 50 of them cuz that’s what the sale was for, and i’m holding half of them for my patreon subscribers, but i’m thinking of running more. i can’t decide if i want to keep the circle, though, or turn it into a small rectangular or square design instead. thoughts?
so. i haven’t exactly been dormant the past six months or so, but there also hasn’t been a lot to share. until now. but stay tuned, cuz i have a lot of things i’m working on and that will hopefully see the light of day soon! watch this space!!!!
jazzfest!
i love jazzfest time! i only get to go one day each weekend this year, and today was my day this first weekend. it was so lovely out there! overcast and windy helped balance out the warm and muggy. and no rain! hope that holds for folks throughout the rest of fest. i ate way too much amazing food, saw some incredible art and craft, and heard all kinds of great music while hanging out with dear friends. it was perfect.
today i wore my LAST NIGHT A BRASS BAND SAVED MY LIFE shirt out to fest and got stopped a ton by folks diggin on the design, taking pics of it. so for any of you who may have followed my website address that’s cleverly added to that design on the shirt, i just wanted to thank you for your interest and help navigate you to where you can order both t-shirts and stickers of the design.
t-shirts can be found here, on teespring. (and tanks can be found here.) lots of sizes and styles and a few color choices too, so check both links cuz they are two separate listings with lots of different options.
and stickers can be found here, in my etsy shop.
enjoy the rest of your jazzfest!