--- Go to the Opening Page of the [Baren] web site ---

Message 1
From: Annie Bissett
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:52:19 -0400
Subject: [Baren 30726] Eva's Website
Send Message: To this poster

Wow, Eva Pietzcker, your web site is wonderful! The information you provide
is great and your work is beautiful. I also enjoyed visiting your
Druckstelle site. Thank you for having an English language version.

http://www.pietzcker.de/en/index.htm
http://www.druckstelle.info/en/index.htm

Best, Annie

• [Back to message index]

Message 2
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:21:56 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30727] Re: print pricing
Send Message: To this poster

>Several suggetions for you:
>My price list http://1000woodcuts.com/buyit.html
>Check out several of our member's prints at Etsy http://www.etsy.com search
>for woodcuts
>Might want to simply search our member's websites from the main
>Barenforum.org page and see their price lists.
>

Hi Maria and all,

I'm just getting back into making my woodcuts (and some linos) but
have run into difficulties trying to sell online because there are so
many people selling inkjet prints (repros.) for just a few dollars.
I think this is going to become more of a problem as more people are
able to afford higher priced wide bodied printers at home.

How do you counteract that? I know you do lots of shows, but I'm not
able to do that now, so I pretty much rely online for sales.

How can we counteract that mindset with pricing??

Bobbi C.
http://www.bobbichukran.com/woodblock-prints.html

• [Back to message index]

Message 3
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:38:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 30728] Re: print pricing
Send Message: To this poster

Peter,
we have gone round and round on this, and everyone has a different idea..
Personally when I started showing my work I decided what would be the absolute bottom price I would take for a small piece and then doubled it, as any gallery will take 50%. Then I went up by size. As the years have gone on, my prices have increased slowly and then took a huge jump about 3 years ago when my friends ganged up on me and forced me to raise my prices...and no one complained, I seem to be selling as much work but having to work not nearly as hard. The rewards of old age, I guess.

The critical thing is to have your prices the same wherever you show your work so you do not get clients mad at you. You never know when a person who buys a piece in your home town will see a piece somewhere else in a gallery (after you are famous of course) and if the price is different they will be upset or happy, I guess, depending on if they feel they got a good deal.
Best to all,
Barbara

• [Back to message index]

Message 4
From: "Oscar Bearinger"
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:48:35 -0400
Subject: [Baren 30729] Re: printing at home [was "print pricing"]
Send Message: To this poster

RE: print pricing
From: Bobbi Chukran :
"....wide bodied printers at home."

You would be referring to me here, right, Bobbi?

Pardon me, my friend, but I pulled my first print from my new (old) proof press today,
so I feel like smirking :o)

Oscar

• [Back to message index]

Message 5
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:00:38 -0700
Subject: [Baren 30730] Re: New Baren Digest (Text) V35 #3450 (Apr 19
Send Message: To this poster

Aimee, it is really easy to imitate hanga with oil based inks. I have
one print that everyone assumes is hanga until I 'fess up and tell them
otherwise. The confusion was accidental, but what I did was
multi-block (a mixture of wood and lino, come to think of it!) and
mixed the inks very, very thin - - lots of Graphic Chemical's gel
reducer in Gamblin Oil Colors etching inks. The Gamblin inks are
extremely heavily pigmented and very finely ground. Anyway, anyone up
to trying this brand of counterfeiting, there you go - you have the
formula -

Cheers - Remember to sign up for the Summit! (the page is up) will
someone send it to the list so people can link there?
Sharri

• [Back to message index]

Message 6
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:03:08 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30731] Re: print pricing
Send Message: To this poster

>
>Personally when I started showing my work I decided what would be
>the absolute bottom price I would take for a small piece and then
>doubled it, as any gallery will take 50%.
>

Hi Barbara,

I'm glad you mentioned the gallery issue. I'm starting to think
about branching out a bit and trying to find a few local galleries to
get some of my smaller prints into.

I'm wondering how many of you sell your prints through galleries?
Around here, the smaller, independent fine crafts galleries sell
hand-pulled prints, so that's the market I'd start with. I feel more
comfortable with them anyway, than the larger galleries that mostly
feature paintings.

Anybody else do the gallery thing?

Bobbi C.
http://www.bobbichukran.com/woodblock-prints.html

• [Back to message index]

Message 7
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:23:26 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30732]
Send Message: To this poster

re "wide-bodied printers at home..."
>You would be referring to me here, right, Bobbi?
>
>Pardon me, my friend, but I pulled my first print from my new (old)
>proof press today,
>so I feel like smirking :o)
>

Hi Oscar.....

Well, since I'm a "wide bodied printer" too, I have no room to talk. LOL...

Congrats on your first print! Smirk away!

I very recently heard of a lady in WI who has an old etching press
for sale, and I'm getting hives just thinking about it! I WANT IT,
but alas, I live way down in TX, and she lives way up in WI.

If anybody else is interested, I can pass along a message to her.
All I know is that it's antique, huge, and is usually used for
etchings.

I'm still looking for some kind of press I can use so I don't have to
use this danged old wooden spoon. That gets old on my wrists....

Bobbi C.

• [Back to message index]

Message 8
From: "Maria Arango"
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:52:22 -0700
Subject: [Baren 30733] Re: print pricing
Send Message: To this poster

On galleries, I bless those who sell through them. They never worked for me,
I wish they had; maybe I should have tried harder. Once I got used to the
pace of selling public direct I couldn't go back to the gallery thing. Also,
any gallery I applied for demanded that I take my prints offline and/or
didn't do festivals in their town. I just couldn't take the income hit.

On how to counteract the inkjet mindset as they also have invaded the
festival world in two ways: "artists" selling inkjet prints as digital
prints or digital photography and painters selling inkjet repros of their
paintings. Those two groups fight with each other too, it's fun to watch as
now photographers are printing their digital photos on canvas and painters
are printing their reproductions on watercolor papers...the lines, they are
a-blurring...

I simply lie (but only on the surface), offer something different, and
educate (but very gently).
First the lie: I call my work woodcuts or original woodcuts, leaving the
cloudy term "print" completely out of any of my work. My banner in the front
of the booth says: "Maria Arango, Original Woodcuts". My carved sign inside
the booth says: "The Art of the Woodcut". In the festival programs I usually
have my name, business name and Original Woodcuts. Have to first get those
people into the booth and the word "print" is really starting to scare some
of them.

Second, I offer something people don't usually see, namely the hand-made
papers and the original carved blocks. Along with the woodcuts, I show and
sell the blocks which serve to call attention to the process and boost my
sales when the right collectors come by. Believe it or not, I have had
people come into my booth and directly ask sarcastically, "you don't have
anything digital in here, do you?" When I say I don't, they stay.

Finally, I educate but in a very gentle way as customers are getting tired
of elaborate explanations and suffering artist descriptions of lengthy
mysterious and laborious processes. So I have my handouts handy, The Art of
the Woodcut, and the aforementioned blocks proudly showing. I usually also
carve while I sit at a festival, something that I can't do online. People
like to touch...you can't touch pixels. Give folks a brief description of
the process and avoid knocking down inkjet, be positive.

On the generally outlook of selling, the market really isn't as bad as it
seems. The recent years have educated the public and they can, contrary to
popular belief, tell the difference between digital and everything else.
Still avoiding the term print is a good idea, sad as it may be. People are
starting to want and actively seek hand-made stuff, not printed inkjets.
Having said all that, I keep my prices reasonable enough to compete; it
really is just ink on paper.
An additional tidbit, online selling has really increased this year, at
least for me. Collectors are now skipping the windy festivals and
consistently buying directly from my website. Maybe all those postcards and
handouts are starting to pay off, I don't know. In any case, I think people
want to see your work in person, be it at a gallery or festival, and then
they are more likely to buy online.

That's my personal take on the biz, anyhow.
Happy marketing!
Maria


Maria Arango
www.1000woodcuts.com

• [Back to message index]

Message 9
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:56:46 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30734] Re: New Baren Digest (Text) V35 #3450 (Apr 19
Send Message: To this poster

Baren Summit is linked near the top center of http://barenforum.org -- NOW
GO GET REGISTERED !!!

• [Back to message index]

Message 10
From: "Ramsey Household"
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:37:22 -0700
Subject: [Baren 30735]
Send Message: To this poster

I don't think Bobbi was talking about etching presses or proofing presses or
any hand presses. She was talking about Giclees. And it is a problem.
People don't know the difference between a reproduction and an original
print. Some don't care. I don't know the answer. I hope somebody does.
We can talk and talk, but it is the buyer that we have to get through to.

Carolyn

• [Back to message index]

Message 11
From: "rsimola # netzero.net"
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:51:59 GMT
Subject: [Baren 30736] Still looking for some kind of press
Send Message: To this poster

>I'm still looking for some kind of press I can use so I don't have to
>use this danged old wooden spoon. That gets old on my wrists....

>Bobbi C.

For my last set of linoleum prints I tried a different approach. I have some 2 1/2" x 18" plastic left over from an irrigation project, and I decided to use one of these short lengths of pipe for my "press." It actually worked much better than using a spoon or my thumb. The linoleum was glued to 3/4" plywood, so I built a frame out of the same plywood to fit around the linoleum block with external dimensions of the frame the same size as the paper I was using. I then rolled the pipe over the print like I was using a rolling pin and got a good, dark impressions. Out of thirty prints I lost only one from smudging even though I was rolling my pipe over each paper multiple times with as much pressure as I could put on the pipe. But before I use this makeshift method again, has anyone else used plastic pipe as a roller? What problems have you found? What are the limitations? The block I was printing from was only seven inches wide. Any suggestions for using the pipe differently?
Robert Simola

• [Back to message index]

Message 12
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:05:11 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30737]
Send Message: To this poster

My Baren messages are coming back with all sorts of "stuff" in them....weird.

Yes, I was talking about inkjet printers....I don't think there was
any misunderstanding here, though.

In general, people that I talk to do not know the difference between
the different types of prints.

I LOVE Maria's "lie".......I prefer to call it a "rewording".....LOL.
A print collector will know that they are prints anyway.....People do
want original art, I think.

Of course, digital artists (and I've done that, too, so I'm not
throwing stones) call their work originals, too. So the whole thing
is getting more complicated.

Bobbi C.

• [Back to message index]

Message 13
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:07:28 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30738] Re: Still looking for some kind of press
Send Message: To this poster

>I have some 2 1/2" x 18" plastic left over from an irrigation
>project, and I decided to use one of these short lengths of pipe for
>my "press."
>

Hi Robert,

Interesting idea. I was looking at pictures of presses, trying to
figure out how to use a rolling pin, of all things. But I don't
think I can put enough pressure on that to print, just holding onto
the handles on the ends....

We have lots of scrap PVC laying around here....maybe I'll try that.
Thanks for the idea.

Bobbi C.

• [Back to message index]

Message 14
From: Bobbi Chukran
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:22:27 -0500
Subject: [Baren 30739] Re: print pricing
Send Message: To this poster

>On galleries, I bless those who sell through them. They never worked for me,
>I wish they had; maybe I should have tried harder. Once I got used to the
>pace of selling public direct I couldn't go back to the gallery thing. Also,
>any gallery I applied for demanded that I take my prints offline and/or
>didn't do festivals in their town. I just couldn't take the income hit.>

Hey maria,

Thanks for your generous answer! I think if I was more able to
travel more now, I'd also do the festival thing. But staying at home
and contacting galleries by e-mail or phone is easier for me.

>On how to counteract the inkjet mindset as they also have invaded the
>festival world in two ways: "artists" selling inkjet prints as digital
>prints or digital photography and painters selling inkjet repros of their
>paintings. Those two groups fight with each other too, it's fun to watch as
>now photographers are printing their digital photos on canvas and painters
>are printing their reproductions on watercolor papers...the lines, they are
>a-blurring...>

Right. I've been in groups of both digital artists AND
photographers. There is even a fight a-brewin' amongst the
photographers.....the traditionalists vs. the digitals. LOL.

>First the lie: I call my work woodcuts or original woodcuts, leaving the
>cloudy term "print" completely out of any of my work. My banner in the front
>of the booth says: "Maria Arango, Original Woodcuts".>

I think that's a brilliant solution! And you aren't really
lying....not exactly. Collectors will know that they are prints
anyway.

>Believe it or not, I have had
>people come into my booth and directly ask sarcastically, "you don't have
>anything digital in here, do you?" When I say I don't, they stay.>

Digital has gotten a bad rap, in some ways. But it's good that your
customers know what they want.

>An additional tidbit, online selling has really increased this year, at
>least for me. Collectors are now skipping the windy festivals and
>consistently buying directly from my website. Maybe all those postcards and
>handouts are starting to pay off, I don't know. In any case, I think people
>want to see your work in person, be it at a gallery or festival, and then
>they are more likely to buy online.
>

That's good to hear. I think the key is your easy to navigate
website, AND the fact that customers are seeing you and your work in
person first. There's only so much that photos on a website can
convey.

Bobbi C.

• [Back to message index]

End of [Baren] Digest