Spoonflower is a print on demand retailer, similar to Redbubble or Society6, which specializes in fabric with seamless pattern designs. But I was happy to learn they also sell other products like wallpaper and home décor!
I’ve spent the last few months uploading over 100 of my seamless pattern designs to Spoonflower. Then I had to purchase and wait for samples of them which is required to sell in their marketplace.
I’ve been hesitant about opening a shop on Spoonflower because of this barrier to entry.
However, I do have several pattern designs which sell well on other websites, so I figured it was time to take the plunge. There also may be less competition due to the sample requirement.
The cheapest way I found to get samples is to order a “cheater quilt” which includes up to 42 samples stitched together in a 1 yard sized “quilt”. The cost for one of these quilts is $18.50 USD.
I waited for a Free Shipping promotion so didn’t have to pay for shipping to Canada which can be pricey. The cost came out to about 0.44 cents (USD) per design, which I think is worth it considering the potential earnings.
The print on demand products offered by Spoonflower look really nice. And then there is the endless possibility of things that can be created with fabric.
A nice perk of Spoonflower are their design challenges which are based on current trends in the industry. Entering these challenges can help increase exposure on both on their website and Instagram.
You can enter designs which haven’t been made “for sale” yet and if you make into the top 50 (voted on by the Spoonflower community) it will be listed for sale for free, without having to purchase a sample.
However, there are a lot of talented artists on there so competition is stiff!
Overall I’m excited to start selling my work on Spoonflower and hope it proves fruitful as another income stream for my art.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a few of my designs available on Spoonflower. If you have an account on there, let’s follow each other!
If you want to see a list of other websites I sell my art on, along with more resources about selling your art online then check out the Artist Resources section of my website.
I already had this beautiful turquoise coloured accent wall in my apartment, which was the perfect background for this huge mandala mural I painted using silver acrylic paint.
I also recorded a time lapse video showing the process of painting this gorgeous mandala mural on the wall of my apartment!
Before I started painting, I created a template using string, a thumb tack, and white pencil crayon which easily wiped away with a damp cloth after the paint was dry.
Some of you have asked me to explain the process of creating the template so I will attempt to describe this below.
How to paint a mandala wall mural
Supplies you will need:
1 thumb tack
string or yarn
pencil or pencil crayon
ruler
Steps:
Place the thumb tack where you want the center of your mandala to be.
Measure out a piece of string from the thumb tack to where you want the largest circle of your mandala to be (this will be the final size of your mandala).
Cut the string and tie one end to the thumb tack, and tie the other end to the pencil crayon.
Keeping the string taught, draw a circle all the way around, with the thumb tack in the center.
Cut off the pencil end of the string by a few inches.
Re-tie the pencil to the new end and draw another circle inside the first.
Repeat the process until you get close to the thumb tack and cannot draw any more circles.
Remove the tack, then use a ruler to draw lines across and diagonally from the middle.
You can use my Mandala Drawing Template as a guide for how your final template should look. Let me know if you need any more clarification!
It took me about 8 hours to complete this painting.
Check out the video and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Are you an artist wanting to sell art online to make some extra income? You’ve come to the right place!
Selling your art online is an easy and low cost way to start your art business today. Below you will find out how to get started broken down into 5 easy steps.
How to Sell Your Art Online in 5 Steps
1. Build your portfolio.
In order to start selling your art online, you should have a decent sized portfolio for potential customers to choose from. Aim for 10-25 artworks.
You can either make a bunch of new artwork, or dig up some old pieces that could work digitally or physically to sell and repurpose them.
2: Decide where to sell your art
Next, you’ll have to decide where to sell your art and that will depend on your medium, style, and goals as an artist.
Identify your audience and how you want to sell your art.
Are you going to sell primarily prints? (many avenues)
Are you going to sell physical work, such as paintings? (Etsy, or Fine Art America)
Do you create sculptures, jewelry or something else tangible? (Etsy)
Are you interested in designing t-shirts and/or home decor products? (Society6, Zazzle or Redbubble)
You’ll have to optimize your art digitally, or take a nice photo of it in order to sell it online.
Scan or photograph your artwork in high resolution.
Try to get sharp lines and true colors by using a tripod and good lighting.
Post process in a program like Photoshop to fix colors, or clean up scans.
4: Upload and enable as many products as possible
Upload your art to your chosen platform.
If you are going the Print On Demand route, only add to products that look good and work with the design. You may need to customize the design for different products, like having a version with a transparent background for stickers and t-shirts.
5: Market your products
This is where a lot of artists struggle because we’re not necessarily business or marketing professionals!
Share your products and artwork on social media. Create an Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook page dedicated to your art. Ideally, choose one you use frequently so it’s not a burden to learn or use daily. Check out my post on 25+ Instagram Post Ideas for Artists for some inspiration.
You may also consider building a website, which can be a hub if you sell on multiple platforms. It could be a blog or just a portfolio of your work.
Learn basic marketing skills. To dive deeper into marketing, watch tutorials on YouTube or Skillshare to hone your business skills or even artistic skills as your business grows.
There is a lot to learn on the business side, but don’t neglect your art!
Consistently create new designs so you can figure out what works and what doesn’t, then make more of what resonates with your audience.
Very quick and simple uploading process. Few steps.
Intuitive tagging (suggestions come up even before you start typing)!
Must use a .png image for the t-shirts (ie. no background).
You can upload patterns for some products like pillows or totes, but you can only use one version of the image, you can’t upload a different file for the t-shirt (so in that case there would be no t-shirt for that design).
As mentioned above, there is no ability to upload multiple versions of the same design to suit a different product type, so keep this in mind.
You can resize and centre your design easily.
TeePublic Storefront
Pretty basic. Focus is on the design and T-shirts.
No models, just images of the products by themselves.
Here is a screenshot of my (old) store front:
T-shirt product page display:
Products and Pricing
A fairly small range of products but they are quite affordable.
Basic t-shirts are $14 for the first 3 days after upload, then they go up to $20.
T-shirts go on sale for $14 at least 1x per month. (Other products go on sale too)
A wide variety of shirt styles including hoodies and kids’ clothing are available.
They also have stickers, totes, tapestries, phone cases, mugs, pillows, notebooks and prints.
Prices in USD.
Shipping
Starts at $5.99 to the U.S. and Canada.
Payment
Paypal or Payoneer payment options.
Paid monthly on the 15th for previous month’s earnings.
Affiliate program available, but you have to apply.
They also have a “refer an artist” program, where you can potentially get paid if you refer someone to open a store and they make sales.
TeePublic Community
There is a Facebook group but it isn’t very active.
No obvious forum.
Ability to follow other designers but not to like their individual works.
Less sense of community than other platforms such as Zazzle or Redbubble.
Promotional Tools
You will get an e-mail once a month or so letting you know about upcoming sales.
In this email are links to download various advertisement templates catered to different social media platforms, which can be used and edited in Photoshop.
Teepublic advertises their top design picks on the homepage and through e-mail campaigns so if you can get noticed by them, they’ll do the work for you!
Summary
If your work is very graphic, and especially if you do fan art, TeePublic could be a great option for you.
Their website and uploading process is simple and easy to use.
Their affordable prices, especially $14 T-shirts, is an excellent way to entice buyers.
Hello fellow artists! Today I’m sharing some info about how to sell your art onRedbubble, a well known Print on Demand website.
In this post I will be giving a review of my experiences with Redbubblewhere I have been selling my art for a few years now.
Read on to learn more abouthow to sell your art on Redbubble!
You can also watch this video I created about the pros and cons of selling your art on Redbubble and other Print on Demand websites.
Store Front
My first impressions of Rebubble is that they are artist focused, cater to a young and trendy audience and have a sense of humour.
Their website layout is sleek and easy to navigate. On the home page there are rotating featured artists and art works that are updated daily.
You can easily customize yourstore front with a header, profile photo, bio, collections and a featured collection which shows at the top. Your art is displayed on a variety of products in order of the most popular or most recently purchased.
You can also “like” other people’s designs and “follow” other artists, and leave comments on their work.
Products
In terms of products, the range is similar to Society6,which includes apparel, various electronics cases, and home décor items. The prices are about the same as other POD’s and they often offer 20% off or other promotions.
I love this scarf, the print turned out beautiful and the fabric is and soft and silky. I find it is well made.
I’ve also purchased a hoody, t-shirt and stickers with my own designs. All are good quality and I’ve had no issues, however I did find the t-shirt ran a bit large.
One really popular product on Redbubble are stickers. I usually sell a few of these daily. So optimizing your designs for stickers is a great way to sell your art on Redbubble. Below is a picture of several of my sticker designs. They are super cute, and affordable too!
I also created a Youtube video showing all of the products I’ve bought from Redbubble over the years, if you want to see them in real life:
Ease of Upload
Redbubble’s uploading tool is by far my favouriteout of all the POD sites I’ve tried.
I find it efficient because you can upload one image of your main design and adjust it straight in the browser for each product. There are also tiling options, or you can replace the image entirely if neither of those options work.
You can also change the background colour which can be very handy when working with transparent designs.
You can also copy existing settings from another design, making uploading similar designs a breeze!
Earnings and Payment
It took about a month after opening my store before I saw any sales, but since then I have been gettingconsistent earnings every month. (I should note here that I was lucky enough to have a design featured on the front page which boosted my sales a lot.)
It’s not going to replace my day job any time soon, but any amount of extra cash is always welcome!
You can adjust the markup for individual products (in Account Settings), but it is automatically set to 20%.
Earnings are paid out automatically around the 15th of every month (to Paypal, or direct deposit), and there is a $20 minimum threshold.
Marketing
Redbubble has their own marketing team who are pros at driving traffic to their website, so it’s just a matter of getting your own designs on the website and seen by then.
If you’re lucky and get featured on their front page, then you’re good to go for a long time. You can also find some nice promotional tools on the Redbubble blog. For example, fun marketing templates like this one:
Shipping
Redbubble has headquarters located in San Francisco (U.S.) and Melbourne (Australia). Products are shipped from suppliers in one of those areas depending on your location.
I have found they offer reasonable shipping costs to Canada, and even more reasonable within the U.S. The shipping is generally pretty quick, and you can choose a faster shipping method if required.
Also, you get a free sticker with every purchase!
Summary of How to Sell your Art on Redbubble
In sum, I highly recommend Redbubble for selling your art online!
I hope you’ve found some useful information here about how to sell your art on Redbubble. If you have any questions, or want to share your own experiences with Redbubble, feel free to leave a comment below! Also check out the Artists Resources section of this website for even more print on demand tips.
