Country French Vintage Grapes Clock

Beautiful 12″ glass wall or desk clock, Country French distressed antique styling. Click here to purchase/learn more.

Vintage Country French Floral Art Tray, “Jardin de Roses”

This elegant little wooden decorative personal tray (eight inches square) was designed with Mother’s Day in mind, whether she’s eighteen or eighty.

Featuring our newest vintage pastiche, “Jardin de Roses” from our vintage gallery, the tray has a vintage Country French distressed feel. You can choose any image and we will customize the tray for you, and you can choose between black and natural wood finish. If you would like to order the tray as shown, just type “Jardin de Roses” in the empty field.

Click HERE to order, click the image to see full size.

Distressed, vintage style glass clock: Tulipes Francais

I finally got around to designing the kind of clock I’ve been wanting for our foyer–an authentic vintage French stylized clock with a beautiful floral design, banked with delicate vintage scrolls and flourishes. We don’t have a product photo yet, but this is the artwork which will be printed on our newly designed 12″ round glass wall clock. This is a Limited Edition clock, exclusive to Color Bakery. The artwork is adapted from an actual vintage French clock. This is a *perfect* gift for Mother’s Day.

To find out more/purchase, click the image, or click here.

Freebie Friday: Cosmydor Savon, Vintage French Poster Download

No verbosity from me today; woke up with extreme nausea (nope, not pregnant) and feeling a bit shaky today. This beautiful image has no restrictions on use, and is 300 DPI. Click the image to download the high resolution size. Wonderful for derivative works, ATC, altered art, collage, scrapbooking, web design, etc. Enjoy. Remember, if you want the best selection of vintage and fine art in digital format, high res with no user restrictions, visit Vintage Art Download. Whether you’re looking for the masters (Renoir, Klimt, Mucha, Van Gogh, Degas) or vintage ephemera, posters, ads, labels, and much more, here’s no site even remotely like it.

Free Desktop Wallpaper Download: “Unrequited”

A moody piece I did a few years ago; altered photography. A bit romantic, a bit Goth, a bit edgy.  For your desktop pleasure and for private use *only*. Enjoy

Click the image to download.

Why I love (and highly recommend) Irfanview.

Every time I use Irfanview I discover some other little magical power-packed feature that comes in handy.  Besides being able to view all your images in the way you like them, it does a lot more than just resave and resize in different formats. If you install of Irfanview’s free plugins, this little, non-bloated program packs a huge punch and can help you with very sophisticated requirements. And I mean more than viewing slideshows, although it can do that, too.

There are a lot of image viewers out there, such as the popular (and commercialware) ACDSee, but none of them can hold a candle to Irfanview.

With Irfanview, you can implement sophisticated batch processes such as twain processing (scanner, camera);  mass image renaming, batch resizing, batch image type, batch processed rotating, batch saturation changing,  batch DPI, batch sharpening, brightness, contrast, color balance, text overlay, color depth and RGB assigning, and more. You can add and strip EXIF data, add EXIF comments, take screenshots, assign desktop wallpaper. It’s also a multi-media player–and a damn good one that can handle anything you toss at it.

Irfanview is not a big bloaty program, and its interface is simple and intuitive.

Irfanview is constantly upgrading and improving their fabulous software, and it still remains (amazingly) free. Just make sure you download all the plugins so that you get all the benefits of Irfanview. I love it, I couldn’t work without  it, and am grateful to the folks at Irfanview for continuing to make it available for free. Download it, you’ll love it.

Click on image to see bigger screenshot.

Chapeau Mossant: Beautiful Free Vintage Download

Olsky’s famous Chapeau (hat) Mossant is one of the most popular and beloved and iconic vintage advertisements. The jpg is 300 dpi. If you would like a larger resolution, let me know. Click the image to download the full size.

Chapeaux Mossant, Olsky

Should artists use reps to sell their work?

Should artists use reps to sell their work? Only if they like the idea of watching their money swirl and disappear down the commode.

When my husband and I opened Color Bakery almost six years ago, one of our main concerns was getting our products (custom decorative tiles, home decor accents, art gifts, art wearables) into stores–i.e., wholesaling. Yes, we had a website, but was it enough? It was a new site, we hadn’t been online long enough to properly promote it, so we worried that not very many people would find us. At the time, we assumed that most of our sales would ultimately come from bulk purchases from resellers–not consumers. We envisioned all different kinds of stores buying from us: art stores, art galleries, gift shops, flower shops, home decor furnishings, etc. Reselling to these stores, we reasoned, was where we would make the bulk of our income. Not from the end buyer/consumer. So we proceeded with those priorities in mind.

We did our homework, and researched our options carefully before diving in to the rep world.  We had a plan. First, we created two pricing tiers: one for retail, one for wholesale. We joined a large rep member organization that specialized in matching rep organizations with manufacturers (artists can be included with the manufacturer category). This organization required a hefty annual fee, but in return, they provided us with a huge list of possible rep matches for our product line. Some listings they provided were individual reps (what they call “road reps”), but most were corporate entities with large staffs and fancy showrooms in all major US cities. Since we had a relatively large and diverse product line, and was able to customize over fifty art images with over one hundred products, we were confident that our line was deep and versatile enough to attract these “creme de la creme” rep firms. Most of these firms, we heard, were very judicious about who they took on. The product line, we were told, had to be exceptional for the best of these companies to even consider representing us. A little nervous about how we would rate with these big firms, we were nonetheless confident because the website was already beginning to generate some very nice sales, and word was rapidly spreading about us. The feedback we were getting online was wonderful, and we had great hopes for the reps.

We contacted the reps we felt were the best match for us, and spent hundreds–probably, more likely, thousands–of dollars in the manufacture of product samples they demanded. I designed a beautiful catalog and we had it professionally printed. Any kind of collateral promo material I was able to think of—sales sheets, price list, order form, business card, POP displays, etc–I designed and redesigned until I was satisfied they employed a mix of easy utility and eye candy. I even made a video slideshow of our products. Along with expensive samples–like glass tiles–we sent some pretty impressive packages out to these rep groups, so they would agree to take us on. And it paid off. They responded with great enthusiasm and complimented us on our artwork, unusual product line and customization capabilities. We were going to do great things, they assured us, because the product line was as beautiful as it was unusual.

We were quickly signed up by the top gift reps in the country. They demanded twenty percent off the wholesale (which left very little profit for us, but we hoped to make it up in bulk sales as well as name recognition potential), as well as huge showroom and show fees. Talking about show fees: having a rep group represent us at gift show at the Javits Center in New York City–along with all their other principals’ products–was over a thousand dollars, for example. And that didn’t include the cost of manufacturing and shipping product both ways, nor did it include breakage. It was worth the huge expense, my husband and I reasoned, so we wrote the checks and made sure they had everything they asked for.

Months went by. They sold next to nothing.

My husband and I scratched our heads. Were we doing something wrong? Or worse, was our line substandard? Was my art lousy? We talked about it candidly. If the internet sales was any indication, the answer to those questions was a resounding “no.” Our retail sales were booming. And growing. So what went wrong?

The reps took very little to no time to learn the line, and the many possibilities that go hand-in-hand with our kind of unprecedented (and singular) customization. The abysmal sales from the reps confounded us, and not just because our website was bringing in a substantial amount of orders from enthused customers around the globe. It was the downright lazy mentality of the many reps. Please let me explain: there’s pretty much nothing we can’t print on our products–whether it’s my own original art or that of the masters like Van Gogh or Klimt. Further, we can even customize an exclusive product line for any given store. For example, we can custom manufacture a beautiful photo of a Martha’s Vineyard scene, do a lovely font treatment and print it on any of our products.  Tourist gift shops in Cape Cod, for example, would actually be able to design their own product line to their own personal specifications. To our utter amazement, the possibilities—a color-soaked dreamscape on ceramic tile, a Klimt on a glass cutting board, a vintage art pastiche on a keyhook, an Alphonse Mucha jewelry box–eluded them. Instead, the sales reps wanted two things: a very low price point (no more than ten or fifteen dollars wholesale, even if the store they called on sold Faberge Eggs) and they wanted to plop the product down on the counter without any explanations or discussion of possibilities or options. We wondered if they even took the time to look at what we did or visit our website. They certainly never asked us meaningful questions about our capabilities or special services. All they cared about was low price points and paper sales sheets for each item so they wouldn’t have to explain anything to the store owner. In time, we began to understand that these were signs of a much bigger problem.

The reps themselves seemed to live in an altogether different time, a time before the internet existed. For example, the idea of showing a video slideshow to a customer instead of the paper brochures to which they were married terrifed them. Carrying a laptop instead of a brochure was just as alien to them as emailing, instead of faxing, their orders. It was like Maxwell Smart showing up on the set of Seinfeld.  In time, I learned the internet was an anathema to them; they hated it, feared it, and avoided it with universal vigilance.

Long gone are the days when artists, small manufacturers and crafters badly needed reps to get their name out to a large-scale audience. In their glory days, reps alone held the keys to big visibility and the potential for lucrative sales because there was no other way for the artist to garner recognition on their own. The internet has changed all that by handing the back the power where it belongs–to the artists themselves. Because this power dynamic has changed, today’s reps are like Steve McQueen in “The Blob”, frantically running from an unstoppable force which very few try to harness. Trade show attendance shrinks dramatically every year; store owners can find new products by Googling; artists can reach millions with their website. Who, then, needs reps? Theirs is an industry whose time has come and gone. They are dinosaurs sucking in their last gasp of oxygen; they are standing in front of a tidal wave with three big W’s emblazoned on its crest. Few of the rep groups we dealt with had their own ‘net presence; and, instead of using our own web site as a the sales tool it might have been, they avoided it like a rabbi at a luau.

This is not to say that, somewhere, there are rep firms that do well for those they represent. Perhaps there are. This is also not to say that there are zero benefits to hitching one’s wagon to a rep group. There may be exceptions to every rule, and perhaps the home decor/gift industry is unique. However, from my own experience as well as the experience of other artists and small manufacturers who experienced similar experiences we did, reps today will sign you up, tell you how wonderful your product line is, and suck you out of every dollar they can get before you catch on. The truth of it is, they will take their fees and free product without ever intending to take your line around and sell it. Their real goal is to grab as much as they can, hold onto you for six months to a year, at which time they will turn you over when new, unwitting replacements are in place. We know this to be true, we know it wasn’t just us because we’ve spoken to dozens of other artists and manufacturers who had the same exact experience we did. By the time you pay for samples, showroom fees, show fees, marketing materials, etc., you’ll be lucky if you break even and don’t declare bankruptcy. Misrepresentation–rather, let’s call it for what it is–lying– is the only way reps can stay in business in the age of of the internet.

You may wonder if we discontinued wholesaling. Not at all. In fact, we sell to many stores across the country, and some in Europe, too. They find us online. Every day.

Vintage art, vintage wine, vintage tile.

Wine and grapes. Classic vintage themes for the home, and not just for the kitchen.

Here are five art pieces–made especially for tile printing— with a distinctive “vintage” flavor, both in style and subject–they celebrate wine. To make them, I used old vintage fruit images and adapted them in a custom pastiche.

Since many of our customers use tiles for kitchen backsplashes, they especially enjoy a wine theme–which goes with everything, even modern kitchens. These tiles look especially beautiful printed on tumbled stone (porcelain or marble), but they also work surprisingly well on glass tiles.  They also make great decorative accents, too, such as single tiles for coaster sets, or accent tiles in countertops, and a framed wall arrangement is would be fabulous for this vintage wine series as well. Oh, and don’t forget trivets!

You may purchase these art pieces on any of our products, and we will custom make them for you. To order any of these images on any of our products, just type the image name in the blank field (i.e., “merlot”, “chardonnay”, etc). If you have any questions, please post to me here or contact us via email.

Why I unfollowed you on Twitter.

I am no Twitter expert by any means.  In fact, I freely admit to having neophyte status. “Tweeting” for only a little over a week, and tweeting often, I already have a good strong sense of the kind of things I want (and don’t want) to see floating by on my TweetDeck. Therefore, the following list is extremely personal, and is by no means meant as any kind of advice for anyone else. These are just my own personal perceptions. Some things may resonate with you, others may not. Your mileage may vary.

-Nothing personal. I never saw you engaging another person–even one another person–in a personal way; instead, I saw a steady stream of one-sided tweets, whether they were promotional marketing Tweets or quotations from famous people. Even one “yes, thank you, David!” would have kept me from unfollowing you. If I want to read Eckhart Tolle, I’ll buy his book, thank you. Ditto for Bartlett’s Famous Book of Quotations.

-You tweet on steroids. In other words, silence, then fifteen to twenty tweets in a row, a seven inch string of cloned avatars….bang bang bang….all promoting your product or service. Then, silence again. No personal interaction, no personal discussion,  just a stock market ticker of what you’re selling—twenty in a row.

-Your very first DM message to me was spam, or Billy Mays has nothing on you. I know it’s impossible to thank everyone who follows you personally, or acknowledge someone who refollowed you. But please, don’t send me a message about how you can help me with home loans or building the perfect kitchen after one of us follow the other. I’d rather have nothing. If your first interaction with me is impersonal or sales-y, I can’t click that “unfollow” button fast enough.

-It’s not easy being green, green, green. Hey, I’m a good American citizen. I recycle, and I buy non-incandescent bulbs and I have spent a lot of money to insulate my drafty 200-year old home. However, I do not belong to the Church of “Green” and have no intention of riding a bike to the store, buying local produce at obscene prices or foregoing my refrigerator (with all its nasty, evil freon) in favor of an Ed Norton-style icebox. The Green “Movement” has become a  new religion, and the zealotry is incessant, and, not to put too fine a point on it, is getting kinda creepy. If every Tweet is 140 letters of guilt for not using fabric bags at my supermarket, or how I can make my business more green (and therefore acceptable), I’m outta here.

-You are vigilant at keeping up with Ashton Kutcher’s follower count, or tweet incessantly about the fact that Oprah now has one of her many minions tweeting in her name. I simply don’t care. In fact, if I was a rich woman, I’d give twenty bucks to everyone who unfollowed Mr. Kutcher. For the celebrities who actually engage their fans personally on Twitter, this does not apply. Snarky remarks about the supposed ugliness of Susan Boyle’s eyebrows, courtesy of Tina Fey, would be universally lambasted had it been written by a non-celebrity. I’d much rather tweet with a plumber who’s passionate about his work and shows a modicum of interest in mine.  In fact, I am not impressed by the number of your followers. What impresses me is your personal engagement and interest. (Oh, by the way, I heard that some newcomer Scottish singer is slated to replace that Sarah Palin lookalike on SNL. I’ll keep you posted.)

-Your hashtags take up your whole tweet, and are all equally incomprehensible.

-Twitter Ice. You consistently ignore a compliment, question or response to one of your own questions or pleas for assistance.

-Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow were separated at birth. Left or right, you have *very* strong, idealogue political opinions that may occasionally morph into angry rants. I am not apolitical, it’s just that I want Twitter to be a healthy mix of resource and information sharing, people helping one another, and healthy, respectful promoting.  Ditto for extremely religious oriented tweets. Not anti-religion, I just think politics and religion in such a generic social setting cannot possibly have a happy outcome. This extreme polarization is no surprise given today’s political climate. It’s gotten so severe that whenever I hear a moderate thinker speak, I actually give them a grateful sigh of thanks. But I wouldn’t tweet it. (BTW, want to know what a moderate thinker is? It’s someone whose opinion you usually cannot safely predict most of the time.)

Certainly there is no definitive “right” or “wrong” with how to use Twitter, even though there may be some universally accepted forms of politesse. To me, Twitter is a wonderful way to get to know supremely talented and interesting people throughout the world, and, for an artist or business owner, an uprecedented way to get one’s name out there with head-spinning rapidity.  As a wealth of streaming, up-to-the-minute information, news and resources, Twitter cannot be touched. But like everything else, there is a wheat/chaff separation process, and the above happens to be mine.

Want to follow me on Twitter? Click this link.