I have had my Artfire studio for quite a while now, and have over 100 art quilts, notecards, journal covers, and more available for sale. The guys that run Artfire are super.... they have really been working hard to come up with new ways for us as sellers to be able to promote our products easier and to as many people as possible.
They have just announced a new promotion geared to increase the customer traffic to the site that will help all of us sellers there. The Holiday Free-For-All!! For sellers, they are offering the free Basic members an unlimited number of listings.... In the past, a free studio could have only 12 items.... This really changes things up!! There are no fees for listing items, or fees when items sell... How can you beat that??
If you ever have a problem or question it is very easy to get answers from forums where you oftem have various admin people answering questions themselves- How is that for customer service? In addition, there are many help guides and tutorials to help you to learn to promote your products and optimize your listings for search engines.
You never know what will coming next as far as new things to help us as sellers be successful. For more information directly from the source, pop in and have a look around! Check this out for more information...
If you wish to open a pro account, use AndrusGardens as your referral and that can help me and one other of my friends....
From someone who has been in on a bunch of behind the scenes discussions, the guys running Artfire have really thought things through for the future, and they are very interested in our success as sellers, and also offering buyers a great place to buy handmade Christmas gifts or unique gifts for any occasion... There are many great artists with wonderful handmade items that will make super holiday gifts and decorations.... Come check it out!!
Here is a quick post of the progress, or lack of it on a piece I have been working on since my QSDS class in June. It has spent more time being stared at than anything else, and I have taken more photos of this while working on it than any other piece I have ever done. My camera and laptop ended up being a great design tools during the process of this piece. In case you haven't noticed, I love flowers, and have lots of photos I have taken that I want to work into my quilts after I print them onto fabric.
I took this home as it was, and put it on my design wall, but something really seemed off.... I loved the colors and the flowers, but it just seemed like a "jumble of stuff"...
I had been tacking flower pieces onto the paper base with the iron, but ended up moving things so much, that I started pinning everything in place- easier to move around on my foam design wall.
I will post the final piece when the quilting and embellishing is finished (that is if I decide to do any embellishing.... maybe a few beads in the flower centers... or not....)
****A little Reminder.... I am reducing my inventory of earlier sunprint and photo series of my Small Art Quilts- Mostly 5"x7", 8"x10" and 11"x14", with a few 13"x17". *-*-*-*25% off until Sep. 20.*-*-*-*-*
See this post- September Begins with a Sale- For more information... As you can see, I am working in new directions and have many of my older pieces that would love new homes.
Thanks to a crummy cold, this post is later than planned.... Please pardon rambling, run-on sentences and broken thoughts.... the brain fog still hasn't cleared....
Now that you have an idea of how to display Mini Art Quilts, here are some ideas and information for display larger Art Quilts. What is considered a "larger art quilt" can be pretty subjective. For this post I will consider anything larger than 11"x14", to be in this category, but the following display methods may work for smaller pieces, too. I try to add some type of hanging "device" to the backs of the larger quilts to make displaying them as easy as possible for my customers.
I have pulled this photo from a previous post to show these long, narrow Sunprint pieces (OK, with the cold, I just didn't feel like setting up for more photos). These Art Quilts have bamboo skewers hot glued to the upper backs for hanging them very easily. All that is needed is a thumbtack in the wall to hang the lightweight quilts. The skewers are fairly thin, so the pieces will hang very close to the wall. A hanging sleeve could be used to hold a dowel or slat, but it would add more bulk to the back of the piece.
The long sunprint pieces could also be mounted to long, narrow canvases as shown in the photo above. "Gilded Ohio Stars" is between the two sunprint quilt sizes in width. Choose a size that will give a good border around the piece, or get one if available the same size as the quilt. I painted the canvas this piece is mounted on. (The skewers can be carefully removed from the backs if framing or mounting on canvas). One thing I did find with this particular piece is that if you have a narrow border of the canvas showing, it makes stitching the quilt on a bit more difficult- the wooden frame was right where I needed to stitch.... It was a challenge! In the future, for a piece with a narrow amount of canvas showing, I would stitch the piece to fabric first, then staple that to the canvas- no poked fingers!
The above photo shows 2 of my narrow sunprint quilts along with "Antique Iris and Tulips" displayed along with framed art in a gallery where all were for sale. The quilts are hung with no frames or canvas and look right at home.
hanging without a frame. The other two are the pieces I wanted to point out.... They both have triangles of fabric stitched to the corners on the back. I discovered that these leaf pieces looked good displayed in any direction- up, down or sideways, so I added a triangle to each corner, so the customer can decide which side to use as the top. The slat or dowel just needs to be cut to the size of the "top" side used, slipped into the pockets to hang on a picture hook.
Care of Art Quilts:
Art quilts are no harder to take care of than any other piece of fine art. As with any work of art, you need to consider the area you wish to hang your piece. It should be hung away from direct bright light. The paints I use in creating my sunprints are very fade resistant, and these fabrics can fade much less than many commercially dyed fabrics. Displaying in too much light will cause an art quilt, or any other piece of fine art to fade. If you really want art to hang in a room with a sunny window, you may need to coat the window with a UV blocking film. Rotating a number of pieces for short periods of time, may be OK, or use reproductions prints in your sunny rooms.
Quilts made for your bed are meant to be washed to keep them clean, at least quality ones are. I have had lots of questions as to whether the art quilts I make can be washed to clean them. While most of my quilts are made with fabrics that are washable, there usually is no need to wash them. I have also been adding more and more beads and other embellishments that may not be washable. Unless you hang your art in a kitchen right next to the greasy stove,(which is not really recommended), the only regular care your Art Quilts should need is an occasional light dusting, or vacuuming with a soft brush attachment to remove dust. For more stubborn dust, a very slightly damp cloth can be used. If the piece has many loose or dangling embellishments, a piece of an old pair of pantyhose over the vacuum brush will further protect the embellishments.
I have a number of quilted wall hangings and art quilts that have hung in my livingroom for many years. I will admit that I am not a neat freak, and have my share of dust and cobwebs. Living on a dirt road and heating with wood adds to the amount of dust that can settle on my quilts. So far, I have only vacuumed the pieces I have, and they all look fine (as long as you don't catch me just before a long overdue dusting).
"What do you do with those??" That was probably the most asked question about my Mini Art Quilts when I was displaying and selling them at art and craft shows. This post will give you some answers and examples of displaying my Mini Art Quilts, by framing, mounting on canvas and more.
I have always admired the simple framed botanical prints that can be seen in many decorator magazines. The next series I began was my Botanical Applique series, that are already "matted" with a white or ivory fabric border. These just need to be sandwiched between the glass and backer board in the frame.
To the right are two of these 11"x14" Art Quilts shown in frames. The color of the frame makes a difference in the final look of the piece for hanging. I tend to prefer the dark or black frames to contrast with the light borders, but the gold tone frame works well, if that fits with your home's decor better.
{All of the framed pieces shown are available for purchase unless noted otherwise... please contact me for more info.}
The first of my Sunprint Series Art Quilts were made to display the same way- a sunprint on fabric, matted with white or ivory fabric, quilted, and ready to frame without a mat if desired. If you are interested in my sunprint process, check out my Sunprinting Mini Tutorial, earlier in this blog.
After framing and displaying many Mini Art Quilts like this over the years, I have seen no ill effects from the glass touching the quilts. The first Sunprint piece on the right is an 11"x14" quilt framed in black. The second one is another 11"x14" sunprint piece in a gold tone frame.
Below is a 5"x7" sunprint mini in a frame, the color of the frame coordinates nicely with the colors in the sunprint. These examples will give you an idea of what a quilt you purchase can look like in a frame.
The fabric can be stapled over the canvas, then the quilt stitched on through both layers, or the quilt can be stitched to the fabric before stapling over the canvas- a bit trickier to be sure the quilt is centered this way. You don't even need to cover the canvas with fabric. "My Dream House" is mounted on the white prepared canvas just as I purchased it. Tiny screw eyes attach picture wire on the backs of the canvas frames for easy hanging.
"Beside the Door" on the right is also an 8"x10" quilt mounted on a canvas covered with black fabric.
This method works great for any size Mini Art Quilt from tiny ACEO's through postcard size and larger. Here are a couple of my postcards mounted on 8"x10" fabric covered canvases. Both of these are available for purchase from my website.
Multiple small pieces can also be mounted on the same canvas or in the same frame.
I hope this will give you some ideas for what to do with Mini Art Quilts. Tomorrow, I will have another post with ideas for hanging larger Art Quilts.
Artfire has really been working hard to add many features to help their Artist members be successful. I have been adding more items to my Artfire Studio to sell. I still have my 3 shops at Etsy, but really love the newest features Artfire has to offer and there are more coming! The two most recent additions really increase our ability to promote our shops. First to come out was the Artfire Kiosk for facebook. It was easy to set up, and now anyone can access and even make purchases right from my Facebook Profile page or my Business Page. The most recent addition is the ability to generate and use coupon codes. This makes special promotions and sales so easy to do, and sales generated by the coupons are easy to track.
Here is my first try with a coupon:
While August was flying by, Ken and I celebrated out 25th wedding anniversary, so this first coupon will give you 25%off on selected items in my Artfire Studio
What is included in this coupon sale???
My original Mini Art Quilts for framing in the following sections of my studio:
Sunprint Series - 5"x7", 8"x10", and 11"x14"
Photo Series - 5"x7" and 8"x10"
Botanical Applique Series - 11"x14"
Additionally....
See the First Friday Art Walk Section of my Etsy Shop for discounted art quilts,
AND...
If you see any quilts in these series that you like on these pages of my website-
Sunprint Series 5x7", Sunprint Series 8x10".
you can also get the discount by adding HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to the message from buyer while purchasing, and I will refund the difference by PayPal. OR... Email me with the names of the items you are interested in, and I will send a PayPal invoice with the correct amount due. The sale does not include my newer series of Art Quilts. I am reducing my inventory of my older work.... Beautiful pieces, but I am working on new ideas. I do not plan to make any more of this style of little quilts, so if you like these, get them while they are available!
NOTE- Each Art Quilt is listed on one site only... I never list the same piece in two places, so there are different pieces in each shop.... There are many to choose from.
Artists interested in joining the Artfire community with a Studio of your own, use this link to get more information. Using AndrusGardensQuilts as your referral will help me to earn a "Free Ride" and one for another artist who helps me earn it.
