Passive Income from your Art: Greeting Cards

To open the door of possibilities even more, I'd like to guide you to the idea of a passive income or semi-passive at least.
The silk you are painting can be utilized in many ways and today I am talking here about printed products.

You experienced now that your personal productivity regarding silk-painting has its limitations in regards to the volume you can produce and the time you have available. Not to mention the often observed imbalance between the value of your work/product and the price you receive in exchange.

Your silk-art career is supposed to be fulfilling. You want to enjoy what you do in your creative time and keep the pressure out of it. So we need some creativity on the revenue side:)

There are ways to make revenue from your art without even selling the silk-original.

Example: Greeting Cards and Postcards

Instead of cutting out the images from your silk with the scissors (as described in the last post), you use your camera to take the cut.

This is the scarf original

This is the camera-shot

 Now you can take that picture and use it on your own greeting cards and postcards.

Your time and work will be spent on the creation of the silk-original and choosing the picture you'd like to use.

The rest can be done in a print-shop or you can use the already mentioned Vistaprint Service which is available online in many countries. This is the link to Vistaprint Canada  and this for Vistaprint America  and Vistaprint Australia , Vistaprint Nederland... the list of the countries is long and I am sure you will find your closest service there just look in the top right line and choose your language in the drop down menu.

Another example, this time the full-size shot/ not an out-cut:

The original silk-painting: 40"x60" banner

Greeting Card

Once you have those products, you'll supply the outlets you lined up for your silk-scarves and the $$ will march into your door.
Note:What we said about the importance of maintaining the inventory in consignment store regarding your scarves, applies of course for the greeting cards and any other product as well.

If you are starting on this new product with a retail partner, you can suggest to exchange the less selling images at the beginning to help him to take "the risk"- think win-win and you both will benefit (actually is win-win-win because the consumer will benefit from the beauty of your work:)

I am suggesting to every artist I meet, to explore the possibility of creating printed products from the original work.
It is simple, easy to achieve, and most of the work involved can be contracted out or delegated.

Suggestion from personal experience: you will see that some images sell better then other. At the beginning print just small amounts per image and keep track of the sales. Once you see the trend you can print in larger quantities for better price.

You can do your printing on your printer as well. I did it for many years with much success and might write a separate post about it, later on. If you want to explore your own in-house-printing, just think quality and you will have a great product.

As a rule of thumb:

There are many tasks to complete. You are the artist, no other person can create you images therefore painting and coordinating is the priority. Delegate what someone else can do and focus on generating revenue.