New vintage art, “Cafe du Soleil”, perfect for kitchen accents and tiles.

I usually don’t design in yellow, even though I do love the joyousness in it, I am more drawn to the blues, purples, greens. And then, sometimes I will go through a red phase, using fiery vermilions. But this piece is designed around sunflowers, so I decided to work in muted yellow tones with a decidedly retro feel. As with all our art pieces, Cafe du Soleil is available for custom printing on all our products. I think this piece would work especially well on tumbled stone or tumbled porcelain, especially as a 12″ tile clock. It would also be smashing as a kitchen accent tile. It has a Country French retro feel that would also work very well on glass, too. And as a kitchen backsplash–in stone–heavenly.

Click the image to see larger size.

Customized, Dreamy Crystal Jewelry Pendants

Imagine beautiful crystal jewelry pendants with delicate, sloped bevelled edges…and imagine you can choose any art image you want showing through the glass. (We have about one thousand original art images of all genres to choose from on Color Bakery). When you gaze at the image in the crystal, it’s almost as if you’re seeing it through a still pool of water. You’re going to absolutely adore these crystal jewelry pieces, and wherever you go, you’re going to be questioned about them. We promise. Each pendant will come with a long, adjustable black nylon cord for elegant simplicity.

We have four different shapes/sizes, and not only pendants, but we’re also making them into earrings—which should be online and available for purchase sometime today.

If you want to purchase these elegant pendants now, please click here. To see the image bigger, click on it.

Color Bakery’s New Quality Control Inspector.

We are pleased to introduce our new Quality Control Inspector, whose job it is to inspect all our products before they ship. Here she is:

At first, Marcie wasn’t sure she wanted the job, but after I told her about all the fringe bennies that come with the position (Fancy Feast, Kit and Kaboodle, unlimited catnip toys and the right to kick Casper’s butt when she gets out of line), she relented.

Marcie, our Maine Coon, makes it a point to check out everything we do to ensure we do our jobs well. Nothing escapes her vigilant attention, and she makes sure that every box is marked by her scent before it leaves the shipping area. Starting soon, all Color Bakery invoices and shipping boxes will be stamped with the following graphic so that our customers know it passed inspection with flying colors.

New Color Bakery’s New Products! NEWS!

At Color Bakery, resting and being content with the status quo is simply not an option. We are constantly thinking about beautiful new pieces of wearable art, art gifts or home decor accents with which we can customize with original artworks.

We’re recently partnered with a major custom product manufacturer, and, together, have been discussing, developing and implementing ideas about how to implement my “wish list” of products that I want to carry on Color Bakery. This “wish list” is based upon what you, our customers, have asked us for, and some other products I know would be both beautiful and unusual.

LARGER GLASS CUTTING BOARDS
Our first new product is here, and it’s one I’ve wanted to offer at Color Bakery for a long time. It’s a large size glass cutting board. I can’t even remember how many requests I’ve received over the years for a larger sized cutting board, easily dozens…..there is clearly a demand for it. Our standard size cutting board is 16″ x 12″, and our new cutting board is a little over 19″ x 15″. Those three inches make a huge difference as far as ease of use and eye candy power. You can now purchase this new, larger board online by clicking here and selecting the bigger size from the dropdown menu.

8 x 10 GLASS TILES
There are no words. For some reason, this glass receives ink like a color symphony. Now we can print art on glass rectangles instead of forcing them into squares, and the color is vibrant, rich and almost pulsates. You have to see them in person, no photo can do them justice. This glass is the highest quality I’ve seen. They are online and available, and every original art piece available on Color Bakery can be customized for them. A little more expensive than our other glass, they’re worth it. You can use them as decor accents, arrange them beautifully on your walls, put them in easel displays, or use them as accent tiles for your kitchen and bathroom. Purchase them here.

12″ x 12″ TUMBLED STONE PORCELAIN TILE CLOCK
We can take any Color Bakery image and custom print it on these *real* stone tile clocks, imported from Italy. They have a definite vintage flavor, as they are made from real stone and, as such, have wells, jagged edges, faultlines in the stone. Although any art image will work with these stone clocks, they are especially beautiful when customized with art from our Vintage Gallery and our Zodiac Gallery. Click here to purchase.

CRYSTAL JEWELRY-NEW!
Imagine being able to customize any piece of art on stunning crystal pendants–ovals, teardrops, rectangles. Imagine delicately sloped bevelled edges, and the effect of looking through a still pool of water at the artwork within. Everyone who has seen this jewelry has fallen madly in love, and you will, too.

Though this custom crystal jewelry is sold as necklaces/pendants, they can also be worn as earrings. They come in four different shapes/sizes: large oval, large rectangle, small rectangle and small teardrop. Click here for more info.

LAPTOP TRAVEL BAG
This is a really cool laptop travel bag–very roomy, with a special pocket for your cellphone or iphone. The custom art is printed on the flap, and the rest of the bag is a rich inky black. Click here.

LADIES’ MIRROR COMPACTS
The custom artwork will be printed on the cover, and the compact is made from a modern, well-made chrome finish.They are rounded squares and a nice, generous size. Coming soon.

METAL KEYCHAINS
The keychains I’ve seen around that can be customized are pretty crummy. Plastic (PVC), and cheap-looking. That doesn’t cut it for Color Bakery. We’ve wanted to offer keychains for a long time, but until now, haven’t found one that meets our quality standards. This one does. Nice and substantial with some weight on it, the keychain is not plastic, but metal and takes ink beautifully. Coming soon.

LADIES’ PURSETTE/LARGE WALLET
Whether you use it as a small clutch or a generous wallet, you’ll love this beautiful pursette. Black leatherette and the full front fold is customized with original art. Click here.

Our blog is the best place to look to find out when new products are online, not to mention sales, promotions and closeouts. So please bookmark us and visit us often.

Antique Styled Tumbled Stone Porcelain Clock-fully customizable

This is a clock that commands attention. And if you give it as a gift, they’ll never forget you for it.

Based on a turn-of-the-century French clock face, Color Bakery’s new antique style stone clock is made from tumbled porcelain stone imported from Italy. At 12″ square, this heirloom quality piece of stone *is* real stone from the earth, and as such, boasts delicate, naturally present jagged edges, lines and crevices that add to the antique look and vintage charm. The complementary clock hands are black metal in a lovely, antique scroll design. We will custom produce any image on the Color Bakery site for your custom clock. Although any image will look beautiful, our Vintage Gallery, Zodiac and Pattern Galleries will work especially well for your custom-selected clock design.

Shown in photo: “Le Jardin Tulipes” from our Vintage Gallery (image number 30).

Ready for hanging, it takes a AA battery (not included).

Click image to see full size. Click HERE to purchase.

No, I don’t like Cafe Press.

Like many artists, I was excited when I found Cafe Press. About ten years ago, I was looking for a way to print and resell my art on products, and Cafe Press seemed like a dream come true. I was able to simply upload my image, have them print it on products, fulfill the order, and I would just sit back and collect the commission checks. I wouldn’t have to worry about building a website; I wouldn’t have to deal with stuff like inventory, production, shipping, customer service, credit card processing. Not only that, I was able to preview what my product would look like before I created it, and I could do that right online with their nifty software. Wow, such a deal! Who can resist that?

My first red flag came after my computer crashed and I lost a goodly amount of original art. As a digital artist, my life is literally residing on my computer. Although I have huge eight external drives today, in those days I was working off one shaky hard drive, and when it finally exploded I knew I was in deep trouble. I had to beg Cafe Press–and I mean beg, and even cry hysterically on the phone—to talk them into sending me a disc with my own artwork on it.  After many phone calls and emails during which my sanity hung on a thread, they finally did, but grudgingly.  I found myself thanking them with embarassing, sniveling, tearful humility even though in actuality what I was asking for was not unreasonable–access to my own art. As I look back on that episode, it’s really no surprise that this arrogance manifested in many other, more sinister areas.

As many artists do, the first order of business when signing up with Cafe Press is creating products and ordering stuff for themselves, as well as for friends and family as gifts. I was no different. When my delivery came, the excitement with which I tore into the box subsided quickly once I saw what was inside. Crap. And no, I don’t think I am being harsh here. The wall calendar and greeting cards were printed on crummy, low quality paper stock and the colors were as washed out as if the pages been tossed in a washing machine; the tile coasters were not terrible, but the colors were way off–blues were too green and reds were more orange than red, and the tiles had none of the subtle gradations in hue and levels present in the originals; the clock was made from the crappiest, shoddiest plastic and I immediately dumped it in the trash–it was more suitable for a political slogan than for a piece of art. Okay, I thought: I’ll stick to the tiles and mugs and maybe my customers will like it.

But the real surprise came when I received my first order. I was told a “Mary” from “Oregon” had bought some mugs. I was very pleased about the sale and I couldn’t wait to thank her personally. I looked at my customer information, but couldn’t find any way to contact “Mary.” No address, no phone, no email. Nothing. Not even a last name. Confused, I emailed Cafe Press and asked them to send the my customer information. “We don’t do that,” I was told. Company policy. Were they kidding? Evidently not, as they didn’t consider Mary my customer, but theirs–even though it was my artwork she purchased. This was simply outrageous. I couldn’t believe they were actually getting away with this incredibly unfair policy, but, seemingly they were. Let’s get this straight: the artist is Cafe Press’ customer, the only one. The end buyer is the artist’s customer. Period. This glaring, unethical lack of transparency is terribly unfair to artists, not to mention exploitative. But there was nowhere else to go, so I continued promoting and adding to my store, but with markedly less enthusiasm than before.

And then I received an email from a lady in Colorado. She absolutely loved the multiple sets of “Black Cats” coasters she had purchased six months before; could I possibly make them for her in another color? I started to write back–of course I can change the color–but then I realized I never received any notification (or commission) from Cafe Press regarding this order. I logged in, checked my stats to make sure. Nothing. I emailed the customer, asking her if she was certain she had purchased from my store. “Oh yes,” she replied, and attached her invoice. There it was, in black and white. I wrote to Cafe Press, armed with proof of their error, but did not receive a response.

After another customer thanked me for the “pretty mug” she bought, another order I was first hearing about, I logged into my Cafe Press account, and angrily deleted my store. I called Cafe Press to complain about what happened and to tell them why I shut my store down and what I thought of the way they ran their business. They apologized, insisted it was an honest oversight, and though I asked for a full accounting of my orders and due commissions, I never received it. However, I did receive a check in the mail about four months later–without any corresponding accounting.

Now, I doubt very much if Cafe Press needs to steal commissions from a couple of mug and tile sales to make a profit. It probably was an oversight, and an honest  mistake. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. However, this is the kind of thing that happens when you have zero transparency and refuse to give a vendor artist access to their own customer information–information they most certainly have a right to access. It’s also dumb business practice–nobody will promote their art the way the artist will, and to deny personal interaction between the artist and the customer—with the accompanying personal touch, news, sales, promos, works in progress, answers to questions–is undoubtedly costing them revenue. But hey, secrecy works for them, the artists don’t question/fight it, so it doesn’t seem to be hurting them.

When Glen and I opened Color Bakery in 2004, our goal was not only to custom print/manufacture my own work on quality products, but give other artists the opportunity to do the same. Cafe Press is the largest of an array of companies who offer custom printing and fulfillment services for gift and apparel items, but the fact remains that artists have precious few avenues to produce and resell their art on high quality items, items like glass and tumbled marble and fancy wood or metal serving trays, as well as items with lower price points.

It is a little frustrating when I hear from artists who are inquiring about the possibility of Color Bakery custom-printing their art on their products for resale, and they initially compare us to Cafe Press. If I say that comparison is akin to comparing a stick figure to a Renoir, people will call me arrogant. I’m really not being arrogant, I’m merely telling the truth: the breadth of our services, intensive personalization, customization capabilities, product diversity and quality is a million universes away from what Cafe Press does. I make it a point to work with the artists with issues such as color management, cropping, and product mix. I guarantee you nobody at Cafe Press sits at their desk fretting over a low resolution image (I’ll enlarge it); or taking a washed out scan and correcting the levels/removing the moire pattern; or making sure a rectangle crops into a square without compromising the artwork. In fact, I defy anyone to do those things

Bottom line? If someone is making and selling Obama tee shirts, Cafe Press is probably a great way to make some supplemental income. But artists who care about quality and the integrity of their work need to look around for other options.

Vintage Grapes and Ivy Glass Clock, Country French

Beautiful 12″ round distressed, French styled glass clock, featuring luscious wine grapes, climbing ivy, and delicate antique scrolling and flourishes. Can be mounted on a wall (ready for mounting) or displayed on an easel/clock stand for tabletop. Click here to see larger, and for purchasing information.

Country French Vintage 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.

Whether used as a small serving tray, a decorative accent or a tray to store small items such as jewelry or keys, it’s a piece you will always love.

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. I just got it online this morning

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 the PERFECT gift for Mother’s Day. To see bigger, click the image. To purchase, click here.

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 had the ability 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. The very best 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, 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 in the hope that 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 at a rapid clip. 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 (the lion’s share of our sales) 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.  Therefore, tourist gift shops in Cape Cod, for example, would actually be able to design their own exclusive 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 symptoms 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 sideshow 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 a huge, 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.