Tag: Think outside the box

I am always on the lookout for new product ideas. I love looking at options and trying to decide if the price I would have to charge would even be in the realm of what others are willing to pay, often wondering how people afford to order so many of a given item that it brings the cost down to a reasonable price that they can charge their customers and still make money. I also wonder how many of that same type of item are on the market and how do consumers even decide what to buy? Lots to think about.

The other day though, I kicked myself. I have thought a lot about putting my artwork on clothing. The biggest problem is the color printing. Printing in a huge range of colors that art comes in is super expensive, if you can find someone who even does that, and the options are definitely limited at best. Mostly what we see is either home printers doing iron-on transfers, which I have done, but not a huge fan of. Or line drawings that are all one color, either screen printed or vinyl lettering, which is really nice, but I didn’t have anything to start with. A lot of my art comes from multiple reference photos rather than a drawing, because I have never really felt like I drew good enough to really start from scratch.

Well, recently I have started drawing some of my own stuff, particularly flowers. I have painted them for years and have discovered that I can draw them! So, I have made several paintings from my original line drawings. I then just set aside the drawing, because I drew it and can’t bring myself to just throw it in the garbage, thinking that maybe someday I’ll use it somehow. Insert the kicking myself here. I realized that I could use those simple line drawings, that were all my own, to put on clothes. I am so excited to have this new avenue of ideas to work with. There are so many ways to use these line drawings, the possibilities of which I had never really thought about until now, mostly because I didn’t have any to work with. I am so excited! It is amazing how many possibilities there are out there to share art, that have nothing to do with a picture you hang on your wall.

I have only had time to do one of my sketches, but I have 3 colors of t-shirts available right now. At this point they won’t be on my website, I need to get that up and running, but they will be available locally, and for those who contact me directly. I have already sold almost half of what I ordered, and I am so excited to work on more sketches as well as the types of clothes that I put them on. Life is full of so many possibilities. I remember hearing the story of a man in the 1860’s I believe, who worked for the patent office. He wanted to close the patent office because everything that could be invented had already been invented! I am so glad we didn’t stop there. I love this because it reminds me that not every painting has been painted, not every new technology has been invented, not every song has been written, and so on. No matter what our interests are, there’s always room for one more person.