Tag Archives: design

pre-order RESIST rubber stamps now!

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ok y’all, i’m doing another pre-order situation for RESIST rubber stamps. i’ve had a lot of folks ask over the past many months if i had any left (which i don’t) and have been reluctant to go through the hassle again, but i do so love the idea of all that resistance currency floating around out there. plus i like to make people happy.

i don’t have the money/credit to pay for them upfront, hence the pre-order. last time i didn’t mark up the costs at all and made basically nothing on over 100 rubber stamps.

this time i AM going to add a few bucks to each so i make something off my labor/design. just mentioning it so y’all know why the prices are different.

small self-inking stamps will be $12.
large self-inking stamps will be $20.
pocket clamshell stamps will be $14.

shipping is $4 first class mail for up to 4 stamps. more than that and i might have to go priority which would be $7.

i take paypal: artbymags@gmail.com (friend payment please)
venmo: mags504
squarecash: cash.me/$mags (only debit cards)

(make sure to include your correct mailing address or shoot me an email at: artbymags@gmail.com with that info. if you are local to new orleans and want to pick up from me in midcity, no shipping charge is required.)

i’ll keep this pre-order open for about a week or so and then place the order. it’ll probably take another week or two after that to get them and then however long it takes for me to repackage them and mail them to you. so please be patient.

please share with anyone you think might want one of these, because i won’t be doing this again anytime soon.

happy thanksgiving!

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how did it get to be almost thanksgiving already?

i have no idea, but here we are. which also means, it’s almost black friday, small business saturday, cyber monday, and giving tuesday. i have not traditionally participated in any of the thanksgiving weekend consumer bonanzas, as either a buyer or a seller, and have only become aware of giving tuesday recently. i certainly advocate the latter – seriously, check out the link and please do give to local nonprofits and organizations that serve your community – but you won’t be seeing any crazy sales from me this weekend or throughout the holiday shopping rush.

why? a) because it takes a lot of time to administer these types of things online, and between my pet biz being busier than ever and going on a weeklong vacation the week AFTER thanksgiving, i simply don’t have time to deal with it. also, b) because i don’t have a ton of inventory and i desperately need to actually make money on what i do have, to make up for all the money i’ve spent making the things. i basically can’t afford to run a sale. and c) because i keep my prices low already, year-round. i don’t do that retail trick of bumping my prices up high and then lowering them only for sales. maybe that’s bad business and why i don’t really end up making much if any money off my art/design “hobby,” but i just can’t feel good about charging higher prices for things. i try to have a fair price that makes me some money but doesn’t gouge you, my supporters. so my shirts are still $20, while most retailers now charge between $22-$28. i prefer that my stuff is accessible to more folks at a reasonable price. so sorry, no black friday or cyber monday sales at artbymags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all that being said, i have been in the throes of restocking my etsy shop so i actually have something to sell this holiday season. at the moment, i have a good amount of resist shirts (mens/unisex as well as women’s, most in black but a few in white) and keep loving keep fighting shirts (mens/unisex only right now). and i just finished printing a short run of sister resister shirts in both mens/unisex and women’s. there’s a few other odds and ends (still have some not gay as in happy shirts in red and grey) and ) and i’m fantasizing about reprinting some of my older designs at some point (like the rocket ship, old school turntable, and fleur de lis skull) but i’ll have to sell some of what i’ve got to afford to do that.

there’s still lots of stickers available for purchase for next to nothing (they make great stocking stuffers) and there’s a couple of paintings and hopefully some prints coming soon. maybe some yard signs if i have the time to make ’em.

and i’m still tossing around the possibility of doing a little backyard holiday sale, maybe december 9th or 10th? we’ll see how things are going and if i still have a fair amount of inventory by then. might have to be later, closer to christmas. but i do have lots of one-offs, new old stock, and oops shirts for the bargain bin, and i have a bunch of paintings and prints that are stacking up around here that could use a new home. so stay tuned. i’ll try my best to announce it on all social media ahead of time.

and lastly, i’ve been spending a lot of time pondering what to do with my patreon account. i’ve had it going now for 2 years and i’ve had a loyal group of about 15-20 folks who’ve been giving me $5 or $10 a month to help support my artistic pursuits, which has allowed me to have start-up funds for things like sticker runs and runs of tshirts, and has helped me buy equipment like my 4 color screen printing press and just last week a new wide format inkjet printer so i can print film transparencies. but i feel constantly guilty cuz i haven’t been so great at sending out rewards to my patrons, as my output has been low these past 6 months or so as i try to build up my screen printing capability by slowly outfitting my home studio with equipment and supplies, and as my pet biz has gotten busier. some days i feel so guilty i just want to delete it, be done with it, while apologizing profusely to my patrons and refunding some of their money. but instead, because so many of them have told me they don’t expect anything in return and are happy to be supporting me, and because it is really truly helpful financially and also motivational, i’m thinking maybe what i need to do is instead double down on my patreon – refresh it, retool it, rethink the rewards portion of it, and publicize the hell out of it to get more supporters. i’m not really sure which way i’ll end up deciding to go, but i can’t really do anything with it til after the holidays. but it’s on my mind and i’m trying to figure out how to keep using it to help further my creative endeavors while also offering some kind of value to those who support me.

i guess that’s it for now, from me. just wanted to make a little pre-holiday-madness update to let y’all know what’s going on with art by mags. happy thanksgiving everyone!

post mardi gras regrouping…

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how did it get to be march already? whew. i hope all the locals had a good mardi gras and the rest of you, i hope you’re hanging in there through these first 45 days of 45’s presidency. yes, hard to believe it’s only been 45 days.

as for me, i put my etsy shop on pause midweek before mardi gras, knowing once wednesday hits, it’s a nonstop marathan of parades and work and parties and costume making and drinking and eating and recuperating and then fat tuesday and then OMGTHANKGODITSOVER. i knew i wouldn’t be able to package and ship any orders that came in until ash wednesday at the very earliest, so i figured i’d pause the shop to give myself a breather. i had to tidy up and drunk-proof my house for my annual endymion party, too, so it all made sense.

and i’m glad i did it, for my mental health. but now, since i reactivated it, it’s a slow climb back to the activity level i had going before mardi gras. everything is back in stock – all the RESIST stickers and patches and shirts, plus i’ve printed off some of the NOT GAY AS IN HAPPY BUT QUEER AS IN FUCK YOU shirts too, in red. i’ve had a few sales, but mostly just stickers, a dollar or two at a time, which, sadly, i don’t actually make money on, thanks to all the etsy and paypal fees. but i’m taking advantage of this lull in activity as an opportunity to work on new things and get my website updated.

 

i’m heading out to a new art supply store i’ve never been to this morning. i have a few hours this afternoon that i want to use to make some new screens for new tshirt designs, but i realized i had no screens! so after googling to find out that the art supply shops i usually go to are all closed on sundays (what’s up with that?), i found a new one that is open and it’s right downtown under the expressway/bridge. so hopefully i’ll be able to nab a few so i can get busy on some new stuff.

i’ve also updated the teespring shop with all the old designs – RESIST, BEWARE THE PUSSY, KEEP LOVING KEEP FIGHTING, and ARMY OF LOVERS – with continuously relaunching (every 3 days) campaigns so they will always be available. and the fact that they will print every 3 days means your stuff will come faster. so feel free to refer friends there when they ask you where you got your shirt!

ok, that’s my update for now. #thesidehustleisREAL

the #RESIST factory keeps churning…

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i love y’all. you keep buying as much #RESIST gear as i can turn out. i can’t keep up!

thank you all so much for the support and all the love! and thank you for helping me to make some donations to organizations i trust and believe in. so far $50 has gone to the people’s institute’s scholarship fund for their undoing racism trainings, over $150 went to the #J20NOLA coalition that i worked with on the inauguration day march, $25 has gone to the local planned parenthood, and smaller donations have gone to the new orleans abortion fund and the local women’s march committee. so probably about $250 so far, and i’m about to do another round of donations this week to a few different organizations. i don’t set a specific percentage or amount because i’m never sure how something is going to sell and the intermittent way i produce products means i always have some of my money tied up in ordering/inventory, but trust that i’m making regular contributions to nonprofits and grassroots groups with some of what i’m making from this gear.

i am of course keeping some of it too, to grow my art/craft biz, purchase some new equipment so i can keep making stuff, and buy supplies. i might have to use some of it to fix my 20 year old ailing car, too, but it feels like a luxury to be able to do so.

so, updates about the merch:

stickers: i’m almost out of the 6″ matte stickers and i’m not sure i’m going to keep ordering them since they are more expensive to get made. but they are also much faster to get made, so maybe. there’s a few left. i have plenty of the smaller 5.25″ glossy ones (pictured) left. you can get both via my etsy shop but feel free to just email me directly to place an order for stickers. $1 each. (you can paypal, venmo or squarecash me directly – ask me for details.)

embroidered patches just got restocked! i have about 175 left. you can get them via the etsy shop or you can email me directly to order those – $5 each.

as for the tshirts, i’m in constant restocking mode on those. i am trying to keep 3-4 of all sizes in stock at all times but it’s hard to keep up with, so forgive me the periodic outages. you can see the current inventory in the etsy shop in the individual listings for both mens/unisex and womens cuts – i try very hard to keep that tally current daily as things get bought. if you don’t see the listings for the mens or womens shirts, it’s cuz i’m out. just keep checking back. they are $20 each.

i’ve also decided to go ahead and just keep them available via teespring. it’s a less than perfect print-on-demand situation but the quality for one color prints is always good and there’s just so much selection for brands/styles/cuts/sizes of shirts there. visit my teespring store to order. i get paid either way and it gives me a breather from the hand printing.

my friend dix keeps quipping – “who dresses you for the revolution?” at the sight of so many folks wearing my gear at all the marches and meetings. i keep thinking about ways i can work that into a tagline for the business. “dressing the resistance since 1992” or something like that. send me your thoughts!

thanks again everyone!

RESIST shirts + stickers!

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my latest design is simple but bold. i actually started working on it BEFORE the election, fully thinking hillary clinton would be our president. but, well, now it has even more meaning. my friend julie recently (post-election) snapped a picture of a sign on a house on st. bernard ave that said: resistance must now become like breathing. i don’t know if this is a famous quote by someone that i should know (i googled it but found nothing), or just the wise words of a local person who felt the need to scrawl it out on a handwritten sign and tack it up on their house, but it’s the truth and it really resonates with me.

i made the above resist sticker for my patreon subscribers, but of course ran extra knowing folks would probably want these. well i’ve already sold out of that initial run of 200 and am half way through the second 200; i now have a run of 500 on the way. pretty sure this will be an ongoing effort. i mean, we’ve got four years of this fascist crap to resist, right?

you can buy them from me directly for $1 each. (they are up in my etsy shop but cost $2 each there due to paypal and etsy fees.) email me if you want stickers.

i also hand painted a screen and have printed t-shirts. for now, what i’m selling are black, 100% cotton, Next Level brand, soft lightweight t-shirts with white water-based ink. i have mens and women’s crew cuts in sizes small through 2XL. $20 per shirt. they are also up in my etsy shop but you can get them from me directly by emailing me.

now is not a time for complacency. or for silence. or for normalizing this incoming administration and president. now is the time for coming together, conspiring, organizing and mobilizing. we must actively #resist.