So, like many other artists, I do get some scam emails, purporting to be interested buyers from overseas. It is a common problem. These scams are very clever and you need to be very alert to the issue.
SO when I received an email, from a company I had never heard of, my antennae were up! Several emails later it materialises they are genuine. A company in the US who like my ‘designs’ as seen on social media, instagram in particular.
They explained that they look for particular designs that will work as textiles for their niche clothing business.
First issue? Once we had narrowed down which painting (design?) might work could I send over a 20MB mixed image? I should say we had already discussed what the renumeration would be should the image work on textile. 20 MB image ? No I cannot. I take all my final images of my work with my iPhone (approx. 2MB file) and am virtually always very happy with the result. To achieve a 20MB image would require the right equipment, the original image not behind glass and the painting still to be in my possession! Long story short we identified an image still in my studio on the easel and a husband with the right equipment .
So this is where we are at. Image sent and forwarded onto the textile manufacturer to see if it translates. And of course the colour mutates thanks to different equipment and software.
The reason for telling you all of this? Do keep a good quality photo of each painting you produce and, if possible, and if you do see your work on textiles, try and take large format files.
I cannot show you the said image ( I’m superstitious 😀) but if it goes further I will ! The attached image is a ‘snippet’ of the larger painting.
Hi, Judy!
Sami Griffis here, from the Appalachian Pastel Society. Congratulations on having your artwork selected for a fabric design.. This can be a very lucrative business for you if you plan well. The large photo size? That was needed as printed fabrics are likely digital. And since some textiles have more texture in the weave, every pixel counts to truly captures your image. Back in the day, I worked in the wallpaper and textile industry. Our processes were more mechanical then, no digital. We actually had to own the art to be able to use it. So, rights to your art are important. If you have any questions on that, use our US patent site http://www.uspto.gov. If this field interests you more, try to visit Surtex in New York. This is a large show where much art is purchased for textile and other products. Hope you find this useful! Am loving seeing your updates! Sami
Hi Sami thank you for such an interesting email – as you can tell it is a whole new world to me! I will look up the link as well and again thank you!
It is a wet and windy day here in the south of the UK and we are still in lock down so I got up this morning and thought , I’ll write a blog !And then thanks to the power of technology you reply.
And thank you for such positive feedback on my blog. I am grappling with technology as we speak as I want to do more videos and am trying to improve the quality of the webcam imagery.
You know you are really lucky in the US that there is such passion for soft pastels. It is not quite such an admired medium in this country. I would LOVE to be a member of a pastel group in my area but they don’t exist sadly.
thank you again and keep on painting !
Judy
Brilliant Judy.
I a always tell them the “go away”.
xx
Hi Lyn – yes there must be whole business going on out there trying to defraud artists!!!! Last one I got was quite sophisticated and I really hesitated before binning! Hope you are both doing OK in this weird world? Judy x