I've been selling at art markets/craft fairs and online for a few years now, and sometimes people ask me where I get my products or fixtures. I've tried the cheapest, tried the easiest, and now after much trial and error, finally found some reliable suppliers that I use regularly for my business. These have the balance I strive for: low prices, realistic quantity (for those that are purchased in bulk), and high quality. If you're an artist looking to get into sharing your work the way I do, this list is for you.
Just a note, none of the links pasted here are sponsored. It's all what I actually use. I have and will revise this list if and when quality changes.
Prints
- I produce all my art prints myself, using Red River Paper's Aurora Art White 250 in an Epson HP15000 six-color printer. A friend showed me how to jailbreak it to use off-brand inks and refill the original cartridges. The ink I use is from Precision Colors.
- Before getting my own printer, I had used mPix.com to produce giclee (jee-clay) prints. They're superb quality.
- I have also used catprint.com to make digital prints and postcards. They are great quality, more affordable than giclee, and send a free proof ahead of your order.
Cards
- I use Polar Matte pre-scored paper from Red River Paper in the same printer as above.
- I include envelopes from ClearBags.com.
Stickers
- I use VinylDisorder for all my stickers now. Their quality is excellent, their deals page makes their prices best, and their customer service is always above and beyond. They helped me adjust the layout for my eraser print sticker sheets so they'd cut correctly.
- I recommend against using StickerMule or StickyBrand. StickerMule has gone off the deep end, alienating their customer base by publicly showing support for a candidate many creatives oppose, plus their prices and quality were never competitive and their quality didn't justify the higher cost. Not worth it. StickyBrand used to be my go-to, but they've had some quality control issues and have shorted me about 10% of my order several times now, so I have moved on.
Other
- I designed my business cards using Canva and get 16 pt. premium matte cards from GotPrint.com.
- My tent is by ABCCanopy on Amazon.
- My chair is a tall folding chair by Ever Advanced on Amazon.
- My spinning card display is from Clear Solutions Displays- their products are worth the higher prices. Other fixtures were thrifted, borrowed, built by hand, or found on Facebook Marketplace.
- All my clear plastic sleeves, backing boards, and bags for purchases come from ClearBags.com.
- I use Shopify for my website. At time of writing, $39/month includes a fully customizable website and store with unlimited products, built-in discounted shipping rates, tons of platform integrations and app add-ons, and up to 10,000 monthly emails for marketing (or more at a small cost of $1/1,000 emails.) Some people use it as a point-of-sale system at pop-ups or even brick-and-mortar stores. The whole system is easy to use and you can go as in-depth with customizing and optimizing as you want.
- I have a Rollo thermal printer for printing waterproof shipping labels- such a time-saver, versus the printer paper covered in rows of packing tape I used to do. It also lets me design and print other stickers, like thank-yous to decorate packages or return address labels for letter envelopes.
I hope this list has helped you feel ready to dive into your art business. If there's anything I missed, please feel free to leave a comment!
