Art on an Editor’s Budget (ha!)
August 14th, 2007 | Kate Woodrow | Home
Buying art on an editor’s budget is, quite frankly, hilarious. I mean, thanks to single-digit finds from Alameda and artfully arranged Chronicle Books (perk!), I’ve got boutique still lifes down. But covering the walls with “real art” is where I’ve drawn a blank. Enter etsy. Etsy’s like eBay for artists and crafty moonlighters. I’ve lost hours searching through all the accomplished and oh-so-affordable art for sale. But I definitely don’t feel like I’ve lost a fortune on what I’ve purchased. I chose an eerily romantic Polaroid diptych from supercapacity for $25 and a sort of wistful illustration of a Brooklyn rooftop from dkim for a cool $15. I couldn’t resist a tiny collage from Scrapatorium, mostly because it was called “Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts,” but also because it was only $5.
Some of my favorite etsy finds lately have been book art. (Surprise surprise.) Sophia Barao is selling lovely prints made on vintage book pages, this month in French, for $13.50.
Wondercabinet also has prints on age-worn pages, his from an old typography manual or a Webster’s, for $25. Rogerjporter took haunting b&w photographs of a monastery bookshelf in Prague ($25). And I can’t help but smile at eviandesign’s “illiterate bird” print ($10). Cheap cheep!
But so here’s my question for you: Has anyone seen any BIG affordable art on etsy? Nothing I’ve bought is more than 12 inches…which is a bit problematic when you have a barren apartment staring back at you. My empty walls—and shallow pockets—thank you for any leads!
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Most of the art I’ve seen on etsy is pretty small in size, yes. Even more expensive, original pieces ($200 and up) are usually pretty small.
I’m sure the proliferation of tiny art on Etsy has a lot to do with shipping costs…
I found some larger prints on etsy by entering “large poster” and searching tags, titles, descriptions.
It’s funny to find this post because I was just bookmarking all the Etsy sellers I could find that printed on book pages. As a reader, I LOVE this art idea (I also own something of dkim’s as well).
As for larger posters, I don’t know what your music taste is but there are some gorgeously designed show posters at:
http://thesmallstakes.com/gallery.php?page=1 and http://www.hammerpress.net/posters/posters.html.
Also I bet some Etsy sellers could print stuff larger, as the seller says on this bright orange piece,
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6676371.
Good idea Katherine - actually, I guess you can just put “large” in front of any noun to turn up some big versions of whatever object you’re looking for. Great, now I have to buy this “large tote.”
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6659250
PS. Looks like it’s dentist day on etsy!
I think Maggie is right about shipping being the issue with larger pieces on Etsy. I just started selling there a few weeks ago and everything I have listed is flat (prints) and relatively small. I’m going to offer larger prints, since a few people have asked, but can’t figure out how to go larger than 13 x 19 and have it be economical.
Another option could be grouping the things you buy into a collection on the wall, creating a really lovely vignette!
for larger prints try contacting artist’s directly or try visiting deviantart.com they offer prints from some artists.