Interested in Creating Art

Tacoma is yearning to become more of an arts centered city. According to the News Tribune, the arts and Tacoma have been entwined for years, but I must have missed that memo. The new push to incorporate the arts has gained momentum with the new year and the city putting up artist’s lofts in the brewery district, but a building not too far away has been reaching out to local artists since 2007.
Tacoma Art Place is a building located on South 11th street offering art classes to the public at affordable rates. Are you interested in learning how to knit, but don’t know where to go? That is where the Tacoma Art Place comes in. They are offering classes from photography to card making trying to fill a void in this artist laden community.
Want to find out more? Visit their website for center hours and current class information.

CafePress Changes Its Policies: My Shop May Close

CafePress has decided to change their pricing policy so that all items in the Marketplace are only allowed a 10% commission for the shop owner.

Beginning June 1st: We’ll start setting prices in the Marketplace, and Shopkeepers will receive a 10% commission off the final retail prices from all Marketplace sales. This change provides our shoppers with consistent pricing that’s competitive with other online retail stores. It also allows us to better invest in a quality retail experience and continued growth.
These changes DO NOT impact the pricing, markup, or sales you are driving in your own shops. By separating our Marketplace pricing from the prices you set in your shops, we’re able to preserve shop base pricing and continue to support shopkeepers who drive their own sales.

So on this topic I sent them an E-mail:

To Whom it May Concern:

I am sorry to hear that this company is going to take away the right of the shop owners to make any profit. Most of my sales have come from Marketplace discovery and not from people going directly to my shop. If this policy had been in place last year I would have lost out on over half of my sales and made barely enough to cover the expense of the shop let alone the immense amount of time I have had to put in to create the product designs due to the need for a different crop for each product. I am very strongly considering closing my premium shop because I do not think it will be worth the $70 a year to make 10% off each product sold. I believe that my work is worth more than that minuscule amount. With this new policy you are saying that the graphic designers and artist who fill your site with unique and interesting designs, do not deserve any benefit for their efforts.

I have put a lot of time and effort into my shop, making sure each image fit the item correctly and gave off the professional feel that should go in to such designs. I am very disappointed that all of this work with have been for naught whether or not I keep my shop open or close it.

Because of this new policy change, my shop at CafePress may be closing by April 30th, 2009.

If you would like to view the shop before it goes away, please visit me at
Cafepress.com/ardentphoto

Opinions? Thoughts?