Bargar Art

Notes on making art and trying to build something

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Matt is building a small art business and writing honestly about the process as he goes.

  • How I Decided to Package My Prints

    One of the early decisions I had to make when setting up my shop was how I wanted to package and ship my prints. It sounds like a small, boring logistical detail, but it ended up being one of those choices that affects almost everything: cost, customer experience, stress levels, and how confident I feel hitting the “ship” button.

    I went back and forth on this more than I expected. There are a few obvious ways people ship art, and none of them are inherently wrong. But each one comes with tradeoffs, and I had to figure out which tradeoffs I could live with.

    Shipping in Rolls

    Rolling prints is probably the most common approach. It’s what a lot of artists do, and for good reason. Tubes are familiar, prints are well protected, and it feels like the default solution.

    But the more I looked into it, the more little issues started to bother me.

    First, shipping tubes are classified as irregularly shaped packages. This is a specific designation by USPS that requires an extra fee. More importantly it also often means extra handling. I read quite a few anecdotes about shipping tubes getting lost or delivered months late because they couldn’t move cleanly through automated sorting machines. Anything that requires manual processing seems to introduce more opportunities for something to go wrong.

    I also kept coming back to the customer experience. A rolled print arrives tightly curled, and the first thing the customer has to do is fight with it a bit — flatten it out, weigh it down, wait for it to relax — before they can actually enjoy it. That didn’t feel great to me. I wanted the first moment with the print to be satisfying, not mildly annoying.

    Long Rectangular Tubes

    The next option I considered was using long rectangular tubes or boxes. These avoid the irregular shape fee and can move through sorting machines more easily, which solves one of my biggest concerns with traditional tubes.

    Still, I had reservations. Putting a rolled print into a square tube felt like it could introduce awkward bends in the paper. I worried that securing the roll with something like a rubber band might leave a crease. You could put a round tube inside the box, but at that point you’re adding cost and complexity without really improving the customer experience.

    And again, the core issue remained: the customer still has to unroll and flatten the print before they can enjoy it. For larger sizes, this might be unavoidable — if I were shipping prints bigger than 13″ × 19″, this is probably the route I’d take. But for the sizes I’m offering now, it felt like a compromise I didn’t need to make.

    Shipping Flat

    In the end, I decided to ship my prints flat.

    This option is slightly more expensive. Shipping costs are about $2 higher per order, and it requires more protective materials. I was also initially worried that such a large flat surface would be more prone to bending or damage.

    After reading a lot of other artists’ experiences, I landed on a packaging approach that felt robust enough to offset those risks.

    Here’s what I’m doing now:

    The print goes into a clear plastic sleeve with a backing board. This protects it from moisture and fingerprints, and it also gives the print a nice presentation — it can be enjoyed immediately, even without a frame.

    That sleeved print is then sandwiched between two slightly larger pieces of cardboard (16″ × 20″). This adds rigidity and, importantly, protects the corners.

    All of that goes into a rigid mailer (17″ × 21″). The mailer adds another layer of bend resistance and provides some buffer space around the edges in case the package gets bumped or lightly crushed in transit.

    So far, this setup feels very solid. It’s a bit more work and a bit more cost, but it gives me confidence that the print will arrive in good condition.

    Why Shipping Flat Won Out

    The deciding factor for me was the customer experience.

    With flat shipping, the print arrives ready to be enjoyed. There’s no flattening period, no wrestling with curled paper, no waiting. The customer opens the package and sees the print as it’s meant to be seen.

    That felt worth the extra couple of dollars.

    This whole decision ended up being less about optimization and more about values. I wanted shipping to feel intentional and respectful of the work — both for me and for whoever ends up with the print on their wall.

    Like most things in this process, there probably isn’t a single right answer. But for now, shipping flat feels like the right choice for me.

  • My First Months Running an Art Business

    Almost two months ago I opened an Etsy shop to sell my photography prints. I didn’t really know what to expect. One part of me wanted to believe, who knows, maybe something will sell immediately!? The other part of me thought I’ll never sell a print ever. Either way, I was already making prints for my own entertainment so the risk felt low. 

    As I began to build out my shop, I talked to ChatGPT about how to gain visibility on Etsy. I use ChatGPT a lot on this journey, for technical help, for business help, for moral support. It’s nice having a coach, even if that coach is a language model. So ChatGPT emphasized the importance of consistent updates. Etsy rewards active shops and engaged sellers. I took this to heart early on and I’ve been making updates to my shop almost every day. New listings, new photos, new videos, keyword tweaks and more. I’m trying to tell Etsy “this shop is for real, please show me to people!”. 

    Once I started shooting product videos, I thought maybe I should crosspost this content to social media. Maybe it’s not the most engaging social content but it couldn’t hurt. I decided to start with Pinterest and Instagram. 

    Once again, ChatGPT told me these platforms reward consistent updates. It seems to be the same with all of these algorithmic platforms. Unless you’re posting especially viral content, it takes time for the algorithm to figure you out. It has to test each piece of content with different audiences to figure out what type of people respond to your content. New accounts can go for many months of consistent posting without gaining traction. It’s not necessarily a content quality problem, but rather an audience fit problem. 

    So it began to hit home that no, my prints were not going to sell immediately. I would have to gain visibility first and that would take time. I reset my expectations. I am going to try to work consistently for at least three to six months and then see where I’m at. It’s a bit of a let down, but not totally unexpected. 

    The gnawing question is whether my art is good enough. I fear I could post consistently to these platforms for years and still never gain traction because there simply isn’t a demand for what I’m putting out there. ChatGPT tells me that truly bad art is rare, it’s just a matter of finding the people with whom your art resonates. But what if I’m one of those rare cases? The maddening part is that I can’t really know until I try. And trying takes time.

    Patience and consistency are the name of the game. Volume of output is less important than showing up and doing a little something every day. Which is nice, in a way. I can work on these different platforms in parallel in a sustainable way. An Instagram reel one day. An Etsy update another day. Create one Pinterest pin every day. Feed the algorithm, step back and wait. I decided to revive my old Redbubble shop as well. Since I’m only doing a little everyday I can afford to add in an additional platform and start putting in my time there as well. 

    The actual work of running this business is pretty easy. The mental part is the hard part. Some days I don’t get any visitors to my Etsy shop at all. I’ve never gotten more than two likes on an Instagram post. My Pinterest audience is growing slowly but engagements are hard to come by. Everything feels stagnant at the moment. I have to be consistent, but it’s hard to continue posting into a void with almost no positive reinforcement.

    Many days I feel like quitting. I would have already if ChatGPT didn’t keep telling me that these numbers are completely normal for a new business. I have a tendency to quit things too early and I’m really trying to give this a fair shot. ChatGPT tells me I’m not failing, I’m just early, and I’m trying to believe it instead of the voice in my head that tells me I’m not good enough. ChatGPT also told me Saquon Barkley still plays for the Giants, so I’m not always sure what to believe 🤷‍♂️😁

    I don’t know where any of this goes. Maybe nowhere. Maybe somewhere unexpected. But I’m here, showing up, one little piece of content at a time, and trying to give this a fair chance.

    More posts coming soon in this little series. In this post I really wanted to cover what it felt like to start this business, but later I’ll write more about some of the practicalities, the decisions I’ve had to make, and the things I’ve learned. 

    If you want to follow along — or if you’re curious what kind of art I’ve been making — you can find my Etsy shop here and my Redbubble shop here. Follow me on Pinterest here and Instagram here.