Ladies and gentlemen, happy Summer and happy New Year. I am proud to announce that Dash Kitten has a presence on image site RedBubble.

What is Redbubble?

Redbubble is an online shop that allows independent artists, photographers, painters and designers to promote their work without the worry of trying to find TShirt manufacturers, sticker makers and publishers for their notebooks.

Redbubble was founded in 2006 in Melbourne Australia, and it is similar in outlook to Zazzle. An artist uploads their artwork and has a lot of options for having the item printed.

Our friend and blogging colleague Athena Wise Kitty is also in Redbubble and, of course, her shop is packed full of delightful designs for you to enjoy

Why Join Redbubble?

I love taking photographs, and I also want to share them and generate an income from my own work. This will allow me to not only earn for myself but also help rescues with funds I generate from specific projects. One such project is featured below.

You can see my shop front in the screenshot below. I have combined some of my favourite images as a showcase and honour Dash Kitten (Founder Cat of the blog) by continuing to use his name as a strong part of my brand.

Pricing

There is a standard price per item on the site and you add the amount of profit you want to make. The standard profit setting is 20% but each item is individually adjustable.

Prices in my Redbubble shop are in US dollars.

This is because, at the moment, I can’t set it to my local currency – New Zealand dollars.

I could use Australian dollars but as New Zealand dollar and Australian dollar rates are different, can you imagine the confusion of my local customers? If I can ever change it to NZ dollars I may do but, for now, the American dollar is a good neutral compromise.

Reaching a New Audience

Opportunities like this, and Zazzle, allow photographers and artists to reach a new audience, including people who might not know or visit your blog yet. People can check out your photographs or drawings and see them as pretend (mockup) items in your store, and it is up to you which items you add work too.

Check out this screenshot for an idea of what happens which you select where to add an image.

It’s a lot of fun. If you look at my Van Gogh kitty photograph you can see that it would make a great coaster or TShirt. You don’t need to imagine an item as a TShirt or an acrylic block, you can see it happen in real time.

You can try out different items to see if you are happy with image placement and auditioning artwork to see if it works is a really good idea.

Here’s why:

• Some images may be too small for wall art (you need to upload a larger image) or art blocks.
• The work may be the wrong shape for a ‘phone case or garment.
• Work can sometimes sit badly on the fold of a closing smartphone cover.
• Or, an image can look simply terrible on some items, no matter how cool your design.

A Redbubble Special Project

Our friends at the Neko Ngeru Cat Adoption Cafe are also involved in rescue and helping them is one of my goals. This is a screenshot of the first item posted in their fundraiser folder in my shop.

The image is Chenzou one of the popular worker cats and all profits from his card go to help the cafe’s rescue efforts.

Here is the image of Chenzou full size. You may remember it from our earlier post.

I am glad I can help thanks to my love for photography. Do you fundraise for a local rescue, or use your talents in a way to benefit others?