Would you buy one of these?

[ProStaffSteve]

If I were doing this, Id also recommend claning up your facebook photos/posts & making it as friendly looking as possible & flood the shit out of whatever local market exists and do those for MUCH cheaper (65-150), but absolutely pepper that b****. No costs besides technically income tax. The whole idea being etsy has lits of competition, local FB market has... none & $0 in costs besides paper, ink, effort

 

[smoke]

I like that a lot. Not sure how much I would pay for one as there are various factors - framed or not, size, detail. But I'd be in for $75 - 100 for a nice one without a frame. I think that they would sell fairly well to the non-outdoor crowd too.

 

[LookinforDirt]

I like them. Go for it!

 

[Glendon Mullins]

I dont have any "art" hanging on my walls like painting and such, so it's not for me, but i could see people buying the heck out of that cause it does look cool.

 

[Westernduck]

Didn’t know about these before, but they look cool. I’d say go for it and when you do let us know where we can buy them!

 

[Pro953]

Thank you very much. Yes it’s a specific rice paper and a spicific squid ink. I think the wrinkles come from doing this in my garage in the humid mid west. I will definitely look into possibly ironing them out but it will definitely take trail and error for that because this specific paper is very fragile so we will see what happens!

I am not sure about washi paper, but I use a cool
Iron on my watercolors to flatten them out, but that is cotton paper so it behaves differently I assume.

If not, then you could try and sandwich them between hardboard and put weight on top.

It’s certainly hard to keep it from getting too many wrinkles while getting a good print on the fish.

One thing I would say, is folks like a story. If you can find some way to note the species and where it comes from, sometimes the story adds more value to the piece than the actual item itself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CorbLand]

I wouldnt buy one but they are cool. Just not my cup of tea.

I actually like the wrinkles in the paper. Kind of adds to the look but thats just me.

Dont think you have much to lose trying. See if there is a flea market or something close to home and give that a shot. Pretty low risk in my opinion.

 

[JB.USMC]

Prostaffsteve- Our brains are on the same wave length. FLOOD the internet with it sell for cheap, especially while I am dialing it in a bit more. I dont have a FB but would make it and try to reach EVERYONE haha.

Smoke - Thank you very much. Greatly appreciate you input on what your price range would be!

Lookinfordirt - I appreciate that, and I think I'm going to try and get everything set up internet wise this weekend.

Glenden Mullins - Thank you for taking feedback!

Westernduck - Thank you so much, I will post a shop link as soon as its up!

pro953- Those tips are appreciated very much! I thought about posting a picture with me and my boys (if they catch them) tug at the heart stings a bit, if you will hah. But I love the idea of showing where the fish came from.

Corbland - Thank you for the input, others have also said they like the wrinkles. Some not so much haha. So I am learning that a WIDE variety of prints will be a good plan of action. Love the flea market idea!

Looks like I better get to fishing... you know..... for business things...
Thank you all very much.

 

[fattycakez]

I really like these. I would much rather have one of these on the wall than a taxidermized fish. Depending on your market, I would try to play up the Japanese angle a bit. Maybe write the fish name in Japanese in the corner or something. That stuff is very popular with the internet crowd right now.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

something no one has mentioned, is in a sort of round about, twisted way, this could be a cheaper form of taxidermy for fish maybe? like if someone couldn't afford a mount or replica, they could get this done to preserve a memory of the "big one" they caught?? hang this beside or above a picture of you and the fish maybe? or am i just nuts?

 

[JB.USMC]

Man, I am glad I posted this! Great info being sent my way.

Fattycakez - This is a great Idea! Give it a touch classsssss

Glendon - That is not nuts at all and very feasible for those local to me. The king salmon was my wifes first king and thats kinda what kicked this off. Thank you!

 

[intunegp]

I think a lot of the lack of interest here is that you're barking up the wrong tree...we aren't your target market. Personally if I wanted a fish print on my wall I'd buy squid ink and rice paper to stamp my own fish before spending money on someone else's, ya know? I think they're cool looking but I wouldn't pay much for one unless it was super high quality and a fish species I was particularly interested in.

I think your buyers would be people with a limited interest in wildlife/the outdoors but don't partake in hobbies relating to them. My aunt has four or five various euro mounts and antlers from my dad and I as decor in her house, but walking her dog around the neighborhood is about as outdoorsy as she gets.

Some other considerations just off the top of my head:

Can you make multiple prints per fish to have inventory or does it get too messy after a while? Are you going to sell these framed/matted or just paper? Either way how will you ship them to ensure they arrive safely? If framed/matted, is that something you'll do yourself or pay someone else to do? If just paper, have you considered giving the buyer the ability to pay you extra to have it framed/matted? Have you looked into other food safe/edible dyes or inks that you could use to produce different colors while still leaving your fish consumable?

 

[JB.USMC]

intunegp - Valid points! Each print takes multiple tries, trying to get the right amount of ink evenly spread, and then laying the paper over in a timely manner so that it does not dry before I can get the paper on (it dries quickly) Ex. that gar one took 4 tries, so I have 3 other prints that are "OK" but I wasn't happy with enough to put in the frame (mostly had trouble getting the teeth to show good)
I'm going to try and touch them up by hand to be "wall hanger ready". Inventory is definitely a concern of mine because the print is best done as soon as you bring them home. I was thinking of offering just the print (shipped in a tube) for "X" and the option for a frame for "X amount extra". As for colors, YES! I have not done one with color, but I have a pretty artistic niece that I have asked to aid me in this to see how it comes out. The only Ink I have tried is a Japanese squid ink that is edible.
I have ZERO experience in with shipping.
I'm going to hit the water to try and get few different species to show. While acquiring inventory, do you think it's unreasonable to advertise something like "Will catch & make to you order" (the huge down sides are 1. like others have said I am limited to the species in my area, and 2. how long it would take to me catch a species of the desired size, fishing aint always catching haha.

If anyone has any tips on shipping, especially the larger frames I would appreciate the input!

 

[Marshfly]

People will buy those. Do them on colored shirts in contrasting colors. Those will sell way more than prints for the wall IMHO.

 

[CorbLand]

intunegp - Valid points! Each print takes multiple tries, trying to get the right amount of ink evenly spread, and then laying the paper over in a timely manner so that it does not dry before I can get the paper on (it dries quickly) Ex. that gar one took 4 tries, so I have 3 other prints that are "OK" but I wasn't happy with enough to put in the frame (mostly had trouble getting the teeth to show good)
I'm going to try and touch them up by hand to be "wall hanger ready". Inventory is definitely a concern of mine because the print is best done as soon as you bring them home. I was thinking of offering just the print (shipped in a tube) for "X" and the option for a frame for "X amount extra". As for colors, YES! I have not done one with color, but I have a pretty artistic niece that I have asked to aid me in this to see how it comes out. The only Ink I have tried is a Japanese squid ink that is edible.
I have ZERO experience in with shipping.
I'm going to hit the water to try and get few different species to show. While acquiring inventory, do you think it's unreasonable to advertise something like "Will catch & make to you order" (the huge down sides are 1. like others have said I am limited to the species in my area, and 2. how long it would take to me catch a species of the desired size, fishing aint always catching haha.

If anyone has any tips on shipping, especially the larger frames I would appreciate the input!

Personally, I would stay away from the "catch and make to order' method. I would just do what you catch and do what you can. Make multiple of each fish unless there is a customer base that want 1 of 1s.

Like you said, fishing is fishing and there is little to no guarantee that you catch a specific fish of a specific size. You might also find that making promises turns fishing into a business, not a hobby.

I would also suggest checking with your local fish and game agency. This could push you into the commercial use of a resource. Especially if you start advertising that you will do customer orders.

 

[Ferrulewax]

something no one has mentioned, is in a sort of round about, twisted way, this could be a cheaper form of taxidermy for fish maybe? like if someone couldn't afford a mount or replica, they could get this done to preserve a memory of the "big one" they caught?? hang this beside or above a picture of you and the fish maybe? or am i just nuts?

That is exactly what lots of guys are using it for.

Also, I'll chime in here too- I agree with what was stated earlier about wrinkles adding character. If I wanted a flawless image I would take a photo.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Similar to the new "digital taxidermy" trend, I like this type of art. Not sure I would ever find a home in my (wife's) house, especially after shoehorning my bull and pedestal in my office, but I'm sure people would buy these.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

intunegp - Valid points! Each print takes multiple tries, trying to get the right amount of ink evenly spread, and then laying the paper over in a timely manner so that it does not dry before I can get the paper on (it dries quickly) Ex. that gar one took 4 tries, so I have 3 other prints that are "OK" but I wasn't happy with enough to put in the frame (mostly had trouble getting the teeth to show good)
I'm going to try and touch them up by hand to be "wall hanger ready". Inventory is definitely a concern of mine because the print is best done as soon as you bring them home. I was thinking of offering just the print (shipped in a tube) for "X" and the option for a frame for "X amount extra". As for colors, YES! I have not done one with color, but I have a pretty artistic niece that I have asked to aid me in this to see how it comes out. The only Ink I have tried is a Japanese squid ink that is edible.
I have ZERO experience in with shipping.
I'm going to hit the water to try and get few different species to show. While acquiring inventory, do you think it's unreasonable to advertise something like "Will catch & make to you order" (the huge down sides are 1. like others have said I am limited to the species in my area, and 2. how long it would take to me catch a species of the desired size, fishing aint always catching haha.

If anyone has any tips on shipping, especially the larger frames I would appreciate the input!

Check out the digital taxidermy guy on YT. I'm sure he had to overcome the same shipping and distribution challenges.

 

[intunegp]

intunegp - Valid points! Each print takes multiple tries, trying to get the right amount of ink evenly spread, and then laying the paper over in a timely manner so that it does not dry before I can get the paper on (it dries quickly) Ex. that gar one took 4 tries, so I have 3 other prints that are "OK" but I wasn't happy with enough to put in the frame (mostly had trouble getting the teeth to show good)
I'm going to try and touch them up by hand to be "wall hanger ready". Inventory is definitely a concern of mine because the print is best done as soon as you bring them home. I was thinking of offering just the print (shipped in a tube) for "X" and the option for a frame for "X amount extra". As for colors, YES! I have not done one with color, but I have a pretty artistic niece that I have asked to aid me in this to see how it comes out. The only Ink I have tried is a Japanese squid ink that is edible.
I have ZERO experience in with shipping.
I'm going to hit the water to try and get few different species to show. While acquiring inventory, do you think it's unreasonable to advertise something like "Will catch & make to you order" (the huge down sides are 1. like others have said I am limited to the species in my area, and 2. how long it would take to me catch a species of the desired size, fishing aint always catching haha.

If anyone has any tips on shipping, especially the larger frames I would appreciate the input!

I agree with the others that made to order is a bad model for this. You'd have to limit orders to fish you know you could catch in your local waters, and size would never be guaranteed. You could get swamped with custom orders to the point that you were so busy fishing for specific species and sizes that you wouldn't have time to catch and make other inventory. What if someone wants something that is in your local waters but is a rarity to catch?

I guess eliminating size requests on custom orders could help with this some but I'd be disappointed if I paid for a made to order rainbow trout thinking I was going to get a 16-18" print and ended up with a 6" stocker fresh from the hatchery ya know? I think you'd be far better off making and posting whatever you can. If I wanted a rainbow trout print and could get on your Etsy and choose between a handful of in stock trout prints I'd be just fine.

 

[Fatcamp]

Thank you very much. Yes it’s a specific rice paper and a spicific squid ink. I think the wrinkles come from doing this in my garage in the humid mid west. I will definitely look into possibly ironing them out but it will definitely take trail and error for that because this specific paper is very fragile so we will see what happens!

Is there some fabric you can use instead?