New Press arrived today - Hope to have a play later

[WorthDoingRight]

Set yourself up an email account (custommugs@hotmail.com or whatever). Go to someplace like Moo and get stickers done with the email addy on. Make mugs for your wife's friend and put a sticker on the bottom of each. Worth a go at getting your name out there. Don't bother with flyering unless it's targeted. On Facebook? Show your work to your friends there, and make sure to let them know you do custom jobs and remind them that father's day is coming up! You'll get a few orders that way I'm sure. I did just that and got all those orders. Some of my mates went to Bearded Theory festival the other week and I took one of their group photos and stuck it on a mug as a pragmatic test for photo printing. Tagged the people in the photo and all 8 in the picture want one of the mugs! Turns out 2 of my mates run large forums like this and are canvassing their members to see who wants forum merchandise! I've done a couple for my local pub and taking them in tonight. All those mugs out there with a sticker on the bottom. You just never know mate!
Good luck!
(lol - I sound like an expert after about 5 days!)

What great ideas! I used to use was it Able labels for small stickers in the past however I am not sure whether they are still around though. I have my webaddress and a couple of email addresses ready for when I decide to make a go of it.

To be honest I need to sort out my printer issues first before taking on anything for actual sale. I am still not 100% happy with a bit of smudging when printing - but need to spend more time sorting these issues out.

[WorthDoingRight]

Yes you will get a cease and desist notice, but if they feel you have already done significant harm to their brand (whichever brand they have) they can issue you with a fine against the goods you have already sold.

Do you mean the psycho bitch sticker ?? the tongue/mouth for that, artwork purchased from a US site which claims to not be in copyright conflict and i have not had any problems with it.

As i said it is just a warning to others, especially people new to the business - its very easy to show a mug off on facebook with a WoW design on it, and before you know it, its been tagged by 100's of people and is picked up by them. For your own original art facebook and other social sites like etsy are brilliant, although you also have the danger of your artwork being copied by others, which smarts i know.

i know of 2 people now who have lost significant sums of money (far more than the goods they sold) one from ebay and on on their own site, which they linked to facebook - customers put up photos of thier wall murials and vinyl door decorations, and they had a cease and desist from walt disney group and they were also given a fine to pay. the other person was selling football club stuff - mugs, mats etc, and he has lost thousands -

Well, I doubt that I will post or link anything to facebook that isnt my own work or copyright free. I definately will not be selling controversial items to the public as my main employment would then be in jeopardy and that is if I ever decide to make it into a business - if not all my friends and relatives will be getting mugs from now on

[Gelert]

Oh Disney! Yep, they are ultra litigious (I think they employ more lawyers than animators these days!). Football clubs are too - which when you hear about their shambolic finances you can well understand:) Blackpool recently confiscated a tonne of stock from someone. But it wasn't even knock-off club merch - it was shirts with the words to fan songs on. Those songs were written by the fans! Not sure of the outcome but I think he's getting his stock back. Very unpleasant though as they struck just before the play-offs when the guy would have made a mint!
I sell some Tolkien related stuff (though nothing lifted from the LOTR films). When I started, I applied for a license. That was over a year ago. They didn't even bother to reply! They probably looked at my figures and thought I wasn't worth the price of a stamp I am planning on trying again this year though, what with the Hobbit film coming out. Also, I use "tolkien inspired in the descriptions and have a disclaimer that it's not and shouldn't be considered official merchndise in any way. Supposedly this makes it more difficult to be sued in the first instance.

As for the lips, found this: © 2009 Rolling Stones & Universal Music Group. All rights reserved But if you've had no problems...

[Paul]

Just quick one to WDR... You dont need to order paper that wight more.that has nothing to do with transfered picture. Make sure it has descent coating tho. Texprint, trupix or expres are used most i would say...

[mrs maggot]

yep i know the copyright for the lips as i queried it at the time, so i will stand behind that sticker. it can be a minefield, esp when people sell football logo's on cd's etc on flea bay, also now some of the free fonts use images that are not their own, so i or others tend to pop it up when someone new who may not know shows off work which could land them in trouble.

[WorthDoingRight]

Just quick one to WDR... You dont need to order paper that wight more.that has nothing to do with transfered picture. Make sure it has descent coating tho. Texprint, trupix or expres are used most i would say...

Well currently using the paper that came with the mug press, it definately transfers the printed image well BUT the printed image is very hit and miss (it is as though there is transfer of residual ink from the print head to areas of the print where it should not be or that the ink is sitting on the paper instead of being absorbed)

I might try printing a test image onto a standard A4 sheet of paper to see it the issue disappears then that might point at the paper being the prime candidate.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well I finally got a printout that I was reasonably happy with, got it transferred to a mug and it looked great except for one small problem I had forgotten to mirror the image whilst printing :rolleyes:

So if anyone needs an expert in back to front mugs it appears I am the 'nam rof eht boj' :biggrin:

[Paul]

... And if anyon need mugs printed up side down then iam the man lol

[harlequeen]

- and I can do upside down and back to front. LOL

[Charlie_]

and no ones any good at inside out lol