Thanks so much for all your feedback! I will check out etsy, sounds very interesting. I haven't sold on ebay because it's hard to know how well glassware is going to ship! I'm afraid it would break? Something to consider though.
Update: today I had two more calls about my products (wholesale buyers)...I swear my site has only been up a week! I'm soooo excited! Does anyone know if Disney buys hand painted items? I know it's a longshot, but we'll be there next week, so why not? Hey, the sky seems to be the limit (can you tell I'm on a high?)
Thanks again friends for your encouraging words!
Probably not unless you have some written legal contract ahead of time with them, because you'd be in violation with their copyright infringement. Same with the various sports teams. Be careful of directly copying their logos. You could get smacked with a big lawsuit & lose all the money for your business in legal fees defending yourself and having to pay them back.
As for packing fragile items to ship, as long as you pack things so they don't shift, move, or clang into another object - including the walls of the box, you will be fine.
If you need to, send yourself a few test trial boxes & see how they fare. It's better to do your experimenting on yourself than to have an unhappy customer. It takes a long time to build up a good, solid reputation. It can take 1-2 bad incidences to lose a customer quick.
Another avenue to think about is getting a MySpace page of your stuff. Your girlfriend glasses are in the perfect demographic for the MySpace crowd. Also, other college age gals blogs. Get the word out with pics in a few well chosen blogs & other people will do the advertising for you as they post their latest finds.
I'll look for the webpage later, talking about blogging as the newest, fastest way of getting the word out. There are blog search engines that link to other blogs, so a person can type in a keyword & be brought to other people's blogs to read & also see your glasses at a "girlfriends party" or dorm room party where they are laughing & drinking out of your glasses.
Also there is one ceramic artist I found who was able to do this tastefully & successfully. And she got a magazine blurb out of being found on a blog.
I had Googled for directions on a clothing dye I am interested in using. Up came a blog of a woman who successfully dyed a few lovely thrift store finds of antique lace clothing. The before & after pics from faded antique cream dyed to a pretty, zesty orange that gave a modern spin of the lace was incredible. This personal affidavit with home shots of one person actually using the dyes sold me on the dyes better than any manufacturer's ad could have.
Java: scroll up about 7 posts. I posted Obe Wan's Etsy thread link there.
