We recently connected with Tristen Bailey and have shared our conversation below.

Tristen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Hi there!
I am Tristen and I own TristensTrademark. I am an artist based out of Michigan! I would say the biggest challenge to profitability would be the fact we had covid pop up in 2020 & now we are in 2023 with inflation & people are just not able to live the “normal” lives we once had. So much damage has happened with these two things people are just trying to survive. People love art and art brings peace and joy, but art comes with a pretty price. Fun fact not all artists are starving ha ha..

The products used as a resin artist have increased and therefore for prices of art have increased. It is hard to keep old prices when the products needed to create such beautiful art are almost double. People WANT to support and you can see they want to support. It is the toss up of how can I get support in such a pricey market. Support / Profitability come from liking, sharing and engaging now on social media. Those are spiritually rewarding and profitable. Sometimes means more than a sale! Another things that helps with profitability is word of mouth!

A story to help illustrate. I would say before covid hit back in 2019 I was selling art pieces a lot more. My prices were different as well because I was just starting out. I would say maybe selling 4-6 pieces a month or every other month? At that point my art was just my hobby and those pieces were beginners work. Fast forward to 2020 people lost their jobs, money was far and in between of flowing in homes. Art prices remained the same possibly even safe to say came down some!? End of 2020 early 2021 things were still not the same, but it was starting to come around more. Thankfully in 2022 life started to feel “normal” in a way again. This is where profits came in a little more since people were getting on their feet a-lot better! Fast forward to 2023 we are now in inflation and everything is high and expensive from fruits and veggies to art supplies! Art supplies have never been cheap, but I have never seen them this expensive. Money is hard to come by when there are periods of hardship! Even when my business isn’t being in profit I’m happy enough to just be able to create art! Art is therapy rather you are supporting, creating or observing! Profit in the form of money is amazing but it is also prospective!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi!!

I am Tristen, and I run TristensTrademark. I am an artist based out of a Michigan. I got into the Resin Epoxy or Epoxy Resin art industry by being in complete awe of a river table! A river table is not your ordinary wood table or kitchen / dining room table! It’s incredibly designed with a split center of color. When I seen the river table it was back in 2019. I brought it up to my sister and I remember saying “ I think I want to do this, but I’m scared”.. her reply was something along the lines of “ if you don’t try you will never know & I believe in you little sister just keep trying”! At that point I knew I had to try I started out small with coasters and in a short order realized this was going to be an expensive journey (no one tells you that)! My parents support my art like no tomorrow. My dad has a lot of my original art pieces, and my mom supports my art by buying a lot during Christmas time for gifts!

I also work a 9-5 job while managing my business. I am a compliance coordinator full time as well. I focus on my art after hours it is very therapeutic and brings me peace! I create wall art, floral preservation, memorial preservations and I resurface countertops! I create day to day art such as wine stoppers, dominos, and coasters as well. My most requested art is making ocean or space pieces.You can see my art on my instagrams the handle is TristensTrademark, or my website Tristenstrademark.com !

The problems I solve for my clients I would say is preserving memories in time. When I am casting over wedding flowers they have those flowers encased in resin for forever! They can have the daily reminder of that event aside of their husband or wife! If a client loses a fur child I can save the pet ashes along with any belongings for them in resin. I have had clients who have lost a loved one, and I have saved the memorial flowers in bookmarks. It’s the thought of having something for your special someone or special event. I have even preserved breastmilk in rings and necklaces so people can remember their littles journey! I also help clients who don’t want to pay thousands of dollars in marble or granite. I can resurface the countertop they already use and make it look brand new – We can always work with what we have!

I would say I’m most proud of the love and support I receive. Also that I have clients who trust and believe in my skill of art to challenge me with new ideas! Support means everything rather that be liking/sharing or telling people! The engagement that happens around my art from the people who love it is amazing!!! I appreciate everyone who has my art in their home, just as much as those who like and share my art!

It makes me proud to know I also have clients who trust me enough to give me creative freedom! I have clients who will throw the craziest ideas at me. They always turn out amazing after all the stress is done! There is nothing like making an art dream come true for someone when it means so much to them!

I want potential clients/followers/fans to know that anything is possible with the right artist! When you have an art idea bring it to the table. I am happy to discuss ways to go about making an art project come to life for you! I have a contact me section on my website which is TristensTrademark.com for this purpose. Just because we can’t see it on the website doesn’t mean we can’t try it. I am up for almost any challenge when it comes to Resin!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I would say my first pieces are art were nice, but when I did my first countertop that was a wow moment! I did my first countertop in 2021 that changed somethings for sure. I love working on larger projects the space / freedom is nice. A countertop is a huge project they can take up a whole weekend or a few days. This opened the doors for getting asked to do resin floors or travel for countertops. This also put more faith in my art capabilities for just larger canvas/board work. The amount of designs that can be created are endless and I love that! I have been asked to create marble designs in countertops even granite! There is a pretty big difference in pricing when it comes to marble vs resin. We love cost efficiency.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I have my own website which is TristensTrademark.com! I created that last year early on. I never got into Etsy a lot of my work is sold by word of mouth rather that be on TikTok, Facebook or Instagram ! I am happy to accept DM’s on Facebook or Instagram. I will say 9/10 times I still will have inquiries go through the contact me section on my website! This way I can definitely keep track of them!

I would say the Pros of using Direct messaging are :

Fast replies

All ideas can be blurred out

Art can be approved as soon as possible

The Cons of direct messaging:

Clients Getting buried under others

Messaging being erased

Always being on line so it looks like you are available 24/7

Pros of E-mails (Contact me)

Having to update an app or they won’t let you see anything (eye roll)

Organized ideas

Information over load instead of bits and pieces

Notifications / reminders

The outlook system has a calendar feature

I can mark and e-mail as unread and go back to it

Cons of E-mails (Contact me)

The time frame it takes to get a response

Emails going to junk or spam for some odd reason

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tristenstrademark.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/tristenstrademark?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==