Subscription: Art Crate
Cost: small $22/month, medium $32/month, and large $49/month [see below] with free shipping.
Promo Code: For $15 off your first, and my next, order, use the promo code Onderria15
What to Expect: “Our Curators understand home decor, from classic styles to contemporary looks. They’ve gone through extensive training and have hands-on experience to know which art, sizes, and colors will look best for your home.”
Last month I was surfing Cratejoy, looking for new and interesting boxes, and came across Art Crate. I am always envious of the cool prints people get in boxes, and I’m slowly building my art collection, so I decided to sign up for an art subscription!
Before getting started, here’s the pricing and size guidelines so you know what sort of print to expect. I chose Medium for $32/month.
You do a survey to find out what your art tastes are upon signing up, then on the 15th of the month your art curator contacts you to let you pick between three options [she sent these to me at 1am and actually responded to my email right away! crazy]. Also, this month they got the prints out early because I guess they usually ship on the 25th, and well, that’s a big holiday!
These were my three options:
I was glad she sent me the tree rings again, and I almost picked it again this time, but she threw in option C and said I might like his art! Well, I didn’t care for that piece [it was a little too 70s floral for me], but I checked out Bedelgeuse on Society6 and holy cow he does some cool stuff! I love anatomy images, vintage pictures, and I used to collage a lot. So, thanks to my curator I found my favorite new artist, Travis Bedel aka Bedelgeuse.
The art comes in a nice flat, stiff cardboard envelope. Bella has to inspect all of my boxes before I open them. She didn’t feel the need to sit on this one, however.
There was a nice handwritten note from the creators, an artist bio, info about the size of my art, and a welcome card.
Here’s my discount code–I loved that they stuck that in there! It frustrates me when I have to search through emails for login info, then go onto a site to find my referral link. It’s just right there. All handy for you to save $15 on your first awesome piece of art!
The piece fell out of the cardboard box when I unwrapped it, and I noticed the corner was bent. Ah well, it’s not noticeable in the frame.
At the Bottom Anatomical Collage by Bedelgeuse: $22 on Society 6 for 13×19, + $5 shipping. My piece is 12×18, I believe.
Uhh, this piece is WAY too cool! I love it a lot. McBoyfriend also loves it! I am so glad he and I have similar taste in art–makes decorating so much easier.
Lot of closeups of the neat details.
Sidenote: Travis Bedel is one of those cool Instagrammers who makes art with his pictures.
Like last month I got this framed right away. Fred Meyer has crap frames, but they were half off and I don’t really care about the frame as long as it holds the art and looks decent. This was also the only frame they had for a 12×18 piece, so it must be an obscure size.
Also like last month, I still haven’t hung this piece up… but here it is in comparison to the other size I received in the Medium category.
I’ll just put this here as a reminder that your house needs more art =)
Verdict: Again, my boyfriend and I both love this piece! I picked it this month without his input because I knew he would like it, and I was right–it reminds me of the art one of his friends used to do.
After looking up the price of the pieces from ArtCrate, I noticed it was cheaper to buy art straight from an artist’s Etsy [or similar] page or on Society 6. So, this box really does include curation in the cost, and if you would rather just pick out your own art then that may be the better choice. Still, I like my print and total with the store-bought frame I spent $44, so I will be continuing my sub for a bit!
What do you think? Which piece would you have chosen?
Click here to see other Art Crate reviews!
Disclosure: This box was purchased by me. There is a referral code so we both get discounts!
I would have chosen the owl out of the first choices, but the piece you ended up with is sooooo cool! Definitely the best of the bunch.
Thanks, Artemis! I also liked the owl one. I’m curious if it’s a watercolor, it looks very pleasantly light.
Surfing cratejoy for new subscriptions makes my sad broke wallet cry lol. But the ones I want are ones that the vast majority of the subscription box “community” would be like….wut? I have REALLY niche interests. Like I saw one called KitabCrate (kitab = book in Arabic) where they did monthly Islamic books from religious scholars, mufassir, etc. My religious studies degree squeal with joy.
That looks interesting! I feel like the popular boxes like Popsugar, Birchbox, and luxe boxes get a lot of attention, but I have found some neat smaller boxes that I want to share with people. The one box I really want is a wiccan box, and while I’m neither wiccan nor spiritual, I do like essential oils and wire wrapped jewelry. But for almost $50, I wouldn’t use the herbs or some of the other items so I’ve refrained.
Did you enjoy getting your religious studies degree? My sister’s bff did her degree in that and I got to go to a synagogue with her, and really enjoyed it! She just got ordained, and I’m happy she’s a pretty darn open minded person =D
There’s a few Wiccan/NeoPagan boxes out there that look cool! My degrees are in Anthropology and Religious Studies, and I did some postgraduate work in a multidisciplinary program. I’m agnostic personally, but my academic specialty is actually in witchcraft-based New Religious Movements like Wicca. My advisor does Islam, and I’ve taken several classes in it, so I do have a soft spot for it.
My goal was to be a professor, but my health went to crap and I had to withdraw. Not quite sure what I’m going to do now, possibly sometime in the horse world. I’ve seen one or two horse subscription boxes that pique my curiosity, but my wallet glares at me whenever I go to order them…
I’ve never been a horse person , so what can you find in a horse.box?
My guess would be horse treats, grooming supplies…and I’m not entirely sure since I haven’t really seen a lot about them as far as reviews….
Oh la la love this artist! I find that a lot sometimes of the boxes that curate a lot from Etsy is that you could just order directly from them for almost the same cost but Etsy has become so big that it is hard to find good stuff sometimes. I think this sub is totally worth it!
I agree. I get overwhelmed on Etsy, especially because people mislabel or add way too much in the titles and don’t know how tagging and keywords work. But with this particular artist he doesn’t use etsy and seems to use sites like Artcrate and Society6 to sell his art for him. Otherwise I was thinking about buying more art right from him.