Rock Bottom

So I have a confession this morning, I had a bit of an emotional breakdown over the weekend. You see when I woke up this morning, I received my first sale since Monday...Monday. Now I know I have had these dry spells before and I was trying to keep up a strong front last week. I still had a list of things to make so I was going to be just fine. Then Sunday came and I think that was my creative limit. I had to face the fact that my ability to create is fed directly by the consumption of my pieces. If there is nowhere for them to go when finished, what is the motivation for creating at the volume that I do? Sure you can keep a few things, give away a few creations and I'd still be tatting a bit here and there, but eventually it becomes more of a hassle than it's worth. That is of course what happened to me and knitting. Eventually I had made everyone a scarf, a teddy bear, a blanket and I had made myself far too many things to justify buying more yarn.

My etsy sales are my justification, my excuse to buy new supplies, to try new things , to grow and expand without it being something others would call a waste of time. So thank you to everyone out there that has ever bought a piece from me. Thank you for giving me a good reason to create. I wish I could get all art for arts sake on you, but I have no desire to be a starving artist and I'm quite sure that my family wouldn't appreciate it either. While I'm at it, thank you for buying anything handmade that gives any artisan keeping creative works alive an excuse to keep going, because I am certain that I'm not the only one who needs the financial backing to keep on creating.

I did list a couple of new things over the weekend as I got new supplies in on Friday before I got too depressed. I had been trying to find brass colored chain for a while, but I only recently found some I liked. I wanted it so I could step away from the shiny silver for a bit and do some more Steampunk inspired pieces. Of course my version of a Steampunk piece is still really more NeoVictorian, but it's the color palette that is important with these pieces. The first one on the left here started with the same motif I used with the giant opalite only I couldn't locate the book again so I used the photo for reference and I'm pretty sure, rewrote the pattern in the process. I hung a flower from it rather than search for a color appropriate charm and I rather like the result.

The other piece is using that same flower again...I think I might be leaning on it just a bit too much, but it is awfully useful. This is the same design I came up with last week in black, only this time I added gears to the brass chain. Again I know the whole gear thing is overplayed, but I think the single gear is more of an accent and the flowers are still the main focus. I have also been told and I agree that this color palette is much more appealing to those that like natural or earth tones. It is much less flashy than the silver and black, but it still retains a bit of edge which is important to me.

I did also get my bobby pins in and had fully intended to get them made and listed, but that whole no sales thing really just sucked my will to create away. Thank the gods someone finally made a purchase. Hopefully that boost will be enough to keep me creating for a spell in case it was a fluke in a much longer dry spell. I did check out last years numbers and I suffered an eight day drought last June amongst an otherwise consistent sales pattern. I'm hoping this was just the one drought I was going to suffer. Okay, I have now talked about it far too much. I'm off to start the week on a better foot.