10 Years!

Well, here we are, the anniversary of a whole decade selling my tatting and some other nonsense on Etsy. When I first started I was the only person on the site doing tatting at all. I signed up for my shop on April 19th, 2006 and then five days later I tried to sell my pieces at the then brand new UC Merced campus at one of my only craft fair appearances. I did not enjoy it, but when it was over, I listed my pieces in my new shop and sold my first item. It was this bracelet here. I still had no idea where to buy colored threads and was relying on what I was finding in my local Michael's store. I even spent some time using awful perle cotton just for the sake of color in those early years. My, but I've come a long way since then.

So, I waited until this morning to decide that I shall have a sale that lasts until that first sale on the 24th. So for six days please use the code HAPPY10TH to get 25% off everything in my Etsy shop!

When I opened my Etsy store I was just hoping to make a little money for thread while I stayed home caring for my then nearly 2 year old daughter. I had no aspirations about designing new pieces. I wasn't looking to meet other artisans and tatters and I certainly had no clue that I would create videos to teach tatting and write patterns people might actually want to buy. I didn't even anticipate that two years later I would start writing on this blog nearly everyday of my life. All of that was years away when some nice gal bought this bracelet from me and convinced me that maybe I could make a go of this.

I've had good years on Etsy, weathered many changes, but it's been more bad than good in recent years. The market is saturated and my focus is more on schooling my kids and I let the shop take care of itself more than I should. Unfortunately it's really not so good at that. All that being said, I'm pretty sure I'll spend the next 10 years on Etsy as well. I'll hope for a turn around, I'll get inspired sometime and create something new and interesting and I'll keep writing the stories of my successes and failures no matter how dull they get.

Thank you so much for your continued support of my ramblings and my work. I'm crossing my fingers that the best is really yet to come.