Take A Picture

Despite my advanced state of zombification yesterday, I did manage to get done all the tasks I intended to...mostly. I relisted a couple of things after remaking them and, well, that's about it. I almost sat down to work out a new pattern, but I kept getting distracted by children and other household tasks. I did get one sale yesterday which provided me with one other piece to remake, but that's it. I do have the feeling this morning, that something interesting is about to happen. Let's just hope for good interesting and not bad interesting.

Since I don't have anything else to share really, I thought I'd just go ahead and answer a comment question I got this morning. The question was, how did I manage to capture the bright colors of the neon pieces? Well, I'm no photographer and I certainly will never claim to be partly because my brother is and has taught it and he'd likely laugh at the thought. What I have done though is learned a lot about capturing product images over the last six years selling online. The first tip, there is no substitute for natural light. Outside of an expensive studio setup with proper lighting, reflectors, etc, the best you can do is bright, indirect sunlight. The other thing I've learned is to tell the camera to let more light in than you might think is perfect. Use the ISO and aperture settings to get that image bright and if your camera has a white balance make sure it is on the right setting for your light conditions. It is easier to edit a photo darker than it is to make it brighter...in my experience anyway. Speaking of editing, I don't use a single picture that hasn't gone through some sort of tweaking in a simple editing program. I adjust levels and sharpness and try my best to make the colors match real life, but I'm just using slider bars, nothing precise.

So, what if you can't get natural light? Well, I've used a light box and they can work, but they create really sterile looking pictures. If you have daylight light bulbs, use those. Avoid a yellow cast and if you can't you must make sure that your white balance corrects for that or you will get a yellow picture which try as you might, won't ever perfectly edit away. Let's see, any other hints. Don't take pictures on a bedspread with the date showing in the corner and for goodness sake, focus the camera, though good lighting helps with that too. There are tons more bits of unsolicited advice I could offer, but my picture aren't all perfect and I'd feel funny going on about it. I did however manage to write up this blog post with no significant events to share so, go me. There is no set plan for today either so, I guess we'll just see which way they wind blows.

Warning, Rant Ahead

Ah, Friday...sometimes I wish that you actually meant the week was over, but it's just an illusion for me of course. Non stop is the life of the stay at home mom. No, I'm not really complaining. I do in fact love my life...most days, I just wish the weekend was more like it was when I was a kid, but I digress.

Yesterday, I did much cleaning, but the kind you can't see all that well. You know, bathrooms, dusting blinds and the like. Then I finished up the barefoot sandals and with no preplanned project to attend to, I stopped tatting for the day. I did put up a giveaway for a pair of tatted bobby pins on my facebook page that won't end until this afternoon if you wanted to participate.

Then I decided to go looking at tatting around Art Fire and Etsy. I used to do this all the time, especially around the time I had that awful copycat that put up several pieces using my designs, copied my descriptions, shop policies and photograph style...it was unpleasant. Since then, I only nose around every once in a while. This time I ran across another copy of my work. Now, I know you initially wonder if it's one of the pieces I used a vintage or antique pattern for, but those are fair game for anyone nor was it one where I provided a pattern online. No, this was my lace maille necklace design. Sure, the motif is simple, but they added crystals in the same places, strung them with jump rings into the same configuration. This, my friends is blatant copying. Luckily a short convo to the seller resulted in a quick removal of the piece and an apology. The apology contained one sentence though, that gave me pause and I wanted to talk about that here.

"I didn't realize it was your design, as I have seen others on Etsy just like it". This was followed by, "There are just so many things on etsy that look alike."

As to the first comment, No, there aren't...I looked. That design is only used by me and there is nothing remotely like it there that wasn't made by me. It is however the spirit of the comments that is the most disconcerting. Basically they admit they copied the design from a photo, whether they knew it was mine or not is irrelevant, they knew it wasn't theirs, that belonged to someone else and that didn't seem to matter to them. They then took the great amount of time that it takes to make that piece and didn't think at any point during its construction that they were doing anything wrong. Now, I'm all for copying other peoples work in an effort to learn and grow and become a better tatter and designer, but not to sell.

Their second comment seems so much like saying,' hey, look I'm not the only one'. Don't make excuses, you messed up, you were caught, learn from it and move on. I had to learn nearly the same lesson at one point, so I don't harbor any ill will here. I did send a reply with a friendly reminder about the dangers of copyright infringement, not as a threat, but I really am trying to be helpful. I guess I just feel it's best for me to share these sort of things so that more people can avoid ever being in the situation in the first place. There are much meaner people than me regarding design protection and if you copy them...well, you won't get off so easily.

Well, that was a longer rant than I had intended and I know that I've sang this same song on a few other occasions so thank you for your patience. I don't have any tatting projects queued up right now, so I might find some time to play over the weekend and just see what I can birth. I also have our end of the summer/birthday get together this weekend which should keep me busy what with the preparing and then the cleaning up after, so I might not get anything interesting done at all. So I'll just see you on the other side then.

Looking Back

I've been reminiscing a bit since I realized that my blog is coming up on its one year anniversary. Then yesterday one of my new friends did a post with advice to start an etsy shop to make extra cash. In the post she linked to one of my early posts, so I went back to read it again. I was a little amazed at where my blog began as opposed to what it has settled into.

When I began this little space, things were just a bit different. There was no twitter to waste my time, back then it was in the etsy forums that I spent far too much time. I went there to learn, to network, to read all the drama that cropped up on a regular basis. At that point I had been around long enough to see most of the complaints come and go and come back again. I was truly sick of most of it and it really became a situation where either I had to say something or just get the hell out of Dodge. I did one and then the other. I used my fresh space to vent and rant and offer up some blunt advice. Then I went to the forums and started a thread linking to my blog post. I would literally spend all day babysitting those threads in order to drive traffic to my blog because I was sure that was how all this worked. I got tons of hits on those posts, ridiculous amounts on some. Then I got a little tired of it and really I had gotten all the complaints out.

You'll notice that my list of popular posts hasn't been updated in quite a long time. It turned out that even though I still had plenty to say and share, nothing was nearly as interesting or polarizing as those first threads. I think I'm going to go back and read them all again and see how many of them stand up nearly a year later, I'm not sure that they do, but they sure seemed important at the time. Check them out if you weren't reading my ramblings back then. If nothing else, they're pretty entertaining as I was channeling my inner Simon Cowell.

Well, I'm off to the dentist again this morning. This time it's for my first crown prep, which I suppose means at least one more appointment until I can be done with my tooth drama. I have also worked out what I'm doing for my anniversary event. Though I didn't know whether I'm going to start it tomorrow or Monday. I guess it depends how I feel after this morning since I think I'll need to do some prep work for the event.

A Little Advice

Today I thought I would share a lesson that took far too long to set in for me. When you get a question about an item, it is not the same as an order. When you are asked if something can be made in a different color or length, it is not the same as an order. A compliment with a side comment about a future order, is not a order. When someone orders something and does not pay for it, it is not an order. Repeated correspondence in regards to a future order or custom piece is not the same as an order. I think you get the point here. Until actual money changes hand it is all speculation and an over eager seller can get themselves in a heap of trouble here.

What you must endeavor to remember is that you are under no obligation to work until you have been paid, so don't. Do not order supplies, do not work out design elements, do not celebrate, do not pre-spend your profit, do not do a single thing until the sale goes through. Don't trust in someones perceived enthusiasm and make a custom order before listing and getting paid in advance for it. These are hard lessons to learn. We all get excited at the prospect of a large order or a custom client, but to get all proverbial, we mustn't count our eggs before they've hatched.

I've had a lot of unhatched eggs lately and this has me thinking back to some of my first duds. I got over excited and worse than the physical time and energy that I expended was the mental energy wasted on creating, worrying and ultimately feeling disappointed. If only I had know how much simpler it would have been to not get invested in every potential and simply wait for the actual sale before reacting.

I am not an expert or a huge seller of handcrafted goods, so feel free to ignore my advice here. Go ahead, get excited every time someone looks in your direction, but some time from now, when you are tired of getting disappointed, you'll remember that I told you to wait and see. Sure, it seems like an awfully pessimistic approach to life, but it makes every real sale that much better. Thus ends my dispersion of wisdom for the day.

Answer The Bloody Question

This is a bit of simple advice for anyone who has ever sold or ever plans on selling handmade goods or anything else really. Answer all your messages, emails, convos, whatever. Seriously, you need to do this in a timely manner unless you like to drive people away. Recently I sent a message to a seller because I really wanted to buy something from them and I simply wanted to know if they could make it in a different color. Several days later, I still haven't gotten a response and trust me this is not a good thing. I don't care if the answer to me question is yes or no or something in between, I just want an answer, it's important to me. I don't expect to get a response immediately or even the next day, but I do expect one. It has been so long now that even if I were to get a positive response, I wouldn't buy the item even though I really love it.

I accept that people have lives as well as unexpected events that take them away from the computer. The problem is that I often see these unresponsive people in the forums, listing new items and generally around online. If you have time to do all of that you have time to answer a simple question. You may think it's not a big deal to ignore one message, but I imagine that if you're ignoring one, you're ignoring more and while I'm not the sort to name names, other certainly might and really they should. If you got awful customer service from a major company, you would have no problem sharing that information with others, so really why should it be any different with a etsy or other handmade store.

I'm starting to think that this is turning into a tirade and I really didn't mean it to be one. I simply wanted to remind people to answer question, to generally communicate with others in a way you would want to be communicated with. I know I try to answer all my messages even if the questions are redundant or the questioner keeps asking questions that make me want to pull my hair out. I even answer the occasional,'how do you do that?' question. Of course I don't mean you should always give them the answer they want, but a polite, 'sorry, that's my secret' will suffice. The point is, you never know who is a potential customer and you should treat everyone as if they plan on spending hundreds of dollars with you.

Alright, that's all out of my system now. I'm on the last row of my custom order collar and I managed to list a bunch of stuff yesterday. I've got a few more pieces to list today and then I'm going into supply and demand mode. I'll just be remaking items that sell and custom orders so I don't overtax myself during the holiday season. All those crazy project ideas I've got swirling around will have to wait until after the holidays when the dust has finally settled.

Let's Get Something Perfectly Straight

That's the title of one of those long running threads in the etsy forums. This one is discussing the inability of the average seller to make a living on etsy. I know that many people are disillusioned with their results selling their wares. Many of them thought that this was a list it and they will buy proposition, but that's simply not the case. Other people think that their meager etsy fees buy them an unnaturally large amount of services. Then rather than leave the site that they feel wrongs them, they simply complain ad nauseam.

I could go into the reasons why I think people are not making any sales or at least the amount of sales that they feel they should be making, but I've done that before. Instead, I just want to make a point about expectations. When I started on etsy, I expected to list a few things and make a little extra spending money. I understood that it was up to me to go get customers and to make my product as listings as good as I could. In short, I was only going to get out of this endeavor what I was willing to put into it. I knew that all my 20 cents bought me was a listing, nothing more. I enjoyed watching etsy grow and I suffered through many growing pains that new sellers never experienced and yet I've never thought of leaving. I was never tricked into thinking that I could make a living at tatting.

I often wonder if those who complain the most could, if given an unlimited supply of customers, actually make a living at their craft. That is, could they make enough product to actually support themselves. For the vast majority of sellers, I imagine the answer is no. I certainly couldn't keep up a supply that would allow me to live above the poverty line on my own. I know there are sellers who make things that could fetch a high enough price point and be produced in large enough numbers to make that happen, but I bet even they would not make a living if etsy were their only venue. I imagine they would sell in boutiques, at shows and in other online venues as well to maintain their income.

You see, it's a matter of having realistic expectations. I am happy with etsy not because I'm some kind of crazy etsy fanatic, but because I knew what I getting into. I continue to adjust my expectations to fit new conditions and I'm never disappointed. I know that I can't make a living with my tatting, but I can do my best and get paid for doing something I love and would do anyway. That's why I like etsy and that's all I expect from them.

Blogging Fool

I've been at this blogging thing for a relatively short amount of time, I don't even consider myself a blogger. I feel that term is reserved for people with a more journalistic approach to writing. So I was a little bemused at the inclusion of my advice in an Etsy Storque article about blogging. The advice was simply put and perhaps that's why it was appealing enough to include. Along side my short comment was plenty of very good advice on keeping a blog as a compliment to your etsy shop.

When I started, I had a literal ton of unexpressed opinions and advice to give out, but now that it's all out of my system, I find this space to be more useful as an outlet for more mundane musings on my projects and creative discoveries. When I had good advice, I got hundreds of hits a day, now it's considerably less, but that's okay with me. I've tried my hardest to not let this space become one long advertisment, to speak to other tatters and people who don't know what tatting even is. I like to think that I'm occasionally amusing or inspiring, but I'm mostly talking just to hear myself speak. I'm sure I'll keep at this regardless of the amount of comments or views I get as I've thouroughly enjoyed the people it has helped me meet.

I do have a little news on the store front to share. In just about a week, I will be removing many pieces from the store to send to the SteamPowered convention in Sunnyvale Oct 31-Nov 2. I'm hoping that they don't come back, so if there is something you've been coveting, especially if it's on the last couple of pages of the store, you might want to snatch it up or send me a message to hold onto it for you. Commercial over.

The Cat Came Back

Not the very next day and not actually a cat, but I digress. I am referring to one of my amazing disappearing special order customers that I talked about in this post. As it turns out, life did in fact get in the way and they returned, explained the absence and purchased their listing all in perfect order. I bring this up to share a little wisdom. When I feared that they were gone forever I had some choices to make, mostly regarding how I contacted the customer and what I said. I was quite put out at the time and I could have let that guide my communications, but I chose to maintain excellent customer service. I was straightforward, but I made sure that the customer would feel welcome to return should they change their mind.

This is really the lesson in all this. You cannot take these things personally and you should give your customers the benefit of the doubt. Though you need to look out for your own best interests, there is generally no good that comes from burning bridges. I am certainly glad that I did not lash out and was patient.

I though that this advice would take a little longer to share, but apparently it was a much simpler message than I thought. I have finally caught up from my little bout of fame on Monday. Everything has been remade and listed and now I am suffering from the inevitable letdown that occurs after any bit of excitement. Lucky for me, I have a whole house to clean and a couple of family requested projects to work on. I think I shall let my store sit for a while without any new designs, just for a change of pace. I hope this isn't a bad move, but I'm a little designed out for the time being.

Nosy Nose

Every single time I have had a bit of "fame" on etsy, like an item on the front page or Mondays Finds email, I get extra convos from relative strangers. Most of them are simple congratulations or 'hey did you know" kind of messages, but along with those, that I wholeheartedly appreciate, there are the weird ones. Okay, maybe weird is the wrong word, let's say unsolicited advice veiled as a compliment. The advice is almost always regarding pricing and usually comes from someone with a blank profile.

I really don't get why people feel the need to tell me that I need to charge more for my work. It seems anti productive if they are really customers to ask for a higher price, so I'm left assuming that the advice comes from someone who feels like I'm devaluing their work or simply a nosy nose with nothing better to do. I suppose they could just be looking out for my best interest, but I somehow doubt that. There of course is the chance that I could get more for my work, but that's not really the point, the point is, they are my prices that I picked and if I want them higher or lower it will be up to me.

Look, pricing is a tough subject and I've talked about it before, You Want How Much For That and more recently, Perception Of Value. These posts represent my opinion on the subject, but to address the most recent comment I received, I must talk about speed. I recently read another tatter detail the amount of time she spent making the most beautiful hankie border. After listing how many hours it took, she pointed out how much she would have to charge to make a hourly wage for her effort which was much more than the average person would think about paying. This got me thinking less about price and more about speed. I concluded that I must be a fairly fast tatter. I am certain that I am not the fastest by a long shot, but none of my pieces take nearly as long as most people think they do.

At the risk of removing the mystique from my tatting, most of my pieces are done in just a few hours, with the more elaborate ones like my hat taking the longest at a few hours a day, even it was done in a week. It's still time consuming and it still takes a degree of skill, but it does not take me 40 hours to make anything I sell. I do still have small children and a house to take care of, so it might be a week before I finish a piece, but that's not actual work time. With this new information, perhaps my prices won't seem so low to people. I've always thought that I will increase my prices as my skills improve, but never just because I think I might be able to get that much for it.

I do want to get paid for my time, but I also want to make something that is affordable. I make a lot of pendants that take much less than an hour to make and I use fairly large thread that is not only easier for me to work with, but works up fast and makes a more durable piece. There are so many factors that go into creating my pieces that no one but me knows. Sure there are those that can make an educated guess and be pretty close, but they are most certainly in the minority. So, in conclusion, those of you who feel like sharing your unsolicited advice, please stop being such a nosy nose...oh, not you, your opinions I care about.

Riding Out The Bumps

I have been through a great many growth spurts in recent history. I became a mother twice, exposed my "hobby" to the world for its approval and most recently I have laid my thoughts bare for all to see. All of these things have caused me great joy and even greater stress. As much as I love my children and revel in seeing them grow every day, they are most certainly the hardest job I have ever had. For every kind word, hug and kiss I am given in reward there are days of thankless tasks and unnoticed work. It is the same with my tatting and my blog, for every comment, sale or compliment there are weeks of feeling completely ignored. This causes all sorts of self doubt for me.

The ironic thing is, things have gotten much worse as things have gotten much better. Does that make any sense? I'll explain. When I was making a sale every week or two, all I expected was a sale every week or two. Low expectations meant that I could always meet expectations. When I first started my blog all I expected were a couple of readers and a comment now and again, so I was never disappointed. In the last couple of months things have gotten steady, not amazing by any means, but I began to rely on a certain amount of readers, a comment on every post and consistent sales. In fact I'm beginning to become so reliant on these things that when things don't play out this way, I am almost devastated. I start to wonder what I did wrong, who I upset, or what can I do to remedy the problem.

The problem however, does not actually exist. There is nothing for me to really fix, while I may have upset someone, that is probably not having any effect on my views or sales. These bumps along the way are normal. They may seem enormous, but that's just a trick of perspective. I've simply become so spoiled by a bout of good fortune that I mistook for an entirely new reality. It really is like the stock market, you can get excited at every up and devastated by every down, or you can go all in for the long haul and ride the waves as the come. You can try to fix every downturn immediately with a knee jerk reaction or you can make gradual and lasting changes that will result in long term success in whatever it is you do. It really is the zen thing to do.

Religion and Politics

I am interrupting my regularly scheduled mask coverage to address these, the largest of all controversial topics. Now, don't freak out, I'm not going to spew forth my opinions on them, but merely my opinion on opinions, or rather the placement of them. Lately the forums at etsy have been rife with threads on these subjects and as a rule these threads dissolve into playground brawls in record time. I personally avoid commenting in these topics, but that does not stop me from lurking in them with shocked disbelief much as one might watch a car accident.

So I started thinking about why such divisive subjects were always popping up on a crafting site. It occurred to me that artists are passionate people. In fact most people who create are passionate people. It then makes perfect sense that a group of people who are as diverse as any other and possessing of a large amount of creative passion would get into extreme debates with as much ease as other people breath. All that being said, we need to cut it out, seriously.

We all have opinions and we all feel ours is worth expressing, but there is a time and a place. The anonymity of the Internet has made many feel like anywhere is a good place to discuss that which riles us up, but we must consider the company anytime we bring up these subjects. I know that old fashioned ideals of etiquette are out of favor, but there really was a good reason why we were told not discuss these topics. I am not for one minute suggesting that these thing never be discussed, but their discussion requires a level of civility on respect that seems all but impossible to maintain in a virtual setting.

I do have a suggestion for those who still feel the need to engage in the discussions on etsy. First, read what you wrote out load before hitting the post button. Hearing something out load, might reveal unintended hostility and make you rethink your statement. If you still feel the need to respond at keast it isn't in the heat of the moment any longer. Next, I ask that before you hit post that you imagine something for me. Imagine that you are at your job and for the purpose of this exercise you work in a mall. You are standing at the front of the store, they are customers both new and old where you can see them and others you cannot. You are also within easy ear shot of other stores, their owners and employees as well as your own coworkers. Now, what were you about to say? Would your statement cause you to lose the repect of any of those people? Would it affect business, your job? Is it still worth it?

I know that many people value their right to free speech over common courtesey and they will disagree with me wholeheartedly. That's fine with me. I value my freedom of speech as well as I respect yours. I just think there are better places to talk about these things. I know that some people don't care if their opinions turn buyers or other sellers off, but I feel that if I have to work with these people in any capacity it's better to not invite controversy and conflict were none exsisted. This is all just my opinion and It's a bit of a downer from all my creative goodness, so I'll go now and make something to take the edge off. I'll have a mask or something tomorrow, I promise.

Here We Go Again

I hope that I haven't bored you to death with all this mask nonsense, because I'm afraid that I have more. First, my mask got it's first virtual shout out over on the Access Fashion blog. It's just a little blurb and a picture, but it's always nice to get a little unsolicited praise. I managed to get about halfway through the embellished version of the mask before I stopped to work on my newest idea.

This one was actually inspired by the avatar of a fellow steam teamers avatar, well that and Mardi Gras in general. I still don't know if it's going to work after shaping and I think that I'm going to have to do some sort of border to make it looka little less like a granny square quilt on your face, but I shall work through my doubt. Doing this mask has actually gotten me thinking about trying to make a mask counter part to a few more of my chokers. The picture here is actually my Art Deco Duo necklace laid with some new pieces to see if this idea will fly. Imagine the neckalce worn with mask though. I think it would be pretty stunning. So after this one, I imagine I'll make a least a couple more before I get utterly sick of this mask making.

When I first started tatting bookmarks and doilies, I never imagined that just a few years later I would not only be making such elaborate things, but doing so much of my own designing. I never thought I would be able to translate shapes into stiches, rings and chains. It just seemed like such a mathematical operation. I mean look at my first sale on etsy, which was one of my very first bracelets. It's just a string of simple flowers from a pattern I found somewhere online. I assumed that this was the most I could expect out of my newly discovered craft. Now I know that there are no limits to what can be created with tatted lace and I'm certain that I will come up with many more off the wall ideas in the years to come.

I'm babbling on about this stuff in hopes that it can be inspiring to new tatters or anyone who thinks that they've taken thier art of craft as far as they can. There is always another hill you can climb if only you simply try. I am by no means suggesting that everyone can succeed at anything if they try hard enough, talent is not universal and hard work does not always make up for raw talent. I am suggesting that you don't know, if you don't try as I certainly didn't know what I was capable of before I picked up my needle and thread and simply tried. I used this slow sales time to stretch my limits and I think I will be better off for it in the long run. So that's the end of my inspirational speech. I'll be back tomorrow with more mask news!

Now You See It...

Now you don't. I am referring to the amazing disappearing special order customer. I've only had a few of these over the years. It took me a couple of times to learn my lesson. I would instantly get to work as soon as a request was made. I would offer up a completed product or even worse, I would work on prototype that required tons of design work only to have them change their minds or simply disappear. Eventually I learned that I shouldn't do any work until I get paid.

Flash forward a year or so, I haven't had any of these bad apples in quite a while and I begin to trust that people who ask for something really want it or they are at least up front about the tentativeness of the request. I begin to let my no work until paid rule slide a bit and nothing bad happens so I start to forget that anything could go wrong. That of course, is when the amazing disappearing customer act is performed again with such slickness that I never saw it coming.

I don't think that these thing are malicious, just inconsiderate. This time, I ordered supplies, and made a prototype all based on very consistent communication. Then more than a week later...nothing. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, life happens, thing get in the way. In fact, I still hold out hope that the order is still coming, but either way the lesson has been relearned. Do no work, order no supplies, go not one step beyond until paid confirmation.

Luckily for me, the supplies I ordered can easily be re purposed if necessary and there was very little effort expended. This time I get off not too worse for the wear, but in the past, I even had a trade go south where I custom made five pieces before the communication stopped cold. At this point, I'm wondering if I should institute some sort of nonrefundable design fee for all request to avoid this drama in future, but I still want to operate under the assumption that people are generally honest and forthcoming. Maybe that;s me being naive, but I want to trust in people.

I hope that my disappearing customer turns out to be a fluke or better yet, that they reappear and I can create wonderful pieces for them. I would much rather be tatting than worrying about getting paid.

Slow Times

I think I now have an answer to one of the most popular forum questions of the summer. It is a question that sits right along side of, "Why am I not selling?". In fact it's really the same question thinly veiled in sincere curiosity. "What do you do during this slow time?" See, the question points out that times are slow, which translates as, I'm not selling, so tell me what to do to change that. It comes off less whiny than the first question, but that does not change it's nature.

Well, sales have been slow for me as well and I, of course, started out wallowing in self pity, but then I opted to use the time to my advantage. I started working on new pieces and on duplicate pieces in anticipation of busier times. As a result of all this work, my store has reached 100 listings and I have several pieces ready for future venues. Now, I could have very easily spent this slow time wasting mine in the forums whining until it got me a pity sale. I could have fallen into a pit of self doubt and stopped working at all, but I think I chose well.

This convergence of slow sales and productivity may have an even better result as the holidays roll around. All my extra stock will allow me to rest more and create less as the stress of the busy time sets in. Which might mean that I can spend more time with my family without a tatting needle permanently attached to my hand. The moral of the story is, use every bit of time you are given because you never know when you'll get another free minute. Always move forward without dwelling on unpleasant circumstances. I am by no means an optimist, but I do know that no lasting good can come from whining and hard work is the best way to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

I will be continuing to work on building up stock and I will spend very little time in the forums. I will come up with new designs and I will improve my skills. If I make a few sales along the way, well that's great, but I'm not going to let sales or the lack thereof derail me. I will use this slow time to my advantage, I will not let it beat me and you should not let it beat you either.

Production Artist

You remember the guy from the movie Xanadu, you know the sensitive artist, stuck in the creatively castrating job of replicating album covers for record stores. His coworkers were wont to remind him that he was just lucky to be a working artist. Well not all of us have a muse in roller skates and feathered hair to solve our creative versus income dilemmas. I am currently finding myself in a similar quandary. My shop has been selling well recently, well enough anyway, and this has left me remaking sold items more often than creating new designs. I have even less time and energy to make one of a kind items either.

So what is one to do at this juncture? I still enjoy making my existing designs, so I could concentrate on that and keep my store well stocked, but I'm afraid I would eventually want my own roller disco to engage my creative side again. While thinking about this topic, I began thinking about fashion or jewelry collections. While I have no idea if it really works like this or not, I assume that they design for a period, produce the line, stop production to design for the next season and repeat the process. This may be a solution though it might be a little too structured for me. Imagine I spend a month creating new designs then simply make those designs over and over for a few months. Then take a break from production to go into design mode again. I don't know that I have the discipline for that process, what if i come up with an amazing idea during production phase. Can I put the idea on ice and not return to it for months?

Of course this raises other issues as well. Am I a sell out, if I simply remake a popular design repeatedly to get sales? Do other artisans lose respect for a production artist or is it a simple case of jealously over success? I am in no way implying that I've become popular enough to inspire said jealously, but I do wonder about these things. Should I even bother worrying about what others might think of my creative process if it still makes me happy? I guess I should just go with the flow and not worry about it so much. I figure I'll know when remaking a design is draining the life out of me and that's when I'll stop in favor of creation, but if you see me complaining and not stopping, feel free to beat some sense into me.

Proprietary

I am, I'm afraid, one of those people who walks through a craft fair and quietly notes all the things I can make myself. I get ideas browsing through the stores at etsy and have on occasion, made items I've seen for myself and family. I would however, never make those things to sell. It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do, but I know there are plenty of people who have absolutely no problem knocking off everything they see for a chance at profit. They are often disguised as curious customers or beginners that claim they just need a little help and are huge fans of your work.

Nearly every day someone complains of being copied and even disregarding the natural hive mind that has many coming up with the same idea independently of each other, too many of the complaints are genuine. The other day I noted someone who was distraught that her product was being reproduced my many people using the name she came up with for it. At first blush it seems like a blatant case of theft until you read on to discover that she has published a how-to on her blog for this product. Seriously, are you kidding me, what did she think was going to happen with that?

It really is wonderful that the handmade community is so sharing with each other. We like to help others learn new crafts and improve their skills, but we can't afford to forget that not everyone is in the game to learn and grow. Lots of people are in it to make money and will take advantage of every opening they get. People are always asking how to respond to people who convo them asking how they make something or where they get supplies. Some are even bold enough to ask while explaining that they want to make your product to sell. Why on earth would you want to share the very details you may have spent years working on to a relative stranger to help them compete with you? I know that you want to help and you don't want to be rude, but the answer to the question should be, I'm sorry, but that is proprietary information. Then you can send them off to Google or the library so they can learn through hard work, like you probably did.

It is a fine line we walk between community and competition. I started my tatting challenge to not only expose tatting to new people as a way to sell more pieces, but also to populate the world with more tatters. I'm working on the principle that the craft getting more popular will allow us all to succeed. I am however acutely aware that the move may inevitable bite me in the arse by gifting me with more competition. Look, I don't tat to make money, but it is a motivating factor in the creation of new patterns and designs. I would be a liar, if I said that I wasn't happy that they aren't hundreds of tatters on etsy. I like that I don't have to worry about people copying me. I have no problem sharing a pattern or two, in fact I plan on offering a few here at some future point, but I'm certainly not going to sell my most popular designs as patterns to tempt fate. I'm glad to help and I like to share, but I've developed a degree of paranoia from watching others suffer that I just can't ignore. So for now, most of my patterns will remain proprietary information.

The Non Paying Buyer

Well, I'm still doing a pretty good job of staying out of the forums, but as I lurked over the weekend, I ran across a very familiar topic. A term that I imagine makes sense only to those who frequent the etsy forum, the non buying buyer. Although I'm fairly certain that the term qualifies as an oxymoron, it is thrown around consistently. It refers to a customer that completes the buying process for an item, but then fails to click through to paypal to send payment for it. While I have had a few slow paying buyers, I've only experienced this phenomenon once. It seems that many other sellers attract these events like tuna attracts cats, because they seem to always be complaining about them. What, I wonder, makes some people marks for these uncertain shoppers?

I wish I had an answer to that question, but what I do have is a little perspective. When I worked in retail, we would hold items for customers. The items were taken off the shelf, labeled for the customer and held for three days. Most customers came back within the time frame and purchased the items, but many would not only not come back within the time frame, but would actually return weeks later and ask if it was still on hold for them. If the buyer came back, waiting a couple of days for a certain sale was no big deal and we generally did not lose any sales from those who did not buy their item either. The process of holding an item only hurt us when it was the last in stock of a hot selling item. This is the only way a non paying buyer can hurt you. If the item they purchased is the only one of your best selling item or a one of a kind item that someone inquires about right after the false sale. Be honest, how often are either of those the case.

A lot of people blame the non paying buyer problem on a confusing checkout process, but I think it's much more likely that they are the same kind of people who like to put things on hold and never come back to buy them. They don't see the seller as a person inconvenienced by their inaction. They see you as a shopping cart that still has something sitting in it, that they may return to or not. Instead of letting these events bother you, I suggest treating these unpaid purchases as held items. When a time limit you're comfortable with has expired, simply cancel the sale and put the item back on the shelf. Sure it's disappointing, but it's not the end of the world. I've been lucky that my slow paying buyers all made their payment before I felt the need to cancel the sale. I certainly hope I don't start smelling like tuna anytime soon, but if I do, I shall try to take it in stride.

Front Page

There are two coveted spots on the front page of etsy. One of those is the featured seller spot which runs for a few days and could definitely be considered your big break. While I have not completely given up hope that I will one day grace that spot, I'm not holding my breath. The other spot is in one of the many front page treasuries that cycle throughout the day. Now these used to last a lot longer, but recently they seem to change every hour or so. Yesterday I was lucky enough to grace the front page with my Ladies Who Lunch choker for just about an hour. In that space I received the same number of views I usually get in a week as well as 50 new hearts for my store. This is made even more wonderful by being the second time this month that one of my pieces has made it to the front page. I'm feeling pretty good this morning even though experience has taught me that front page glory fades with the images removal.

I also wanted to vent about some frustrations today. I'm a stay at home mom and anyone who has spent any length of time home alone with kids knows that after a while you have nothing to talk about but kids. This can take it's toll on the few adult relationships that you've managed to maintain. After I found etsy I admittedly went a little overboard with my new found community. I was talking to grownups about things I enjoyed and I may have over mentioned etsy to my husband. Okay, so it was every other word out of my mouth.

Over the last couple of years my devotion to etsy has waxed and waned countless times. Every time I reached the etsy saturation point, my husband reaches a point of extreme intolerance to the word etsy. I can't blame him really, but I simply have nothing else to talk about besides the kids. I often miss working outside the home just because I miss the topics of conversation I could bring up when I was exposed to the public all day long. I love staying home with the kids, I love tatting and I love the handmade community. I wouldn't want to give any of that up, but I struggle with sharing the days events when I know that they will fall on annoyed ears. I imgine it would be the same if instead of etsy, I watched soap operas all day or joined a book club or something. Sometimes I wonder if my stories would be better received if this was a legitimate job, not a mildly successful hobby. I'm sure there is a solution to my woes, but I haven't found a good one yet. The blog takes the edge off, but hasn't solved the problem. Oh well, it could be much worse, right?

Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me

I've been feeling a little needy lately. The last few days have been rough, sales dried up, blog views were way down and I found none of my pieces had been chosen for any treasuries. I was starting to go to that bad place where I thought nobody liked me anymore and I was a few ill chosen words away from starting a "I need sale" pity party thread. As I was hitting the bottom of this ego bruising time, I learned the lesson in it that I shall now share with you.

As I've previously mentioned, I was an actor for a time, a performer really. I started as a dancer, dabbled with singing and majored in theater in school. If you are even remotely familiar with the performance arts, you're aware that rejection is part of the deal. If you are wise and well adjusted you will quickly learn that not getting the part has very little to do with you as a person, it may even have little to do with your level of talent. Obviously I'm biased, but I think I'm a pretty good actor, however I am not what you would call leading lady material in appearance. Once I embraced that fact, it was easier to accept the rejection of those parts. I was simply not the right type or look for them.

So you're wondering what this has to do with sales, well what I failed to do is divorce my self worth from my tatting. I should have known better, but I allowed my validation to come from sales and blog hits, so when they dried up, I assumed that I had fallen out of favor, the streak was over and no one liked me anymore. The lesson I would like to share with you is this, as much of your own blood, sweat and tears is poured into your jewelry, art or creations, they are not you. As much as you wish that talent and skill was the only factor in sales, they are not. Taste is often the gorilla in the room. When someone isn't buying your jewelry it is most likely not because that don't like you, it may not even be because you're untalented. It is more likely that your pieces are simply not their style. So, to get all psycho-babbly, don't let your personal validation come from sales and external forces. Sure they are great, but they don't reflect on you as a person.

Well, my story has a happy ending, I found a few new treasuries featuring my pieces and this morning I woke to a sale. I guess I just needed a nice humbling blow to the old ego to get me back to a good place. I hope my lesson was well learned and I'm moving forward.

Cautionary Tale

I've got a few things to share today. First a piece of wisdom. I am so guilty of jumping on ideas for promotional opportunities. Often, I fail to do any kind of research under the false assumption that people know what they're talking about and wouldn't steer me wrong. Guess what, they don't always know what's right for me. Take Trunkt for example. People are always going on and on about getting into the site and they're jumping through all kinds of hoops to get accepted. I tried twice and was turned down twice before I actually read into their site enough to realize that the site was designed to help one wholesale and license art works. Well, I have no interest in either of those things, so why on earth was I bothering.

Now, here's the reason I bring this up. I just recently started using the Flickr, based of course on other people's advice. I didn't look though all the settings, I just started uploading photos. Then, my pictures were stolen and I figured I'd just stop uploading pictures all together. If I had just done a little exploring I would have discovered a simple way to help protect my images, instead I had to wait to be told by one of my steam team friends.

So, I shall tell you what I learned, just in case, like me, you failed to explore. Go to your account and select "privacy and permissions", then read the page. You'll want to make sure your photos are set to "all right reserved" and you can set your photos to be downloaded, shared, or blogged only by your contacts, friends and family or just you. I highly suggest you do this. I know what the technologically savvy among you are thinking, if people want to steal your photos, this is not going to stop them. I think that most theft is a crime of opportunity. I have an example, if you leave your door unlocked, of course someone is going to walk right in and steal the t.v., but if the door is locked, the same thief will probably just try the next door, rather than go to the trouble of breaking in. Most thieves are not targeting you specifically but looking for easy marks, at least that's my limited experience.

So take my advice and don't just take my advice, or anyone else's. Don't blindly jump on every opportunity or social networking site. Do your own research...I know it's work, but I think that it just might be worth it.

On a totally different subject, I need your advice. I think I may have finished my newest tatted hat, but I'm not certain. Is it missing something, should I add a trim? Does it look finished to you? I'm taking all opinions on the tatted hat. Don't forget to check out today's sale and look at my etsy mini for a preview of what will be on sale tomorrow.