At Least It's Over

This has been one horrifyingly long week. There were headaches, tatting projects, secret histories revealed and for some reason an awful lot of introspection. My Grandfather was also visiting for the better part of the week from Utah and as wonderful as it is to see him and have the whole family over the stress of keeping a house normally run by two small tornadoes clean to its toll. To add a little extra something to the chaos, while trying to get a new feature on iphoto to work for me I managed to get myself locked out of my flickr account. I literally performed a graceful 'headdesk' moment and I began to give up. Still haven't figured out why the feature won't work for me on either of my computers, but at least I'm back into my flickr thanks to my much more patient husbands computer skills.

Last weeks new tatting designs appear to have appeased my muse and I was content just to remake pieces this week. Probably better given all the other events of the week took most of my energy. I do have a few new ideas swirling around in my head, but I'm not certain when they will reach escape velocity. There's no rush I suppose.

I did get an etsy purchase in the mail on Wednesday. I bought these shoes after falling in love with them when they were first featured on Etsy. Clearly the stores purveyor had no idea they would get so much attention and she was bombarded with orders. It took quite some time before I received an message that she was now making the shoes in the black I had requested. I almost didn't buy them because I was annoyed at being ignored so long and the price had gone up as well...but I really wanted them so I caved.

They are well made, cute and vegan, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't really care on that point. She says that they are suitable for outdoor and indoor wear, but the soles have no rigid material. This makes for a bit of a Princess and the Pea situation. Sure, you can wear them outside, but they are definitely not all season and you'll feel a little like you're barefoot. Of course the lack of a rigid soles means they are horribly comfortable to wear around the house. I can even sit, legs crossed without any shoe based discomfort. They are available from HydraHeart at etsy for $48. Be careful when you measure your feet though, I was a little generous with my measurements thinking it would help comfort, but instead I ended up with my shoes being a bit looser than I'd like. I still like them a lot, in fact I'm wearing them right now.

What Am I Doing Right?

Here I am sitting on top of a large and shiny bubble. Below me I hear the familiar sound of popping as people are unceremoniously thrown to the ground. All around and above I see other bubbles resisting the urge to burst. Some of their riders seem terribly confident while others appear to be bracing for an inevitable fall. I don't know why or how my bubble maintains its shape and I too am preparing for an unannounced tumble. Normally I wouldn't question my luck, but as it often happens, I am a slave to my own curiosity.

It is fairly easy to see why the smaller bubbles are bursting. To abandon the metaphor for a bit and speak a bit clearer, the smaller handmade sellers are not selling for the simple reasons. They have bad pictures or descriptions. The objects they make are generic or poorly made. They do not network, list often or price their items well. It is always easy to point out the things one is doing very wrong. What is not as easy is pinpointing what someone is doing right and replicating that.

There are tons of people that do all those thing right and they are still not selling. Sure, you could blame the economy for a lack of sales. It is simple to put the responsibility outside your sphere of influence, throw up your hands and say there is nothing that can be done about it. The only problem with that, is there are people selling. I'm been very lucky to maintain fairly regular sales even after the holidays, even in this economy. The big question is of course, why? What am I doing right that someone just as skilled as me is doing wrong? Is it dumb luck? I am also aware that by asking the question I am more than likely jinxing myself, but I must ask.

I don't visit the etsy forums much anymore, unless someone on twitter links to something interesting, but I still see all the I'm not selling threads. I see all the complaints about not getting any views when listing new items and I see people blaming the growing size of the venue for their lack of exposure. So again, what am I doing that is different? I seem to get plenty of views when I list new pieces. I see the growth of the site as a what good for the whole is good for the individual. I don't get a sale everyday, but often enough that I'm keeping busy.

I know you were thinking that I had answer to all these questions, I don't. I really have no idea what I'm doing, though I wish I did so that I could help people out. I don't advertise. I don't run sales. I network a bit, mostly on twitter these days, but other than keeping my "face" out there I don't see that as a huge boon. I write in the blog regularly, but I barely get any traffic from the blog to my shop. I try to list something everyday, but I generally don't renew unless something is about to expire. If someone else out there sees the secret formula that I'm missing, please share. I'd really love to know what's keeping my bubble afloat so I can make sure it continues to float on.

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.

When I Grow Up

Last week I decided to share a little bit about me and I gave you the story of the name, TotusMel. This week I shall go a little further into the past and answer the question...

What did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was very little that question was terribly easy to answer. I was going to be a Prima Ballerina. Like lot of little girls, I started dance classes when I was three years old. I started out with ballet and tap once a week, but soon I was obsessed. Eventually I had classes nearly everyday of the week, many days more than one class. I was taking ballet, tap, jazz and even modern at times. It was clear from a very young age that I would have a classic dancers body, slight and petite and I was certain that this would lead to a wonderful career in dance. My family had a membership with the ABT in San Fransisco and I was lucky enough to see many performances. I got to attend rehearsals and I even saw Mikhail Baryshnikov dance in his prime. Hell, I even saw Patrick Swayze perform before he became a movie star.

I pestered my dance teacher until she allowed my to go on pointe. I was so young that I had to buy the smallest pair of toe shoes they made. As I got older my attention turned away from ballet and it's very disciplined nature to jazz and dancing to my favorite songs. I would choreograph dances to everything I heard and I would play music videos over and over until I learned all the steps. I was a member of a dance troupe and we performed often, but as my peers developed adult bodies, I maintained that slight and curve less ballet body and was demoted to dance with the younger girls.

I was always very ambitious as a child and I was trying my hardest to get my parents to send me to a performing arts school like the one on Fame. I had dreamed of a life on stage, but the fates were beginning to turn against me. I was staring to question my ability to compete at that level. I like to say that I preferred being a big fish in small pond to being a small fish in a big pond, but really, I was just a big old wuss.

About the same time as I was having doubts that I could survive the life of a dancer, my families finances took a nose dive, why is another story. We could no longer afford dance classes and I was was cut off cold turkey. I kept practicing at home and dancing wherever I was, but eventually it fell away. Aside from the random tap dancing in my kitchen and dancing with the kids for fun, I haven't really danced in years. I miss it sometimes, partly because I defined myself as a dancer for so long.

A dancer isn't the only thing I wanted to be as a kid, but I promised one story at a time and this one is over. Now it's back to tatting and unresponsive customers. I hope you enjoyed this little trip to my past.

More New

After Thursdays surprise productivity I thoroughly expected to slide backwards immediately into a quagmire of non creation, but I didn't. In fact on Friday I managed not one, but two new creations. Both of them came from the pages of a turn of the century tatting book by Anna Valeire. Both of them follow the same concept as my Viva La Reine necklace. I start with a motif and build just a bit on the side and follow with a spiral and split ring chain to create the necklace. I am particularly happy with the first one I'm calling Frivolite De Cercle which translates roughly to circle tatting, I know creative right?

Here's a little factoid for all my non tatting friends. There are two methods for tatting, shuttle and needle. Most modern patterns and nearly all antique patterns are written for either one or two shuttles. Needle tatting is a fairly new technique and has two different ways to mimic the shuttle technique. Most commonly the needle is used to mimic two shuttle patterns and that is the way I do most of my tatting. The method needed to mimic single shuttle patterns such as the one for this motif requires that I cut off a really long piece of thread and is quite cumbersome. Usually when confronted with one of these patterns, I adapt it by adding chains so I don't have to cut the thread. This time I sucked it up and worked with the tangling mess of thread and I'm glad I did.

I think the piece really needed the thread spaces in between the the large and small outside rings. Chains would have been too bulky. The other piece I made up was more basic. It started with a small round motif and I added the same type of chain to create the necklace. I am now completely sick of making the spiral chains so don't expect to see anymore of these anytime soon. I worked on a mask the rest of the weekend and this week looks like I will be working on remaking old pieces again since my creative urge has been all used up, for now.