Okay, so to get more in line with my old blog schedule (photo Mondays, Whimsical Wednesdays, etc), I decided to also go back to a once-a-week shop update. I know the nature of being a self-employed artist means that I have to promote myself if I want to make an earning, but it’s a fine line to walk and I really try to share what I’m working on without being spammy, so I’ll stick to just Saturdays for those of you who are curious to see what’s new in my shops and to hear what’s going on in this lil’ business. So here goes.
This week I spent the better part of a day just photographing the 50+ originals I have yet to list in my art shop. Why didn’t I get these up sooner? Ah well, better late than never. I’ll be adding them at a rate of 10 or so a week over the next month+. Above are some of the newer ones I’ve added, including Music Girl, one of my earliest pieces that I created on a framed art reproduction I found at the thrift store. Eco-art through and through! You’ll also see the vintage girl stickers I’ve added (featuring friendship and sisterhood themes and which includes some of the latest girls I created earlier in the week).
Also, if you’re in my art shop regularly, you may have noticed a change in offerings. I made a decision to try something out. I previously had nearly 700 listings, but that made for almost 30 pages to go through (Etsy allows us 10 sections, but no subsections as of yet) so while I had my sections labeled out “prints” “originals” “notecards” and so on, I was feeling the crushing pressure to get all available options up. Well guess what, when you have 250+ pieces of artwork times ten different options, that means 2,500 listings which would be about 130 pages to slog through. Not to mention it costs to list every item AND most importantly, it takes on average 30 minutes to list each item (between descriptions, titles, tags, taking several photos, editing and watermarking photos and uploading them). That boils down to over a thousand hours to be completely updated and assuming no new paintings (yeah right!).
As such, I decided to only list my prints, originals and then a listing for each of the other categories, so someone can still purchase the “pick any notecard” option and tell me what image they want. Does it mean I’ll show up in less searches? Yes. Does it mean that I may not get as much traffic and people may still get confused by my pick any options? Perhaps. But I just can’t keep up and this seemed like the most seamless way of doing things. I might review in the future, but meantime, this frees up a lot of time for me to list those stacks of originals (and prints) that I never had up in my shop. And I guess that’s the best place to start.
As for my goodies shop which I mentioned last week is newly re-opened, I’ve added a couple more sticker options this week including snip-its of those gorgeous vintage/antique receipts I sourced from France (the bigger picture); it’s amazing how beautiful the vintage fonts, stamps, and handwriting are! Also in this batch are vintage lady stickers from my personal postcard collection (I use the images from the postcards and receipts not only in my artwork, but here as well!).
I had a bit of a panic this week when I learned that the manufacturer of the recycled sticker paper I use to make my eco-friendly stickers and tags has decided to discontinue the product. So I went on a shopping spree trying to locate any remaining boxes out there…and found out that many sites are owned by other sites and no one seems to update their inventory, so I was left with a lot of “sorry, you’re order has been cancelled” emails. Alas, I have 17 boxes right now, so hopefully that’ll last me the year until I can find another source.
In addition to that panic, my eco-paper supplier that I’ve been buying from for over 2 years decided to switch paper on me and they were backordered and never informed me. So while awaiting this very late order and having customers of my own in limbo – many of them brides looking for blank, eco-friendly cardstock and cards – I received my order only to learn that they have permanently changed their paper source and it’s completely different texture and weight that I can’t use. So I had to go on another sourcing spree, only to learn a day after placing that secondary order with another supplier that they too were on backorder. What gives? Ah yes, a full moon this past week.
I’ve had an exceedingly high amount of these kinds of frustrations this week, including very expensive international shipping problems that are giving me high blood pressure. Ah, the trials of being a small business owner. Being in charge of your own business is extremely challenging, but still beats doing work for someone else, so I can’t complain. Just have to roll with it…
Well, that’s it for now. I have a busy weekend slated with orders that all came in yesterday after a strange halt in orders during the middle of the week. And I have a major studio/office clean-up and overhaul in the works. Shameful pictures to follow later in the week 
Take your cue from Peanut and take it easy this weekend!
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Alright, I’ve been busy going through my house trying to go through every corner, basket and closet trying to find every last project that needs finishing and item that I could possibly place in my booth space while I still have it for the next 3 weeks. Trouble is, with the thousands of dollars in merchandise I have there and even with the 20% off my entire booth, I’ve sold a whopping $20 in 4 days. Worst week ever! Perhaps it’s the universe confirming that I need to get the hell outta there!
