Recent Posts
Needle Tatting and other Nonsense
Return To Blog Listing
Needle tatting projects, etsy seller and purchase reviews. Opinions and commentary on the world of crafting.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'selling'
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 se...
There's A Birthday At The End Of This Week
I am not a complicated person. I generally do not act in a way that is contrary to my nature. If I have done something that appears out of character you can be fairly certain that the reasons behind m...
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 t...
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 item...
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...
I Want It Now!
One of the things I find so engaging about etsy is that it is such a microcosm. Everything that happens there seems to be an intensified version of something experienced in the real world. So many thi...
See You All Later
I'm feeling very impatient today. You see, tomorrow morning is the start of my very short family vacation. We're driving to the coast to spend some time in the cool ocean air of Monterey. We do this e...
What A Weekend
What a roller coaster of a weekend! Friday afternoon as I lounged around, waiting for dinner and fireworks, I pulled out my laptop and discovered my Portrait of an Elegant Bride on the front page of E...
Perception Of Value
Ah, I'm finished. I haven't shared, but I've been tatting my fingers to the bone the last few days to finish one of my most interesting custom orders to date. I made a total of 72 inches of lace in th...
Is Flesh Best?
Before I get into the reason for the title of this post, I have some news to share. Yesterday evening just as I was sitting down to dinner I made my 300th sale. It is official, I've now met all of my ...
There's A Storm Brewing
I had an odd weekend. Things have been going fairly well for me, lots of small successes and opportunities, yet I am filled with a uneven sensation. You know that feeling you get when things are going...
Again, I'm Surrounded By Kindergarteners
I majored in Theater in College, but I really enjoyed my philosophy classes. Aside from the sleep lost to fearing the void and years of logically driven existential angst, I learned not only how to sp...
Oh, Lookey Loos!
It seems that the great Etsy View crisis of '08 may be coming to a close. Oh how I will miss the countless threads crying about lost views and the administrators inability to fix this problem. I was l...
New Goals
When I achieved 1000 hearts and 250 sales on etsy, I threw a little party for myself. I sat back, had a soda and relaxed for a minute. I realized that it would be a really long time before I would rea...
Why, Thank You
Recently I have been the recipient of many kind words and statements of awe regarding my tatting. I was reading some nice feedback yesterday and I remarked to my husband how it always surprises me whe...
What If Machines Had Hands
Handmade versus manufactured, it's John Henry versus the steam hammer. One has a soul and the other is cost efficient and creates a reliable quality level with a reputation, brand familiarity and acco...
Working Without A Net
I'm one of those people who read too many books. So when I was pregnant with my first child, I read everything about parenting I could get my hands on. While I'm certain a great portion of the informa...
Why Try?
I have a confession, I possess a general lack of confidence in my own abilities as they are presented to strangers. In other words, I'm a big old chicken and I can be painfully shy in unfamiliar situa...
The Global Marketplace
I had this whole diatribe planned out on the global economy and how it affects our little craft businesses, but then I took far too long getting it down and it's flown out the window. So, I think I wi...
It'll Be Great... If It Works
Over the last week, I've tried a few new things to increase my exposure. I can be quite a lazy person and I have two extremely demanding kids, so I was looking for things that would require little eff...
Steam Team Style
It's all about the steam. Or is it? The evolution of my tatting style has found me within quite a few genres over the last couple of years. It has been described as Gothic, Ne0-Victorian, Steam Punk, ...
Should I Quit
You may have noticed that I have a bit of a big mouth. When something bugs me I tend to lay it all out there and I like to use a lot of big words while doing it. So after I made a big deal out of folk...
On The Ebb
I can feel it sliding away, the obsession phase if finally ebbing. I find that my relationship with etsy is quite cyclical. I go from completely obsessed to barely caring about anything outside my sho...
Walking The Tightrope
Balance, an eternal struggle for all of us. Each of us has lives full of many diverse elements, every piece competing for time and attention. All of us must pick and chose which segments get priority ...
Coincidence, I Think Not
First, I'd like to thank all the folks that visited and commented over the last couple of days. Whenever I express one of my opinions here, I brace for an onslaught of detractors. I have been pleasan...
Use Your Grown Up Words Please
I am no angel. I am bluntly honest and not very politically correct. My appearance does offend some people and I am stared at when I go out shopping. I am also polite, intelligent, open minded, not ea...
You Want How Much For That?
The Art of Pricing: It's Capitalism Baby!One of the biggest controversies in the handmade community is, Pricing. There are many reasons this issue is a sticking point for people. We want to make sale...
Business Hours
Shopping handmade has spoiled me...rotten. I'm afraid I have begun to expect many things that I have no right to expect from sellers. I know that I'm dealing with a real person and as a result, I expe...
The Way Back Machine
KungFuCowgirl & VerukaDollsLandMy very first etsy purchase in May of 2006 was a Totoro plush from KungFuCowgirl, it was her second sale. Since that point she's managed to racik up well over 2000 s...
Why Am I Not Famous Yet?
What am I doing wrong? Why isn't this selling? Why am I not a millionaire yet? Okay, I haven't actually seen that last question yet, but the others are asked seemingly every hour at Etsy. I assume the...