Saturday, October 1, 2011

I've been feeling guilty

My shop has been re-opened for a full month so far and while I've been doing some tweaking on my listings , I've been trying hard not to be too concerned with my views or lack of sales. Ever since Etsy has changed the way items are being searched I've found my views to be a lot lower than before. It's obvious that promoting offline and trying to get people to come directly to my shop will prove more successful than someone finding me from an Etsy search. 


So as the month has progressed and I've been busily working on new product and projects I've found myself getting more and more critical about not having any sales in the shop. I've been really trying to figure out why and when I get like this and I don't think it's solely a lack of sales that get me down. Approaching the end of last month, as I purchased some books for my illustration course and supplies for shows I'm preparing for this Christmas, we got a notice of a rent increase. We tend to squeak by right now.Ugh. This was on the same day that I had seen this real estate ad tweeted for a home near here. Yup, nearly a million dollars to own pretty much what we have now. Double ugh. It's these multiple reminders that make me feel guilty about pursuing my dream of an artistic career. My resistance to put more hours into a regular job to make ends meet. How do I justify spending the money on art and craft supplies when I find it tricky to pay my other bills? I can't stop creating but when the money is scarce I feel guilty for doing it. Luckily Christmas gives me the perfect economical excuse to create.
I think this is really going  to become a matter of faith for me to know that it's okay for me to create and that we'll be better off if I do. 
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
One of my hande-made art dolls

silkscreened napkins

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