For me as an artist, I have difficulty choosing the direction to go in. Many of my decisions are based on paper as my medium…..origami, paper folding for decorations, paper for butterfly or bird mobiles, paper for circular orbs, paper for paper flowers. . or…as of late, my obsession with alcohol ink on ceramic tiles? My problem seems to be that I began on Etsy 11 years ago folding origami flowers for bouquets. At the time, on Etsy there was little competition in this area so I had some good success at making sales. Over time, sales slowed as Etsy became bigger, thus more competitive. So, here began my search regarding my shop, for what products would sell, placing different products up in different categories instead of concentrating on one particular category.
My choices did not develop my shop into a money making place to hang out. This trickled past me going unnoticed because I enjoyed everything I chose to work on; butterfly mobiles, origami trees and other folding options, and now alcohol ink. It seems with my Etsy shop I continue to add different products, most of which do not sell. The Etsy way seems to go in waves….according of course with the economy waves, young peoples popular choices, and holidays. This year for me, I have begun making a few sales of my origami trees. It’s always a toss up.
Truly I have discovered something important about Etsy, it is in it for the money as it has gone public and grown very large. I have a lot of fees that I pay to Etsy. Granted they are small, but can you imagine these same fees times thousands and thousands of shops on Etsy. But this is business, and I have, because of my love of arts and crafts, found an acceptance of not making much income on Etsy. Lesson learned here…? NOTHING…., business related that is. The pertinent principle here, and it is not a lesson learned, the most important thing to me each day is doing art, for myself, for my family as gifts, or just because I love spending my time that way.
