There were SO many challenges trying to launch my store! I had wanted it forever...I had even secured my store's name 6 years prior.
The biggest delay was that I took being a vendor for the Phoenix Shop really seriously and so I always kept my 'batches' for them, so they had enough for a great display.
Altough I have been making these off and on for over 20 years.... I hadnt ever posted anything. I wasnt even on social media.
What would be my first online customer bought a lampshade at the Phoenix Shop and looked me up online which threw me into a panic as I didn’t exist online (yet!)….Well let me tell you my extreme determination kicked in and didn’t let up for the weeks that followed!
I of course had a batch ready to go….but I had to list them. I started from scratch…being the forever self-taught person that I am and so I just began…I soon realized that I had to name them all and do photo shoots. I was suddenly running all over town looking for the perfect photo shoot locations and studying the sun patterns to avoid shadows….after several photo shoots I realized I needed a better camera…what I had didn’t work. There weren’t enough pixels! Ugh… So I got my hands on a camera and was at it every second I wasn’t at work. I was obsessed with launching the site.
The next obstacle was my poor little laptop! It wasn’t big enough to host the store…so my amazing finance got us a new one! He has been such a great supporter…
Needless to say I finally did it(!) in March of 2021…Its now May 2022. I have since had 29 Etsy sales all across the US but also to France, Canada and Spain! I have also had 9 offline sales to two lovely Carmel ladies who are huge fans of our family… and I showed at last year’s Open Studios Tour which I had always wanted to be a part of!
I have been featured in CARMEL’s magazine twice now- in the Winter 2021 and Spring 2022. I am also part of this year’s Open Studio’s Tour again and am really looking forward to hosting and meeting all of you.
I will be at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel in October.
