Murphy's Law with paint. . .

Well, it has been more than a year since I painted (or attempted to) so I was nervous and expected some issues, but "Murphy's Law" came to call and everything went wrong. 😒 

Let's start with the reason it's been over a year since I painted; back in Indiana my old shop wasn't heated that well so when it got cold, I stopped trying to pour paint. Then before it got spring-warm my husband changed jobs and I had to packed everything up to move, it was snowing the day we left Indiana but due to circumstances all my stuff landed in storage in Florida for some months which included summer months. 😕 So I understand why some of my paints were ruined with the crazy temperature swings. 

It came out of the tube like a foam and when I tried to thin it down it just made chunks and stayed chunky no matter what I tried. 😏

I though ok, I can live with that, they weren't all that way so I just set that color aside and didn't use it. But my big expensive jug of pouring medium also developed chunks of it's own, which is bad and sad. However, I thought I could get around it because I know a couple of other artists that don't use that stuff, so there are alternate recipes/ways of thinning paint for pouring, but I am horribly out of practice so I had nothing but troubles trying to get all the colors the same/right consistency. 😓

Then there is the fact that I was trying something new to me, so the paints were too thin kind of on purpose. 😐 But I also used way too much paint for the size of the canvas. 

So, when I went to blow the excess off and try the new thing, it over-mixed and went all wrong. 😞 At first, I thought it would still be ok, even though it was not at all as intended it was still pretty colors and looked kind of cool, it developed some "cells" and interesting spots. 

But the paint was still too thick in places so as it dried it started to wrinkle, ripple, and crack. 😔 Then like an idiot I moved it, I didn't want the tack-feet to end up stuck in the overflow mess, so I picked it up and put it on my easel but it wasn't really level so when I came back hours later there was a blob of ooze from the center where it had been left too thick, ruining the pretty swirls and cells just a glob of wrinkled muddy mess. 😟 

I won't post a photo of the mess, LOL but I will admit that I scraped tons of the paint off and will just try again. 😉 I was right to be nervous and I am disappointed on multiple levels, but it's just paint so I declare do-over. 😇

2022 Year in Review . . .

Etsy does this "year in review" thing with shop stats and highlights, I used to like it but this year I cannot access it because the "new app" doesn't work on my phone. 😒 Although, looking at my shop stats and low sales I doubt this year's report would really be all that enjoyable to look at anyway. So, I shall do my own review of this year and all I can say is, I'm glad it's over. 

For me the year 2022 was mostly a bummer from start to finish, covid is still a thing, we moved across the country which meant my business was closed for several months, my best friend of 15+ years died of cancer, so it's not really surprising that I have been depressed, distressed, and demotivated. 😔 

I have spent a week (actually more) contemplating closing my business, but I have ultimately decided against it. There are a few reasons aside from my basic stubbornness that doesn't like giving up, the naive bit of hope that I cling to, the acceptance that this year was extreme and not normal. I also realized that due to circumstances I have not painted in 16 months and considering I do find great joy in painting it's no wonder that I feel so _________. 

So, I will register the business for the new state, I will look for and plan in-person events for 2023, but most importantly I will resume painting. There is nothing quite like a blank canvas, it is simultaneously inspiring and terrifying as I suspect 2023 will be. 

Well, that's depressing. . .

 So, it's mid-December, the time of year I start looking at compiling the business books to do taxes and I gotta admit it's pretty dismal. 😞 This is the worst year since I started RainbowMaille honestly, it's ridiculous between the closing for months and moving and the sad state of sales since reopening, I am wondering why I even bother to call it a business. 😞  

Most years I have in-person events not just online sales, but not this year.  Most years my sales are measured in the Thousands of dollars, but not this year.  Most years I don't contemplate closing up shop and just giving up, but I am this year. 😔 

Seriously, I'm debating on whether to bother registering in my new state or if I should just call it quits and close and save the headaches and paperwork.  I am concerned that when we do our taxes this year and I have to file less than $500 in sales we are going to get audited, it's that far off, it's that bad. I feel like such a failure. 😭 

I keep telling myself that it's not my fault and next year will be better, but that's a pretty hard-sell. 

Final answer. . .

I have been annoyed with etsy before plenty of times but the forced change to my shop policies hit different.  I have accepted increases in fees, being deprioritized in search because I won't put "Free" shipping on everything. I have done my best with the "star" seller ridiculousness, as a matter of fact over the years the number of changes and bad ideas they have implemented (and some retracted) that I have tolerated is pretty big, many of those instances I didn't even really complain because I acknowledge it's their site to run how they want.  However, changing my actual shop policies is a step too far, my business as a whole now has an inconsistency between my shops that I am not comfortable with. 

So, I am letting a lot of my etsy listings expire and shrinking my presence there. I have thought a lot about this and I am not reacting from an emotional place. This is a strategic move and a business decision, I am separating the art from the chainmaille. I will still be keeping my original shop on etsy but it will go back to being just chainmaille the way it was when I started it 7 years ago. Starting in 2023 all of my paintings and wire tree sculptures will be exclusive to goimagine.com

Ironically and completely unintentionally I have come to this decision on the anniversary of my first sale on etsy. I didn't realize that, as I was writing this post I got a fb notification and just happened to check my "memories".  Life can be so weird sometimes. 😇

There will be ornaments. . .

I am determined to have chainmaille ornaments available for this holiday season.

 There may not be a lot of them, they will definitely be limited addition and I think currently only a couple of the designs will be available. 😏 I am only one woman with 2 hands afterall. 

 So, Helm's wreaths and small snowflakes it is. I'll make some different colored versions and get them listed soon. 😉

etsy lies, like a lot. . .

 

Notice how it says the new format is "flexible" and you are "in control of the details" well that's BS as everything I've clicked basically is checkbox and drop down, there is no Text box anywhere and the pre-written stuff is not editable.

So, I would argue that it is not at all "flexible" and sellers have virtually no control, plus when I tried to apply the new forced format I got a warning that it would "replace" my existing shop-wide handwritten pre-existing policies. 

Even when trying to set it on a single individual listing I get the warning about it replacing my "shop's current policy".

So, my personal opinion is this stinks, etsy lies if not intentionally then just by their poor wording which was why I was concerned with their "template" stuff to begin with. I will not be making any changes until I have to, because as I suspected this is etsy manipulating and forcing the "grandfathered" shops into the stupid boilerplate that I refused to change to years ago. your old return policy will be removed on Oct. 31

Thanks for the warning, jerks.

Thanks etsy. . .

 Once again I have a dashboard notification of etsy being "so helpful" and yes that is sarcasm.  😏  Etsy is always changing things, I really don't like that they cannot seem to leave well-enough alone, but it's their site so, I cringe and move on. 

Just in case you can't read that it says I have to set a new return policy because they will be removing the old format Oct. 31 😠  I personally do not appreciate their interference with my business.  I understand that they want ALL shops to have a return policy, a few years back they forced a bunch of people and all "new" shops into some boilerplate garbage format, but those of us with existing shops were grandfathered in and not forced to change our existing policies which was nice. However, it seems that is changing and next month everyone will be forced into some template garbage so that no one can retain custom policies. 😒

I personally wrote my policies, and they are perfectly clear 

• Returns are accepted within 14 days of delivery, money will be refunded after the product is returned. Return shipping costs are the responsibility of the buyer.
• If an item is broken or damaged in shipping I will repair or replace it at no charge, simply message me to make arrangements.
• Cancellations accepted before orders ship, but be warned I ship quickly often same day.
• Cancellations requested after the 24 hour period will be decided on a case by case basis and may not be eligible for full refund if the order has already shipped.

I have never liked etsy boilerplate stuff, it's always awkwardly worded and with limited options and mostly yes/no settings I cannot make them say what I want. The result will be a change in my business's operational policies because etsy is taking away something that I have had set up for over 7 years, moreover this will cause my etsy shop and goimagine shop to have different policies, which causes a consistency problem for RainbowMaille. 😕

I'm not sure how I will handle this, I need to dig into the etsy stuff and see how close I can get to my own original policies, but this may well be the straw that breaks this camel's back.  I have 37 days to investigate, compare and make a decision, if I can get the etsy close enough to what I want it may be ok, but if their templates do not allow me to set the policies the way I want I cannot run 2 shops with vastly different policies. 

Congratulations etsy on another brilliant fix of something that was not broken. 😞

The Stars are back. . .

For many years my etsy shop had a continual 5 star rating, even in slow times or shut-downs when the reviews "aged" the stars were still visible, that is until this year.  Etsy changes things all the time, sometimes without much notice or fanfare, so I was a little shocked and a bit annoyed when my stars literally Vanished after all these years. 😕 I mean they have changed colors before but for 7 years they were always there, I earned those stars and then Bam! gone. 

I asked around and did some research and apparently etsy changed this like a year ago. I never saw an announcement of this change but buried in a handbook article it lays out the review system and there is a date on the article, so I guess this is how it works now. 😏 If ever all your reviews are at or over the 1 year old mark your shop's stars will disappear all together, they used to just be grey not gone. I really did not like the look of there being no stars it makes it look as if the shop is brand new or really bad, either way not a good look. Lucky for me the Labor Day sale was productive and with the fresh orders came fresh reviews and magically my stars came back. 😇 I know it seems like a silly thing to think about, but a review history is often an important factor for buyer's confidence so having those 5 stars at the top of the shop can be key for conversions.  

 

So welcome back my pointy little friends it's nice to see you again up there where you belong. 😎 

Sometimes 1 is all it takes. . .

I know we all want to be seen, we want to know we are being seen, many of us obsess over "views" in our shops be they etsy or goimagine or elsewhere. Afterall, you can't make sales if your products are never "seen" right? 

While it is at its core true that people cannot buy what they cannot find it is also true that it only takes 1 view to make a sale sometimes. 

RainbowMaille is not my first trip on the business merry-go-round, and I've been working on it for 7+ years so one would think I already know the above truth, but it's easy to forget. It's also easy to be sad, bothered, disappointed when we feel like we're not being seen, but that is why sometimes life has to remind you. 😅

Behind on my books. . .

Yeah, I'm going to admit that in the move process and temporary shutdown I have not kept up with my bookkeeping.  😏  

I just pulled out my notebook to catch up and record monthly website fees and found my last entry was back in March. 😅 

Good thing RainbowMaille's books are simple and most of those months of being closed it's just a couple of fees, so this shouldn't take me too long to "fix" and catch-up.  😉

Although, a recent etsy order did highlight their most recent fee increase that I had mostly forgotten was going to happen. I mean, of course, I got the notification, but I was closed and moving so it kinda skipped to the back of my brain.  However, seeing it in print and practice was like "oh snap" 😦 I'm probably going to have to raise prices.  Order total paid $56 and change, but after etsy's fees and payment processing fees and buying the postage and removing the taxes collected I only get $43 and change.  So yeah, I need to adjust my shipping charges too between postal rate increases and etsy's increased % coming off the top it no longer covers packaging materials like bubble mailers, tape, ink, paper, etc.,   

I know a lot of crafters, artists, and small business owners have a hard time pricing our items and many of us do not raise prices as much or as often as we probably should.  So, consider this a PSA of sorts in this time of "inflation" and increasing supply costs and increasing postage and increasing fees, check your books and make sure you are still making the $ you wanted/intended.  😇😎

Grief is a process. . .

 Grief is a process and I'm still processing. . .

I am working through working on my grief, but I'm not sure I'm making any progress really. 😔 I am still sad every day. I still think about calling Kat almost every day hence the daily sad when I have to face all over again that she is gone. 😭 

I am trying to work on other things too, like re-activating listings in the online shops and setting up my studio.  I have made some progress on the studio, art on the shelves, chainmaille inventoried and loaded on displays, supplies in bins, my easel is unboxed and standing ready.  I haven't created anything in the new studio yet, but I did hem some curtains and do some other household crafty-ness for the moving-in and decorating.  

Sad setback. . .

I have not posted in a month because I've been through a personal loss.  My best friend of 15+ years passed away and it has been hard. 

I am sad, it has been weeks and I still cry almost daily.  

I miss her, I find myself wanting to call her almost daily.

I have made some limited progress on setting up the workshop, and I have activated some of my listings but there is still so much to do.  Ironically, in spite of the minimal listings available and my complete lack of social media skills lately, I got an order through goimagine a couple of days after re-activating listings.  It was a bit tricky trying to pack it up for shipping. . .what with the I can't find my postal scale. . .my printer was still packed and didn't want to print when I set it up. 

Typical etsy. . .

It is really not hard to understand why over the years so many sellers and small business owners have become so disillusioned with etsy. 😒

In my experience, which has been the last 7-ish years, their customer service basically sucks.  I sometimes wonder if they even read the problems people try to present before they check a box and send off some generic reply that never addresses the problem.  Perhaps all first replies are a bots and automated or perhaps they outsourced their customer service to non-native english speakers, I don't know but what I do know is that they have never in my 7 years actually solved an issue in less than 5 email exchanges. 😔  

So here I sit in my new house, beginning the great unpacking, planning to re-open the online shops when I come across an issue with my etsy.  See back in December last year they did a special "shop camp" thing where if you followed the steps and did certain things you got 200 free listing credits.  It was pretty easy, re-do some listings, update photos, add a few videos and bingo! 200 free listing credits. 👍  Of course, I completed the steps and took those credits, and due to the way etsy works and the length of time listings are good I still had a pile of listing credits when I had to shut down for the move.  I knew the move was coming and I had been reducing the number of listings on etsy as I was transitioning to goimagine (which I like a lot more than etsy anyway).  At the point that I deactivated all my listings for the move I had over 90 listing credits left and had planned to use those to re-open.  However, when I logged in and went to my listing manager to re-activate things the credits were gone and etsy charged me.  😣 

I wrote into customer service and got a lame reply about how auto-renew works 😒(duh) and that auto-renew still takes your money while in "vacation mode" 😑 (also duh) and that the credits must have just been used up while I was shut down. 😠 Nothing quite like assuming your customers are morons you can take total advantage of.  So to clarify I replied and told them they were completely wrong, first none of my listings have ever been set to auto-renew (I'm a control freak and have always had them set to manual). Second, I never put my shop in "vacation mode" because I know it can cause many glitches, I manually deactivated all my listings and wrote a notice in my announcement section. Finally etsy listings are good for 4 months but I was only closed for 2 (April and May) and those monthly statements do not show the use of any of my credits and if things had renewed then they would not all be expired now.  😏 

I went back through all my monthly statements since being issued the credits and counted how many of them I had actually used and when so that I could add that to the customer service exchange even though etsy's customer service should be able to see that info themselves in my account.  I have replied 3 times to provide info and screenshots and point out that the info they gave me was not correct and . . . crickets.  That's right no response now. . . also no magically re-appearing credits . . .yet. 

In the meantime, many items have been relisted on the goimagine shop because it works better and is easy, just select the listings, click activate and save, no listing fees, no hassles. 💗

https://goimagine.com/rainbowmaille/ 

P.S.  It took all week but someone at Etsy finally restored my listing credits (probably because I threatened to not activate listings or re-open my shop until they did). 

Maybe next month. . .

I have picked a house and we are in the process of buying it, of course buying a house is not exactly an overnight thing so it will still be a little bit before the business is back open. 😏   

When I posted that the business would take a selling hiatus while we relocate I really had not intended for it to be this long nor had I intended for it to be a near total social media blackout. But if I'm honest it's been kind of nice not having to worry about what to post. Also I've found it's kind of depressing to scroll through my facebook or instagram feeds and see all the cool stuff that other people are making while all my stuff is in storage and I can't make anything. 😔 I see someone else's cool new chain bits or painting and all I want to do is try it. . . can I make that pattern? can I pull of that art technique?  Not to be overly dramatic but it's almost like part of me is missing or maybe it's just FOMO (fear of missing out).

Business relocation update. . .

 So. . . I (we) have relocated to Georgia. 😁  I have not found a house yet so still no date for resuming business but I am working on it and making progress.  I am hopeful that I will find the right house and be able to re-square not just my business but my life, soon (ish). 😅

Some times plans change. . .

I had a plan at the beginning of the year but then the year started and the plan went out the window. 😏  Now I find myself in a high stress, short notice, cross country move with only a loose fly by the seat of my pants plan that currently doesn't include an exact re-open date for RainbowMaille.  

Online sales are temporarily suspended while I pack it all up and move it four states away.  Both the Etsy and goimagine shops have announcements and no active listings at this time.  I do plan to re-open once the relocation is complete but it's a weird housing market out there so I'm not sure exactly when.  😉  

Happy new year, happy new plan. .

It's a new year and of course I have plans for my business. 😇

I plan to work on expanding, last year I bought my domain name, this year I have upgraded my goimagine to include Mosiac.  I am trying to decide which summer events I am signing up to vend at, both local and a bit further afield, maybe.  I am also planning to expand some product offerings like new patterns of rubber-maille, new patterns on barrettes, and maybe those cool Christmas ornaments (later in the year).  

I will once again be trying to improve my photos and get more stuff listed, that's an every year thing.  The Mosiac will be a work in progress for a while, there are so many options for the multiple banners 😅 what to say, what images to use, to link the banners to things ?  ? ?  I have to make the banners but I can't decide what they should be visually, message wise, content.  I'm going to get right on that. . .with thinking ~LOL~ because really I have to finish up my tax filing stuff, get photos of the rosette chainmaille and get all that listed before Valentine's sale kicks in which is . . . OMG 7 days. 😵