Shop talk

My Etsy shop has been on back burner for awhile now, since my writing and drawing/painting have left me no time for crafting. But I may be returning to it soon… this time with artwork!

I actually joined Etsy years ago with a notion of selling my handmade cards. But I make those as a labor of love; if I actually charged buyers what they were worth to me, well, let’s just say you’d think twice before sending one through the regular mail. I feel similarly about most of my other artworks. They are so dear to me that I feel I wouldn’t be able to part with them for any price; moreover, there’s so much of me in them, I don’t particularly want them all running around the world. In a weird way they are like photographs of myself. Sure, I could sell them; it’s not like I need them; but wouldn’t I feel weird knowing that random people had my image lying around their house? Yes. So I’ll hang on to my photos, and the same with most of my art.

But a little more than a week ago, after Litcrawl, I was showing my friend Will the Buddha painting I did in Hong Kong, and he asked, “Have you ever thought about selling prints of your artwork?” Hmmm. I hadn’t, but it was something to consider, so I went online and did a bit of research. Conclusion: printing is expensive, and I’d still have to go to the trouble of finding a trustworthy print shop, photographing and scanning my images, picking them up, and so forth. And I’d still have that weirdness of knowing pieces of myself were out there in the world.

Just yesterday, another friend, Chrystal, saw my watercolor experiments on Facebook and asked if I was selling those on Etsy. It occurred to me that I don’t feel attached to my doodles and experiments the same way I do to my “more serious” pieces. If I took just a little more care with paper choice and layout while playing around with my paints, I could sell these small originals without feeling like I was losing bits of my soul in the process. So… I think I’m going to do that. Look for another announcement in a week or two!

In the meantime, enjoy these three doodles I made yesterday. They’ll probably be included in that first batch of paintings for the shop.