Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Adventures in Not Selling

Hey, I never promised you a rose garden in reading this blog. I'm not one of those shiny-happy-everything-is-fine-fine-fine-all-the-time artists. (Are people like that even REAL??? )

No, I have my ups and I have my downs and I vowed when I started this blog to lay it all out ... the "business" of being an artist (which in and of itself is an oxymoron and makes me feel like a plain old moron most days!).

So, my adventures on ebay have not been exactly fruitful but I knew to expect this... people are looking for Chinese junk over there. One bead that took me over an hour in the flame sold for the bare minimum price. About a 1/3 of it's value to me.  The going rate is less than minimum wage BEFORE considering glass costs, kiln costs, cleaning time, photography and photo manipulation time...

And another set didn't sell at all which will shade the way I use those colors (patriotic - red white and blue) in the future... if there is a future.

Yes, folks, I am THAT low. I had a miserable torch session this weekend where I hated absolutely everything I made. And...I'm wondering...wouldn't it be a helluva lot easier to just go back to work for the man?? No, I wouldn't feel like I had a soul and three hour hikes on a Monday afternoon would be a thing of the past but, I could seriously get used to having money again!

I have no answers and I'm in a blurry sinus medicine haze today. But since I hate the way this blog posts without pics...here's an ugly glass bead to look at:


2 comments:

CeltCraft said...

I totally understand and feel your pain! I've been working for a stained glass studio... I'm looking for work because I can't handle working for less than $9 an hour anymore (as well as the fighting from the couple who own the business). I'm sharing a booth with a friend at a local co. fair and I'm scared to death! I'll be off work, and not getting paid, so if I don't sell anything... yikes! It really makes you question whether your stuff is good. And, btw, I don't think the bead in the pic is ugly at all. I think we're our own worst critics. Good luck... let's hope the economy turns around soon! Don't give up entirely! You are not alone!

Lori Bergmann said...

Holly~I'm so sorry to hear that things aren't going well with the torching or selling lately…I wish I had something better to say to encourage you, other than to take heart that we ALL suffer from similar slumps in our creative lives and the most important thing is to keep doing what you love best—and sooner or later, things will start to fall back into place again. (((hugs)))