I've been selling on Etsy off and on since 2007. My first shop sold handmade jewelry and, while I made some sales, I ultimately lacked the dedication and drive it takes to make a shop successful. It was a passing hobby at the time and eventually, all my listings expired and I abandoned the project.
I then decided to attend Graduate school to get a degree in Library Science, which I did accomplish, but I found my life was lacking in creativity. It was then that I began taking bookbinding classes and learned how to make my own journals and sketch books.
Then in 2010 I opened this shop and focused on selling my handmade books. It was going pretty well for a while, I was working as a Librarian and running my shop on the side but a back injury and surgery forced me to put my shop on vacation mode. Once I recuperated I felt that I had been thrown off course with my life and I became preoccupied with trying to figure out what I really wanted to do and what would make me happiest.
I did a lot of soul searching and somewhere along the way I realized that my art shouldn't be secondary to a job that I wasn't loving and I embraced my creativity and decided to get serious about making it my career. I applied to Kent State to get my MFA in Textiles this past January and was accepted into the program. I'll begin classes this Fall. And with that, I see this shop growing and changing along with my artistic education. I've never been a very rigid person, so I've decided that my shop should reflect that. Whatever I feel like making at any given moment will be what I end up listing. Maybe it's not the most cohesive looking shop with its jumble of products and styles but it's true to who I am and the way I work, which I have found is the most important thing.