Inching Slowly Back In To The World of Art

When I was younger, I had all the energy in the world and really dived into my craft of doing stained glass with both feet and hands. I operated my shop called 'Carter's Stained Glass' from 1988-2006. During this time I married John who is 18 years older than I. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 60 in 2001 and my world began to change.

Also during this time, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and my world really started to crash down. I ended up closing the shop and moving back to Nashville to be closer to family. I had very little time to do my stained glass, but I did find time to get some therapy learning how to do pottery. My glass tools and supplies laid mostly untouched. I did open my etsy shop in 2009, but did very little with it and eventually took everything off the site and used it just to buy stuff. I had many of our precious animals dying of old age, John in the hospital for back surgery, mom in her final stages of Alzheimer's, and then my dads health took a turn for the worse. To top it off our family business got flooded in the Nashville flood in May of 2010. My friend's all told me that if I had no bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

Fast forward to late 2010. John finally got to the point that I could not take care of him without risking my own health so I put him in assisted living. My mother also passed away. The business started recovering from the flood and then my dad annouced that he was remarrying the friend who he had been doing some traveling with after mom went into the Alzheimer's nursing home. Recovery for me was finally coming!!!

Funny how it take time to heal from trauma. I started in the fall of 2010 to list a few more items on etsy, made a few sales, and then made more stuff to list. I had some local folks ask about classes so I started to teach on a regular basis again. Little by little, the studio came alive. I did not jump in with two feet, but rather one toe at a time.

It is now July of 2011 and my life is as busy as ever. Sales are going great on etsy and I spend my days planning new stuff to make, marketing, and doing custom work. I do still have that occational thought being overwhelmed, but those days are getting fewer and far between all the time. Recovery is not yet complete, but it is good to feel alive again!!

You win Some ,You lose Some

Well, it finally happened. I had a stained glass order not arrive intact. I guess I am lucky since I have had 114 sales todate and only 3 issues.  This last one that got there broken was one that had a bunch of glass sunrays sticking out. I had already had issues with that piece when a lady smashed her head on it when it was on display at the art center. I guess that peice was doomed from the start.

USPS has, overall, done a great job of getting stuff to customers without problems. I have learned that filing insurance if a peice does come broken is a long drawn out ordeal and maybe not worth my time and effort. I may be better off not paying for it in the first place and also only sell stuff on-line that is more likely to get there intact. They did manage to lose the contents in one flat rate box and I did have to send another item. Fortunatly it was not too expensive.

I did ship a tiffany lamp to Scotland via USPS by encasing the thing in spray foam, the kind you use for sealing cracks. The customer had to cut it out of the hardened foam, but it did arrive unbroken!!! I did not breathe until it got there.

So what have I learned out of all this. I have learned not to create stained glass peices with glass sticking out in thin peices that are just asking to get broken. I have learned to tape the ends of a flat rate box. I have also learned that you win some and you lose some. It is just how it goes in the online world.

Finally made my 100th sale on etsy

It is official, I finally made my 100th sales on my etsy site last week. It seems to be a milestone for some folks so I am celebrating. I had started my site back in 2008 but had not really had time to post much or really work my online shop. John's health problems were front and center and took all my attention. This past fall I was able to start working the site better and most of those 100 sales have come since then.

Getting packing material has now become a big issue. I just refuse to buy anything. I am such an environmentalist that recycling old boxes and packing material has almost become a big game. The game is I post that I need stuff on facebook and with a few days my stock is full again.

Selling this much on etsy has meant that I have gotten to know the lady at the post office realy well. She is very helpful and it is fun to see her ever couple of days or so with a package or two to send. I just hope that she and I will be ready for the holidays!!!
 Butterfly Suncatcher

Custom Stained Glass Work Via Etsy

I just finished up a Tiffany Style Lamp for a customer who lives in Scotland. Doing custom work via Etsy has been an eye opener as to a different way of making sales that I have been used to. Doing custom work without ever meeting the customer has been a mixed bag. Communication problems can happen and I have wanted to make darn sure that both parties agreed on what was going to happen. I found that sending glass samples to the customer so they actually see the glass is a very good idea.

Packing and shipping custom work is an eye opener as well. The lady at the post office has gotten to know me on a first name basis and is very helpful as to the best ways to ship items. I am also finding that that spray foam like you use for filling up cracks is great too. I can wrap the items in plastic, put it in the box and then fill the box up with the foam. As long as the glass pieces does not move in the box we are good to go. Insurance and tracking is a must as well. I am not going to do all that work and then have the item broken and have to do the job all over again without the insurance money to pay for it. So far that has not happened, but you can't be too careful.

For the most part doing custom work via on-line has been a great experience. I have enjoyed making friends via facebook with several of my customers and have been able to take pictures so they can see the progress along the way. When they ooh and ah over the photos it make me feel good. I have also posted the photos on my facebook site so my family and friends can see what I am up to. Never want to miss a good opportunity to advertise!!

Finding Time For It All

Now that it is gardening time, I am finding it really hard to stay in the studio and get things done. Plants are calling, the sun is warming my face, and I would much rather be playing with plants then doing stained glass work. I have always been multifaceted and interested in many things, but sometime it gets overwhelming, especially this time of year.

I have always been good at keeping organized and operating from lists so I am really using them this time of year to stay on track. I make lists of what I need to get accomplished that day and try to stick to it as best as possible. I usually garden in the early morning before it gets too hot and then again in the evening when it cools off. Mid day takes me to the studio to get 3-5 hours in.

I often get asked ‘why don’t you just go to the store and buy your food and not bother taking all that time’. I have always tended to be one who wanted to live off the land and my little 6 acres ‘farm’ lets me do that. I have always been one to do things as environmentally friendly as possible and organic gardening, where I am putting up my own veggies for winter, is part of that way of life. I even have a pet chicken that lays eggs for me and keeps the bugs at bay.

So, here I am up at 5:00 a.m. listening to the first birds chirp, have my coffee, watching the chicken take her first pecks at the ground, and looking at my list for the day. I am longing for it to get light enough to go commune with nature. Ah, the good life!!

Cat

ETSYCOUPONS.COM

Just found information about a really cool site offered through Handmadeology. They have a new site called ETSYCOUPONS.COM  where etsy sellers can post their shop coupons codes. Up till now it was not easy to get the word out about your coupon codes unless you sent it out to each person who bought something or put the information on your shop home page. That meant people would have to find your shop first, then find out about the code. Contacting people who favorited your shop, past customers, and the like was prohibited, so very few people ever knew you even had a coupon code.

Now the coupon codes can be advertised through this site to draw new customers and increas sales. I have added my current coupon 'CATS15' to the site and will wait and see what happens. Should be interesting to see if sales increase!! I will check back and let you know how it goes!!

Learning how to market via the internet has been a new experience for me, but I seem to be doing well. Sales have been good lately and I have to think that all the work I did during February paid off. I learned when to list items on etsy, what tags seem to work best, started this blog, added many of my items to kaboodle, changes many of my photos to make the items really pop, and did every trick I found to get my name and website out there. Having an item show up on one of the top pages in a google search can be a real thrill.

Raising Money for Animal Rescue

I was cruising through etsy the other day and hit on a site where all the money earned went to a rescue group. Having been very involved in animal rescue in the past and knowing how hard it is to keep fund flowing, I decided to jump on board and do this idea to. Sooooo I started an etsy site called 'For Animal Rescue, where 100% of the profits go to the Cheatham County Animal Shelter. I just added a few of my own items today and will keep adding items I wish to donate as I have time. I plan on turning this in to a collective effort and get other artists to donate items as well.

My husband, John, and I had in the past volunteered as a foster parent , helped with events, etc. but with John now being handicapped, I thought this would be a way to still stay active in the rescue world but not be overwhelmed with caring for a dog or cat. I may get back into that later, but for now 'For Animal Rescue' will be my volunteer effort.

Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/foranimalrescue?ref=pr_shop to see what is for sale. There are a few items now, but check back from time to time to see what has been donated!!

Cat Carter