Treasuring

In my last post I mentioned the Merseyside Etsy Team, which is a group on Etsy, open to anyone in the Merseyside area who sells, or even just buys, on Etsy. It's been a great way of keeping up with other artists and retailers in the local area, making connections, sharing new work, and passing on information about opportunities and events.

Fed up with the weather this week I've created a treasury full of Spring-y colour to will the winter away, and every single item in the list is drawn from members of the team, I hope you like it! 

A Year On My Own

It almost slipped by unnoticed but as I was walking to a client's house this morning I remembered that yesterday was an exact year since I was made redundant from my day job and forced to become a full time freelancer! It is in fact the first time since I graduated that I've gone a whole year without being on payroll somewhere and I have to say it feels pretty good. A lot of that has to do with being sat on the sofa in my lovely little flat, in a leafy suburb of South Liverpool, the cats on the balcony, the sun streaming through the windows and me devouring a packet of coconut macaroons. But the rest of the good feeling is to do with being my own boss and deriving my (small) income from purely creative work for the first time ever.

I'm not going to turn this post into some 'You can be a millionaire craftsperson just like me!' piece, beause I'm not, I don't think they exist, and I'm certainly not someone to be telling other people how to do anything (with this exception, I draw your attention to my current position on the sofa stuffing my face with macaroons; this is NOT how you increase sales or drive traffic to your website.)

Whoops.

I am just going to point out that my ability to do this has been made much easier by two things. One is my wonderful boyfriend who has a much more sensible job than me and so keeps us on the right side of the rent every month (thanks!). The other is the wealth of other small and independent businesses operating in Liverpool who provide opportunities for me, and other creatively minded people, to make a living from their practice. One of the virtues of being a relatively small city is that communities of like minded people, be it in craft, music, arts, theatre, food...etc. grow quite naturally and make everything seem much more achievable than they would if you were stuck out on your own trying to make it happen by yourself. And being such a small city word of mouth does a lot of the work for you, friends of friends of friends are an invaluable source of business!

So, just to finish I would like to thank, in no particular order, all the people and businesses who have kept me in baked coconut snacks for the past 365 days;

Open Culture

Made-Here

Really Now

Capstans Bazaar

Kirsty Doyle

Bluebird Tea Co

Craft Creative

Blank Note's Super Summer Fair

The Liverpool Craft and Design Show 

 Also the Merseyside Etsy Team for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all.

And finally anyone who has ever bought anything from me, ta!