I am an artist. I love to create things. I love to see people fall in love and enjoy the things I make and it makes me happy and content to no end every time I sell a piece. But I am tired of people not stepping up. I am sick of hearing "Your stuff is beautiful, I would love to have a piece" or the ubiquitous "You are so talented, how do you do it?"
Now onto the rant part of things, If you really, really like my stuff...buy it! I pour every ounce of myself into every thing I do. And I know that times are hard and there is not a lot of extra cash floating around, so that is why I keep my prices low. I don't try to price match items on Etsy, and I don't sell things for a dollar, like on ebay. I cover my costs so that I can make just a little extra money to do things like oh, get my trucks fixed, or right now, pay for insane plumbing repairs. I also donate half of the money I manage to make from the shell casing jewelry.
Yep. I donate 50%.
So for anyone who has ever made and sold crafts, you know that part of pricing your items is also supposed to cover your time.
Yeah, that rarely happens.
And I cannot begin to tell you how many people say they want to get tattoo work done. And yet, not one has called to schedule an appointment. I realize that the fact that I have to have a day job to pay the regular bills does, in fact, affect the times that I can stay up way late or burn myself out working on a piece. I know the fact that I am not available when ever anyone has and extra $20 in their pockets, does effectively take me out of the running for those 'spur of the moment' tattoos.
I am almost done, but before I finish my little rant here, just remember that even the smallest purchase from an artist can mean the difference between driving on bald tires in the snow, and being able to keep their family safe.
With that being said, here is a shameless plug.
https://www.wepay.com/stores/price-of-freedom
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