Timetobeme's Blog

I have to admit I am a bit frustrated with all the  “advice ” out there. They are all so full of hope and enthusiasm but what are they really saying ?

Follow your bliss, do what you love, find your passion, and so on.

I love making  jewelry, I am enthralled with beads. Love them. Love creating and pretty much everyone that looks at my stuff says I do nice work and they think I am good at designing and making pretty, good quality pieces.

That said, I can’t sell it. I have had it on Artfire, Etsy, and now YARDSELLR and one piece on another selling site, and in a stall in a store,  nothing. I have sold a few pieces in several years, other then to friends, I have sold probably ten or twelve pieces in the last year or two , including some special orders, to friends. Some have bought several pieces , but that is it No store or online sales . I get lots of views, hundreds, but despite being competitive with my prices, despite being told how lovely my stuff is, I just do not sell it.

I have been designing and creating jewelry for over twenty years and at what point do you step back and say, hmm, this is obviously not what I am supposed to do , or do you keep on trying because it is your passion and you love it ? The problem is, when you take a passion and try hard to make money at it and don’t, you start to lose the passion. So, now, no income from doing something you love, and you no longer love to do it.

So, I wish someone would really tell us how we are supposed to know what it is that we are supposed to do , and how we figure it out. How do we keep from losing our passion for that thing we love to do, when we work so hard, hundreds of  hours of labor and thousands of dollars over the years in materials, let alone putting your heart and soul into your work ,  and you are not getting anywhere ?  It is sad to lose your passion for something because you tried to make it your life work, but it did not work ?

So, I am not sure what to do. It is all on hold while we move but I am at a lost as to whether or not I want to have a studio or not at the new place  ? I am tired of tyring so hard, knowing how much work and love and time went in to my pieces and then seeing them just sit here month after month. When you create things, they are like children, you put yourself into them and then to have them sit unwanted hurts.

So my real issue is just  I am not sure how to find the answer to this question. I love to do other things to, but so far those have not succeeded either. We love yard sale shopping and thrift sale shopping and selling in an antique store, but when I end the six month contract this time,end of next month,  I doubt I will have even come close to breaking even, despite marking a bunch down and hoping it all sells, because even if it does, I will probably still not break even.  So, strike two on my list, lol !! We have tried this before and had about the same results. Did a bit better that time, but still when it was all said and done , we probably just barely broke even.

So, I guess I have to continue to search and find something else to love. Oh, I really do  love real estate, wanted to be an agent,  had to wait until the kids were grown to look into it, right about that time, they closed up all the local classes to become a realtor because of the economy. Several realtors I know have told me that it is not the time to get into it now. Another one bites the dust.

I also love to write and do have some projects I am working on, but I am not sure if that is what I am supposed to do either . I am starting to get a bit leary about it all. I do not want to kill my joy in that too by getting my hopes up about a future in writing.

Anyway, the point of this blog entry was just to vent. I wish all these people that make so much money by telling us this generic stuff, would actually give us some honest direction.

Lets face it , if doing what we love made all of us rich, there would be a lot of couch potato, chip eating millionaires out there, or thousands of people making millions playing games  and posting on facebook and poking  each other via facebook ,  yours truely included !!!

So, for now, I will just keep trying and for now maybe, pull back on the beads so I do not lose my passion completely. It will jsut be a great hobby and I will have one amazing jewelry box.

I would really love ot hear how others have found thier path and how they went about taking the first steps and figuring it all out.  I will never give up, but I am ready to find something I can work hard and get some success at !!  I think I have done enough stuff that has not worked !!!

Oh, and that entire believe in yourself, that is great, but others do have to believe in your vision too, or they do not buy what you are selling.  There has to be a balance somewhere !! You can believe all you want but if no one wants what you are selling, it does not matter, but if you do not believe in yourself you will never get a good idea up and running either, so it is important, but you have to make sure you believe in the right thing. THAT is what I what to find out how to do ? It is all very  hard to figure out at this point !!