Hello!
It turns out there is a light at the end of this tunnel — that there may not be a second year of quarantine after all?! Yay! And in my daydreaming of life post-vaccine, I’m starting to make plans to reopen my Etsy shop! Yay!
…I have a lot of work to do to get ready…
With that being the case, I thought it would be fun (or at least interesting?) to go behind the scenes as I’m planning for a sort of re-launch of my Etsy shop!
Step one: Going through ALL my past work, and ALL my work from the last year to figure out what I want to include in my shop…The good news is that there is a lot of it. The bad news is that there is a lot of it. Admittedly in the past I had the approach of “is it finished? then list it!” which was…fine?… But now I’m being a bit more picky, and sort of curating everything into a more cohesive selection of prints. So figuring out that selection is step one! <<< I am here.
Step two: making prints! I have about twenty or so new illustrations that I actually need to turn into prints! It’s not too hard, but a little tedious to get everything scanned and/or formatted and sized. It’s always exciting to print new stuff, but it’s also pretty loud. Since I’m sharing the office with Mr. Husband, I’ll need to work in smaller batches, maybe even just nights and weekends. Not a big deal…If I really feel like multi-tasking, I could send art to the printer while I’m playing video games…hmmm…
Step three: I want to curate some of my older prints into mini-themed-bundles! I have a lot of recurring themes and color palettes, and I thought that would be a fun way to provide coordinated prints. And while I don’t normally do sales, since I try to keep everything fairly affordable anyway, these will probably be on like super-sale. Probably.
Step four: photographing my work. This is honestly my least favorite step, and definitely something I need to improve on. In the past I’ve done either cute staged props OR good lighting, not both. But I think both would be good? So, that will be…interesting! Currently I’m thinking of using some simple black and white props and frames, so the colorful prints really stand out. And I think I have a window picked out for solid natural light. I’m just going to have to be patient…and maybe take the glass out of my picture frames… because fighting with glare and reflections is no fun!
Step five: the (theoretically) super fun part — packing and shipping! Previously I was using (and spending too much money on) cardboard backing and plastic covers for all my prints. That’s a pretty traditional way to do it, so it worked for me too. However, I really really really want to move away from using so much plastic. Besides, when I order art, personally I never keep it in the plastic to display it anyway — I either hang it up on it’s own with like push pins or clips. Or I frame it. So, I’m hoping to figure out a way to package my prints in a way that protects them in storage and transit, without relying on plastic covers. Is this possible!? We’ll find out! …I’m also considering recycling cardboard for keeping mail sturdy (why was I not doing this before?!), and picking out some cute tissue paper and goodies for packing orders. In the past I was very focused on keeping the artwork safe, but now I want to make it a little more fun too. So, I’m really excited about this step!
I think that’s everything!? I suspect taking photos will be the longest and hardest part, but I also think I’ve got plenty of time. Right now, I’m hoping that I will be able open my Etsy shop back up by the end of May. So not super soon, but not that far off either! What is time anyway?! I will definitely be making announcements as we get closer, both with a special blog update here, as well as on Facebook and Instagram. Stay tuned!
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for my Etsy shop 2.0?! Want to share your exciting post-vaccine dreams?! Let me know in the comments below!
Summer Child Designs 