Milestones

I started my Medium blog (18+) with the intention of sharing my experience with topics I'm passionate about, including earth-based and alternative living, modern paganism and witchcraft (from the perspective of a green witch), neuroscience and psychology, and more.

I'd decided to open up an Etsy shop with the vision of selling digital and eco-friendly products. I'd never attempted to sell anything I'd made before, so this was a major transition for me. The biggest hurdle was the mental barrier in deciding to pursue this and just go for it.

The first digital product I decided to create was a witchy puzzle book designed for beginning witches to learn about the craft in a fun and educational way. I chose a puzzle book because I thought it would have a quick turnaround, but I ended up losing track of how many puzzles I made and spent more than three weeks on a 32-puzzle booklet. I had bit off more than I could chew at the time, and the release was delayed several times due to travel complications and other factors. But finally, in July of 2023, the puzzle book was finished and listed in the shop.

I was very fortunate to have friends and family who were willing to support the shop by purchasing the book on Etsy and Gumroad. Their engagement made it possible to have my first organic sale within the first week of opening the shop. I'd been visualizing that day since I first started working on that puzzle book and it was that moment that kept me pushing through all of the uncertainty that came with creating a product for the first time.

I had more success selling on Facebook Marketplace than I originally anticipated. I figured some items would take some time to sell and that the hardest part would be waiting for someone to respond to a listing I'd posted. But surprisingly that was never really the case. A couple items took some time to prepare to be sold - an old mixer and a massive lot of Barbie dolls/houses - but once they were online they sold rather quickly. I strive to be transparent in what I'm selling and offer items for what I feel is a fair value, and I think the results I've had so far reflect that. I'm looking forward to getting more involved with that platform, as I'm now selling my handmade products there while I build up an inventory for the markets.

This particular milestone is very important to me as it was a sign to me that I had "made it" in terms of setting up my business. I had a wild idea a couple years ago to sell miniature paintings on bottle caps and while it seemed quaint and silly at the time, something about it filled my heart with joy. I envisioned making one with a sunflower on it and I told myself that once I'd sold that piece, I'd know I had manifested that dream to come true. And this month, it did!

It wasn't as simple as just painting on a bottle cap and calling it a day. I realized there were a few hurdles to overcome with this project. I needed to protect the painting so it could be safely handled. And I realized that most magnets available in stores were not thick enough to allow a decent amount of space between the edge of the bottle cap and the magnet - they were too shallow and the metal would scrape against someone's fridge, eek! So it took a bit of time to work out those kinks but thankfully I developed a process that worked.

I'm looking forward to building my bottle cap collection and getting even better at micro painting. Some of the details on my current pieces were so small that the brushes I had on hand were too large, so I had to use a thumbtack or safety pin to paint them on. I recently bought a tiny detail brush, so we'll see how that changes things in the future. Looking forward to posting the results.

A special thank you to the folks who purchased my bottle caps that day. I ended up selling two of them before I could post them online, and one was that sunflower painting. I appreciate your support more than you know and hope to return the favor someday.