eBay is killing the small seller. January 31, 2008

New fees, yay. They’re upping the ante on the final value fee, from 5.25% (plus more if you sell an item over $25), to 8.75% plus 3.5% over $25. I’m going to slowly phase out my eBay postings and switch more to Etsy and my website. I’ll be posting here when I have new specials and new items on Etsy, so make sure to subscribe if you’re a bidder/buyer! 🙂

Wish me luck with the sales change… things are slow enough right now that this change will be difficult, but I hope my buyers and bidders will follow me to the new venues 🙂

The future of TorchByNight?

A new blog-it from Flaming Hot asks what I think my beads will look like in 5 years. This is a difficult one to pin down for almost any artist! If I were thrust into the future and got a gander at my beads, what I’d HOPE to see is…

Finer details.

Less structure, more freedom.

Colors that inspire the buyer to create.

Shapes that are comfortable to wear and work with.

Quality, originality and heirloom worthiness.

What I won’t mention here is style. I’ve gone through many different styles already, and I still am pretty erratic with the designs. I am focused on no one particular genre of bead, though I do find myself working with bright colors more often than organics. I actually would love to have one defining style, but my personality is such that I don’t think that will ever be possible! I’m eclectic, and personally I think I’m pretty hard to deal with in person, and I think it’s because of that that my art is all over the spectrum. I love the details, and I hope one day my stringer work gets more defined and finer, and I hope to be able to express what’s in my head better in glass.

Let’s see… glass from this week! (I’d post some old pictures of glass to show you some progress, but my external drive is in the glass room and I’m too cold to get up 😀

On another future note, I’m phasing down my eBay sales. Separate blog to follow 😀