Welcome to the Studio!

What do you do when your car's in the shop? 📝 Business stuff, of course. Like everybody else, I've been grappling with rising materials costs (largely due to tariffs) for the better part of 2025, but platform fees are also going up this month, which pushed me over the edge to updating my pricing spreadsheet. Welcome....to the room where it happens. . I get asked fairly regularly why I don't have more inventory in my Etsy shop. It's partially because putting online listings together is a LOT of extra work (hours spent on photography, staging, editing, text, weights and measurements that get negated the instant it sells at a market) but it's also the fees. As I say in the video, I get about 45% of the list price on Etsy, vs. 82%-100% in person. And that doesn't count shipping costs or other fees specific to online sales. Once you factor in those, plus labor & material costs... well, it gets dire pretty fast. ( #freeshippingisntfree no matter what the algorithm says) . Let's be clear -- I'm grateful for each and every order, no matter how my customers pay, and in our increasingly cashless economy, platform fees are just part of doing business. But I feel strongly that art should be accessible to as many people as possible, so that's why I prioritize Etsy for orders that need to be shipped and keep most of my inventory available for in-person sales. . Thanks for coming to my TED Talk! 🥰 . #thanksforsupportinglocal #thanksforshoppingsmall #talesfromthestudio #marketprep

The thing about making custom gifts is that you have to keep the secret...at least until the big day. 🤫🎁 So I guess, spoiler alert? Anyway, like I said in the reel, thank you SO, SO MUCH to everyone who supported us this year. You're always incredible, but as the maker-verse fills up with more and more dropshippers and AI slop, your decision to buy human-made art becomes even more important. I'm endlessly grateful to my amazing customers (and CUSTOMers) who keep this crazy little dream afloat. Here's to another year of mixing dye, wax, and (occasionally unhinged) creativity for fun and profit. ♥️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍 . #talesfromthestudio #handmadeforgreendotdyes #humanmadeart #icedyemagic #dharmatradingco