After questioning and worrying about everything and anything in March I decided to concentrate on my art, working on it 7 days a week. I found solace in the routine of going into my little room where I paint, do lino and all of the behind the scene things like social media, packaging, pricing, photographing. I took my Etsy shop listings from under 25 to nearly 170 items. At the same time my creativity just seemed to go into overdrive, ideas of what I wanted to create and in what style, it didn't matter that potentially no one would see it bar those that follow me on social media or look at my Etsy shop, I just wanted to create and it was an escape from everything else. It got to the point where I felt annoyed with myself if I wasn't painting or thinking of a new lino, that I was almost slacking, which still hovers above me now.
I signed up for online courses which was really beneficial and enabled me to connect with people, which I will be continuing with until early next year and one of the courses meant I could speak to a mentor every few months, which has proved a great sounding board.
I used materials that I'd had for a decade plus, paper, card, paint, anything because you couldn't get your hands on things for quite a while and equally I wanted to keep costs to a minimum. It made me realise what I like and need to use to create my characters and what is just excess in a time when money is so limited. I've been trying to use recycled card and paper and compostable display bags for some time but I've also found that people were getting rid of things which I wouldn't have normally looked at but to save it going into the bin and being wasted, I've trialled it out and some have been a success, others not so much.
Taking part in online markets hasn't proved successful yet but I am still forging ahead with them because I think you connect with fellow traders who you might not have had the opportunity to do so before plus a whole new audience.
I am now also a proud member of the Vegan Traders Union and Pedddle.
Moving forward I am trying to still look for face to face events that I would feel comfortable attending this year but quite rightly, many are cancelling because they haven't got the capacity to socially distance. I will continue to try online markets, in fact I've got two this month and I'm really looking forward to setting up my stall on my bedroom chest of drawers (it saves lugging the ever increasing number of boxes I have for my stall down the stairs).
2020 was meant to be a big year, a special birthday, lots of events and exhibitions but it is turning into a year of experiments/trial and errors, tentative yeses to scaled down opportunities and I'm alright with that (well I am today!).