While the summer creative doldrums seem to linger around here, I have slowly taken to forcing myself to sit down and do something creative every day.
Actually painted this, yesterday!
Sometimes all I end up doing is just sit and stare at my paints and that blank stone, and sometimes all I do is a little bit of finishing work.
That said, I have slowly been starting in on a process/project I first wrote about back in the early spring, namely that I want to completely revamp my entire online store presentation.
I have mostly skirted the issue and procrastinated because it is a monumental task that will require going through every single listing I have (almost 300 stones across three sales platforms) and photographing them all again in a new format and then simplifying all the listings — leaving out a lot of the back stories which it seems pretty evident nobody cares about and nobody reads.
I got some unexpected encouragement and help from my wife, who stepped in and volnteered to take on a lot of the task... and I realized that part of my creative block has been with simply starting on a big project I don't feel enthusiastic about.
I looked back at my records for selling art, and in the "early days" I actually sold quite a lot online... and then it all pretty much stopped, and I need to recapture some of that. Even an extra $300-$400 a month would be really helpful!
Meanwhile, I've also been working on simplifying my record keeping, since a bunch of the things I set up my system to keep track of are practically never being used because there simply isn't the volume of business to warrant it.
Last time I wrote I mentioned the possibility of combining my beachcombing business with my painted stone business but I've decided to pass on that one, and instead try to develop the beachcombing business further with driftwood and other things I can find by going further afield.
After all, there are still lots of people (artists and craftpeople) out there who work with marine found objects... and I want to tap into that, but it is a separate business, and I want to keep it that way.
On the positive news front, I did finally make an online sale this past week and it is rather surprising how much even a modest sale $52.50 can boost a person’s self esteem. It was a poignant reminder that a lot of my reticence can likely be traced to the fact that it has all been feeling rather pointless, for a while.
So, one foot in front of the other, towards getting all the online sales listings updated!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2025.07.29 AS-TXT-335/305