Have you been to the Polka Dot Cottage shop lately? No? Well, neither has anybody else, myself included. I’m not feeling it anymore. The why’s of it are complicated, but I think it boils down to one fact more than others: I don’t make enough time to work with polymer anymore.
THE BACK STORY
The Polka Dot Cottage shop was literally built for my work in polymer clay. I wrote the code myself many years ago, and I organized it around color schemes and pattern types, and it was really, really perfect.
That is to say, it was perfect when all I did was polymer. It was perfect when I did polymer often, and kept it updated with new work every few months. With my growing interest in other forms of creative expression, I have tried to adapt the shop. I’ve added patchwork scarves from my sewing machine, and brightly-colored knit hats, but in doing so I feel I’ve lost my focus. And, let’s be honest, my interest.
THE DECISION
It’s not working for me anymore. I feel like this entire website has started to get rather complicated, and I crave simplicity.
And so I’ve come to the decision to close the shop in its current form.
That’s not to say that I won’t be selling my work ever again. But I need a new strategy – one that fits how I work right now, is adaptable to change in the future, and is relatively simple in format.
The download shop will remain open.
The little amazon-powered book shop I curate will remain open.
Polka Dot Creations will remain open (although if you are an artsy person with strong desires to serve the polymer community, to house a significant collection of clay books and videos in your basement, and grow a niche business, email me and we’ll chat. I am open to entertaining any serious offers for the entire business, or just the contents of the store. Seriously. I told you I am craving simplicity…)
THE SALE
The Polka Dot Cottage Shop closes this Friday, and while we wait, I really want to have a big blowout sale to thank you for your support in the past, and celebrate this new shift for me. How does 50% off everything in the shop sound to you? Plus every order gets a free gift (I’ll choose something nice for you from the shop or from the pile of creations that I never got around to listing).
Please tell a friend. I’m not going to get all dramatic and claim “everything must go” but it would be nice to pass along as many pieces as possible to good homes before they disappear from the web and get shut away in my attic forever! (ok, maybe I will get a little bit dramatic.)
Thanks, everybody 🙂
Lisa, while I’m really sad you’re letting go of you shop, which I thought was one of the most beautiful and best thought out in the online world, I totally understand your feelings.
Thank you for all the great things you’ve given to us, and I’m looking forward to seeing your new strategy come to life!
Thank you, very sweet of you to say! I plan to go back to offering a small collection of my items for sale someday, when I figure out a simpler, more adaptable-to-my-creative-whims way to do it. Soon, I hope!
You are very talented and I think there is a point when you need to move on – you obvioulsy feel that now and I wish you lots of luck in whatever you choose tro do next – I will be waiting to see and hear about your inspiration.
Happy Week
Thanks, Ann. I can’t imagine that I’ll be giving up polymer, but I have to stop kidding myself that it’s my primary medium at this point! I’m looking forward to finding a solution that better honors the cyclical nature of my interests.
RT @lclarke522: Blogging: Going out of Business Sale http://t.co/rvEoKwB
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Just wanted to say thanks for my package! I just got home from vacation and it was sitting waiting for me. Alexis was just looking at everything and is so sad that the shop is closing. She wanted to look at your site “one last time” and I had to show her, it was no more. She said it won’t be the same anymore not being able to do her teacher gift Christmas shopping with you anymore, because her teachers always loved your jewelry and pens because they were so unique!
Aw, that’s so sweet of her to say! I’ve been giving it some thought, and I am nearly positive that I will have *some* kind of shop set up for Christmas time. And even if I don’t, drop me a line because I still have a nice collection of pens around here 🙂 The shop isn’t gone so much as redirected. I can turn it back on with the flick of a switch, if I need to.