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Running a small business while having an art practice: fun or folly?
I started this new phase of my life which I like to call Full Time Tapestry Person almost four years ago now. Before that I was mostly Part Time Tapestry Artist and Whatever I do to Pay the Bills Person.
Of course once I quit that job with the benefit of a paycheck every two weeks and health insurance*, I had to figure out how to pay all the bills with income from something related to tapestry. Because no matter how crazy-pants it sounds, I was determined to focus all my time on tapestry.
Fortunately for me, I love teaching. Therapists, at least the good ones, are natural teachers. And before I became an occupational therapist, I got an undergraduate degree in music focusing on piano pedagogy. I wrote a preschool piano method as my undergraduate thesis and ran my own piano studio to help pay for graduate school. I suppose that was my first business.
I realized I loved teaching and so it was fairly obvious that I could try to support myself by teaching tapestry. After all, many sorts of fiber people make a living by teaching their craft. Workshops, conferences, private students: they all help keep the lights on.
The thing is, I'm an introvert.
A holiday obsession
I have a little holiday obsession going. I've been doing this for years now. One year I knitted endless elf stockings. And one of these years they're coming back. But this year it is still these little trees which sit on wine corks.
I'm not entirely sure where this comes from or why I haven't been able to stop. I only do this at Christmas time but I just keep knitting them even though Emily gives them away any chance she gets and really who needs this many little trees? I might need an intervention. I think somewhere in my head I think I'm going to make a whole forest. Hopefully I'm not ignoring the real forest outside my door.
The screen girl
I spend a lot of time on my computer. My business is all about tapestry weaving, but much of the work is done online, primarily teaching. I think I was born to be a teacher. I remember as kids my sister and I had a double-sided A-frame chalkboard and we'd play school with our friends and sometimes, I'd play with my stuffed animals if the real kids were tired of being "taught."
. . . .
The problem with spending so much time interacting with people online online is that it sets up an expectation for myself that is unrealistic. I have created a screen persona that doesn't always mesh with who the flesh-and-blood Rebecca is. In an online business, you have to use images, video, and text to sell yourself and so you strive to present a picture of who you are that isn't completely accurate. Of course I don't admit the things I really screwed up most of the time. I hope, as we all do, that people won't notice I made a mistake and they'll remember all the good work I did.
Courage
There are occasional days where I find myself curled up in a ball on the floor of my studio hoping things will be different when I finally prop myself back up emotionally enough to continue. This doesn't happen often, but yesterday was one of those days. I stepped backwards and tripped over my spinning wheel, landing in a pile of yarn and fleece (thank goodness for small mercies and the soft nature of my medium) and I lay there and cried. I wasn't hurt, just frustrated by how far behind I felt and by the mound of items on my to-do list that never get done.
I don't always know what causes these days where things feel so hard, but I'm noticing lately that many people are feeling the same way. This makes me feel like less of a loser for the struggle and it reminds me that we need to support each other when times feel tough.
"For goodness sake, smile! I just need a cute photo for Facebook!"
That wasn't exactly what I was expecting to hear two miles up a high-mountain Colorado trail on a late-August backpacking trip. I had seen this group of four children and a woman in the parking lot and the littlest guy, perhaps 4 years old, was a bit whiney. I thought they'd be back before I had my pack on.
But two miles up the trail at a spot offering a beautiful view of the Larimer River valley, I finally caught up with them. The woman was attempting to arrange these four children, the oldest of which appeared to be about 10, into a grouping for a photograph with the valley in the background. I could hear the little guy crying from a few hundred yards down the trail and as I rounded the bend, I heard her entreating the kids to stand still and smile so she could "get a good photograph for Facebook."
When the sun disappears
Eclipse.
A total eclipse of the sun is something I haven't seen before. Well, really I still haven't. We had 95% totality in northern Colorado. I had planned to drive to Wyoming to see the sun completely disappear and the planets come out, but we just returned from a long road trip last night and the Colorado Department of Transportation was warning of 8-12 hour traffic jams on I-25 this afternoon as everyone comes home from viewing. I wasn't up for it.
So the collage of images below is what I could see from my backyard.