Just a Day In the Life of this Artisan

This week I thought I might write a little something about what a typical day in the life of a crafter or artisan is like.

For those who don't know us, let me make an introduction. We are John and Tracy Seekins and we run a little shop called Jinxy's Fine Gifts on Etsy. I design and create all of our jewelry. John creates all of the paintings and sculpture within our shop. I have also self published a poetry book of my writing that I sell on Etsy as well. "Poems for the Soul".

John and I are full time RVers. This means we live in our camper at various campgrounds. We travel with our youngest son, who is 15, and we homeschool him.

Typically our days start late and run into the wee hours of the morning. We have always been night owls and the nice thing about this lifestyle and this business is that we can keep what hours we like.

Generally we are up by about 10am. Our son gets up a little earlier and since this is summer he is only working on artistic pursuits that he enjoys. Since he is up first he usually makes coffee. When we arise, John goes out and spends an hour relaxing at the table and drinking his coffee. Just allowing himself to fully wake for the day.

I however can't wait to check my email and website. So I usually get right up and get on the computer. I check my email and the website to make sure there is nothing pressing I need to deal with.

Then I drop into the forums on etsy and post in any that strike my fancy. This is what I consider to be my morning promotion time. I spend at least an hour posting in the forums.

After that I take a break for lunch and creative time. I might create a couple new pairs of earrings or a necklace. By this time John is well into a painting or sculpture and in his "do not disturb" mode. Not that you could get his attention if you tried. John gets very into his art and loses the world around.

After lunch and creative time I usually head outdoors with my backgrounds and any items that need to be photographed for the site. I try to do this quickly because of the heat but it usually takes about an hour.

After returning everything to the house, as I am usually sweating and hot, I grab a towel and my soaps and head for the shower. This always makes me feel so much better and is much needed after the hot work of taking pictures.

Now it's time to edit photos. This is probably the part I dislike the most. Every photo has to be checked for brightness and balance and then sized for upload. I have to pick out the 4 or 5 that I will use and get them into a file. This usually takes me another hour or two, depending on how many items had to be photographed.

Once everything is edited, it's time to list. Of course supper time is coming and I like to get everything done once I'm into this. So if I'm cooking I go to cook supper first. Fortunately John enjoys cooking and will often cook when he finishes his art work.

Listing can take another hour or so. Once I've listed everything I like to try and promote it a bit to get it some views. So off to the forums again for another hour of link dropping and chatting. Sometimes I even get sucked into a game of tag in the forums or some other such game. It's fun and it gets a lot of views for our shop.

Usually before bed, by the way I eat while I'm working so no I didn't forget, I try to drop into chat for a little while. Lately chat has really disliked me and tends to toss me out for no apparent reason but I still try to hang out for a little while.

This is a typical day. Of course there are days when I work on my off Etsy promotion or post to this blog. I have managed in the last 7 weeks to take at least 2 days off completely and enjoy my day.

I have to say that working from home is a lot of work, working online is a lot of work, and promoting is even more work. But I love it. I love creating, I love selling, and I love interacting on the Etsy community. I also love getting sales and hearing how people love our items. That makes all of this well worth it to me.