Postal strike, goodbye Etsy, hello Ko-fi

There has been so many surprises over the last year, I’m weary of them now. Another surprise is just how much Etsy makes off each sale.

Before the move, I was selling things so rapidly it wasn't easy to keep track of the hidden fees. I’d had my shop for years. I ignored the fees, figured they balanced out in the end. I was selling and paying bills after all, and that was the goal.

I moved locations, eventually reopened my Etsy shop, and had my first sale. One sale meant it was very easy to see how much Etsy took in fees. Every deduction from Etsy was just on that one solitary sale.

The sale was for one commission, for $30.00. Etsy says my current balance is only $22.74. Etsy pocketed $7.26 off that one sale!!!!!!!!!!!!

Etsy had a new tax added to Canadian sellers this year. That tax has made this not worth it to run the shop here anymore. I had another sale for a larger commission amount. Etsy took off $12.00. On two sales in my shop, Etsy has made $19.26. I hate it here. I discontinued that listing.

Really sad to close the shop for good. I am moving to Ko-fi. When I have it set up, I’ll be adding the link and swapping out the old Etsy one.

I took some screencaps of my 500+ reviews in Etsy. Once I delete the shop, I’ll lose all those reviews that I appreciate, and worked hard for. I decided I will add a review page on this site, just to host those screencaps. That's 5+ years of work just about to disappear. I can’t save every one, but grabbed about 15 screencaps at 2 reviews per cap, so about thirty reviews have been saved. Sigh- maybe I should go save some more.

I'm tired of constantly starting new.

I'm also leaving twitter and working on my Bluesky too. So much changing, causing me to feel very overwhelmed. I've stayed on twitter this long for the activist part- it's great for keeping track of local protests and locations. But even that is flooded with bots now.

I will miss twitter because my largest career opportunities came from twitter. Hoping to find some success elsewhere now.

I am SO greatful for a couple of individuals who have reached out and or helped in other ways without question. I hope to draw you something soon, once things settle down a bit. I am forever grateful for the bits of sunshine you’ve gifted me when things felt impossibly dark after losing Ronon.

Now onto the other bit of trying news. Canada Post is under strike right now. I am in support of Canada Post. They must stand up to the ogliarchs who would destroy it all for more profit. They deserve a living wage and safe working conditions.

I won't deny that it also affects my livelihood too right now. The ability to ship out physical art is my little edge I have on the freelance world. So not being able to ship custom art out in time for Christmas is a disaster, and I've had to rearrange my plans accordingly.

I wanted to do the wooden Christmas ornaments again, the gold paint and gouache hold up so beautifully after all these years.

These are all five years old.

But I’m not confident I can mail any ornaments out at all this season. So this idea has been shelved for now.

This is also why I'm making a move to Ko-Fi. Until I have a printer and until Canada Post ends the strike, I'm unable to send things through the mail. But I can still draw, so I'll do doodles for coffee. I can scan images with my camera, all is not lost. And I can absolutely reserve artwork until shipping resumes.

All this change, loss and traversing through uncharted territory has my neurodivergent ass just reeling. I feel like a living zombie. Selective mutism because I don't want to speak. I've spoken too much.

Don’t use acrylic paint on your face!

(I do because I will make art by any means necessary. I can't afford the proper costume makeup, so I improvise lol. Last year's Halloween costume.)