I wanted to write and let you know that I have been considering a few alternative ways of making the dolls available. This whole process has been evolving more or less by the requests of other people, and by my own limitations of course.
Back in the day, with so many questions of "when will the next doll be available" I resorted to timing. Letting people know when and where and how many. This system created a whole lot of crazyness. And attracted a whole lot of things and energies I did not handle very well. For one, creating dolls with some sort of deadline is very mind-numbing to me. It feels imposed, even though I am the one setting the deadline, and it feels so rushed, even though I gave myself plenty of time. I found myself fighting it every single time, and felt such a depletion and "loneliness" after it. Empty shelves were the result, and even though I should have been happy about it I had this odd feeling I couldn`t shake off. But I felt I was being mindful of other people's needs to know when my wares would be available and so I plugged along. It also brought something called
angeling. A group of people get together to try to buy a doll for someone else. This increases their chances of getting that doll, but it leaves other people (with no such friends) empty handed. While I was happy to see some of my dolls go to certain people that I knew had special feelings for them, at the same time it did not feel entirely right when I thought about those others who wanted the same doll and did not get her.
Then things kept escalating, and escalating, and there seemed to be more and more people complaining to me about not being able to
compete. I know it sounds odd to think that you are on some sort of competition to get a doll, when you actually have to pay for it. I just couldn`t wrap my brain around it and so at the end of last year I decided to list dolls whenever they were available. Without much further notice or heads up to anybody, anymore.
Now, this poses another set of questions, another set of things to deal with, and I am trying to work with it. I have been listing the dolls now on BigCartel and will keep Etsy for clothing items and PDF patterns. But, like so many times before, I have been getting requests for a raffle-style as well. It has taken me all this time to understand the process, to let go of my pre-conceived feelings about it, and to go along with it. I am not sure about this kind of business model, as I feel very weird being the one calling the shots. Choosing a number amongst people seems to be very bossy, but it seems to be the only possible way of allowing some of the dolls to go to those who cannot get them in the uploads.
So in a few days I will have the most charming little one, available here. This doll will be offered
Kismet style. I will post her photos here, and only
those who do not own a doll from me will get a chance at purchasing her. If there is some input, I will have to draw a number. I will leave the post for a few days to increase the chance of those who do not spend a lot of time on their computer, and will see how it goes. I hope this brings a smile to a few, and I also hope it becomes a well-oiled system and things run smoothly. I don`t want to run into
angeling in this sort of system. I hope everybody understands and plays along nicely. I wish you all a nice weekend and looking forward to spending some sewing time tomorrow, as the girls will spend one more weekend at Grandma`s. Hurray for loving grandparents!
