Progress on piecing this patchwork is slow, but that’s fine and exactly as it should be.
Sewing by hand creates plenty of thinking time. I’m currently thinking about where I live online. I have the blog here on WordPress, an online shop with Big Cartel, and a Teachable school for online courses, plus Instagram and Facebook. Big Cartel and Teachable are quite heavy on annual maintenance fees, and ideally I’d like as much as possible in one place to simplify things more. I’m basically a Luddite, so I will need to investigate the technical options for reducing or combining everything I have into fewer separate spaces.
At the same time I’m weighing up whether to create more online courses with Teachable, or whether to create some sort of exclusive subscriber-only content for sharing more process videos and techniques etc. That would probably mean setting up something like Patreon, which would result in even more online homes, unless there’s a way to do something like that here on WordPress.
I’m also considering whether to continue offering overseas shipping for physical goods like fabrics and threads. International shipping is very expensive, it can take several weeks to reach its destination, and there can be additional customs charges when it does arrive. I have no control at all over any of that, but fielding the questions and occasional complaint does take time and energy. Customs charges seem to be particularly prevalent in European countries since the UK, in its ill-informed judgement, decided to leave the EU.
The box of patchwork pieces is basically a box of separate thoughts, plans and ideas. I just need to join them together.
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I understand that you might be financially stretched and time poor but I personally would welcome lessons from you.
thanks so much for this. One of the things I’m considering is offering a 30 or 45 minute one-to-one session via Zoom or similar (if I can figure out how that would work). Still very much at the Thinking About It stage. But thank you for the vote of confidence 😊
The soothing act of hand sewing pairs well with those gorgeous neutrals. Beautiful and inspiring!
thanks so much. It’s such a restful thing to work with.
I am an even bigger Luddite when it comes to these things, but you might check out Substack.
thank you, yes I did have a look at Substack. It doesn’t seem to have much that WordPress hasn’t already got, but still keeping all options open.
it has the ability to have paid subscribers. that’s the big difference.
so, for instance, you could set your price at $5 a month and then have a yearly $50 fee and then a founders fee which is more, like $100 or $200 for the year.
oh and it allows subscriber only content.
ah, that’s helpful, thank you. I did a quick poll on Instagram and about 90% didn’t want exclusive subscriber-only content so I think I’ll probably focus on adding more courses to Teachable for now. It would be quite an upheaval to move everything on WordPress somewhere else too. Better the devil you know and all that, but will keep an open mind and a watching brief in the meantime.
personally, I don’t like substack even though I want to. I subscribe to one artist over there whose entire account is teaching.
I’m in the midst of changing my entire online existence to make it simpler and easier (luddite here as well) and I’m going back to having a blog here on WordPress. (nothing there yet, but that’s the goal.)
it’s all so complicated isn’t it… I’ve more or less concluded that I’ll probably stick with what I’ve got for now. Good luck with all your current upheaval. Look forward to seeing you in your new WordPress home.
A patchwork of thoughts, indeed!
stitching them together…
These look like Dupioni silk. Are they? So pretty!
there’s a mix here, some are dupion silk, some cotton, some linen and a few synthetics too