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I sent those potholders off yesterday as part of a trade with knittydirtygirl, an old Etsy chat friend. They were the last ones. So ends an era.

I started making potholders years ago, when I was about 7. My mom used to make them when she was little and figured I would like to as well. Those are the woven kind, made on a square loom. We were buying loops to make them at a craft store/nursery. That closed but she wrote the address on the bag and we got the directly from the company. That was exciting.

I don't remember how or why, but I started selling them. I sold some to my mom and her friends. My grandmother acted as my broker to her friends in NYC. She would order a whole bunch and sell them for me. I think my biggest order was 10 sets. I would weave while watching TV, scrunching the loops down when they got tight. I had dreams of having a potholder-selling store, figuring out how I could sell a set to everyone in the world. Yeah, I didn't know how to dream small- I wanted world domination or bust.

I had a book of patterns. I named them, had style numbers and wrote down the colors I used, how many of each, the layout, if the laying was different from the weaving. I still have that book actually. The potholders above were made later and therefore aren't in the book.

I don't really remember why I stopped. I got involved with sports and after-school things and just didn't have time I guess. I picked it back up when I found Etsy. Surprisingly to me, they didn't sell as well as I would have liked.

So when I tell people that remember those days they smile and say, "I still have the potholders you made me. Do you still make them?" It warms my heart.

I was an entrepreneur of handmade things from the get-go. They were other things I made and sold along the way, popsicle stick frames, angel ornaments. Guess that explains why I can't give it up.

Time Travel

Something happened that changed my perspective. A question was posed on Etsy forums: If you didn't sell would you stop creating? Well, you may know of my business trials, but I haven't let that stop me. I've pushed myself and come up with new things. And I realized:

I'm thankful that I didn't sell like a house afire right from the get-go on Etsy. Looking back, a lot of those first things I listed and have since expired were not 'good'. They were well-made. But if I had stayed there, reproducing those as they sold, oh the things I'd have never discovered.

I made the switch to mostly macrame because I saw even then, back in 2006, that beaded jewelry was extremely popular. At that time Etsy only had about 25000 jewelry items. I wanted to stand out. I came up with the technique using wire. I started using colored threads. I played around with shapes, angles and lines.

I added wristlets on a whim, finding a piece of a jacket that I never finished. I tweaked that piece, making it bigger, wider. I cut up an old shirt of my mom's to line it, made up the pattern as I went along. I ended up keeping that 'first draft'. The ones listed now are much better.

The magnets were started when I found a doodle I'd drawn in my Bible. That 'first draft' as well, I kept. And the whole woodburning thing has spiraled into what could be an artform for me. Line art, handdrawn. It's me.

Would I have done this if I had sold like crazy right from the get-go? I don't think so. I wouldn't have had time. Instead, I've gone through the slumps and the funks, finding my style, creating a brand that reflects me: a person who loves lines, angles, shapes, colors and words, (courtesy of Sesame Street) reworking tradition, not going with the crowd.

There are ideas, yet, that I have to bring into reality. Some of them are burning a hole in my head, I think about them a lot, but haven't figured out all the logistics. Some of them are newer and exciting.

elpy has grown with me. How fitting that as I'm trying in non-business ways to get out on my own to a degree, I'm also looking to move elpy on to places beyond Etsy. I know it says that I started in 2006 and I've told people that. But it really feels like it was reborn this year, this summer. I'm thankful.

Post Picture: First item I sold on Etsy way back in March of '06.