There are some mental benefits to having been in business for a number of years. Especially being in retail. Things are not as surprising or as confusing as they used to be. You can actually start to see a sales pattern emerge. It might be a 5-year pattern that took 6 years to become clear to you, but nonetheless there are patterns.
One of the patterns that should have become more obvious early on is that the more creative the piece, the longer it takes to sell. Add to that, the more I absolutely LOVE it, the more Instagram loves it, the more the world LOVES it, the longer it sits.
It’s this crazy contradiction between what we admire and what we embrace. What makes you go “OOOOh I just love that!” VS. what you actually bring home.
I feel like I'm finally at peace with creating things people admire. Things that inspire. Things that make people want to try to create.
A plain white dresser may sell, but it rarely inspires. So a couple of times a year I must purge. Purge the glorious, the colorful, the boho, the crazy. Not because I'm moving to neutrals, (Oh heavens no!) just because they have had their moment and it’s time for new inspiration and new adventures.
So I marked down some of my favorites creations. These are not pieces that are less than. Quite the contrary. They are the heart of Tanglewood Works. I have a close relationship with every single one of them but I cannot keep them all. I created them, loved them, and now I am letting them go in order to create again, because after all, the fun part is the creating process.
So maybe this week, consider going wild. Consider taking a chance on some color.
