Then, she tells herself to put down the mouse and get to work on her art. Because Bernard has a lot of crafting to do.
After all, she’s supporting herself as a full-time artist on Etsy, the online marketplace for artisans and crafters.
Alas, the lure of her online store, Yesterday’s Trash, is sometimes too much, she confessed to the Daily Dot.
“I end up going on the Internet and going, ‘Did somebody buy?’” she said. “‘Did somebody favorite something? Ooh, did someone favorite my shop? Did someone favorite an item? What item was it?’ You know.”
But really, who could blame her?
When your business is on the Internet, your customers live at the other end of a computer where they can’t be seen or heard.
Until they click and reveal themselves. And when they do—when they put a piece of her art in their Etsy treasury (the site’s user-created galleries), or “favorite” her page, or best of all, actually buy—it means a lot.
“We all want to be adored, really, when it comes down to it,” Bernard said. “Selling handmade goods is really selling a piece of ourselves.”
Fortunately for Bernard, most days, someone really does like her. A lot of someones. And that’s a good thing. So far, she’s sold 59 pieces of art and has 52 more items for sale.
They range from a $5 Coraline doll pattern (based on the heroine of the Neil Gaiman children’s tale) to a $350 Sideshow Conjoined Twins Light-up Assemblage, and a lot in between.
She also crafted a pair of $225 “ruby slippers” as an homage to the Wizard of Oz (which we highlighted in a recent roundup of Judy Garland memorabilia).
Bernard has always loved found objects and flea markets. She’s also loved working as a graphic designer and artist. But she spent the bulk of her professional life, she said, “being creative for everyone else.”
“My art became an outlet after hours in my free time. Eventually I started to do it a little bit more and I realized it was truly, truly what I wanted to be doing.”
So Bernard, 42, who lives in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, saved up a half a year’s salary, paid off her car and jumped. She said goodbye to her full-time graphics artist job one year ago, in June 2010, and opened shop four months later, in October.
She still does some craft shows and sells her items in local galleries and stores. She’s also doing a little freelance graphics work.
But mostly, she’s crafting and selling—and loving it.
There are tough times, of course—when business is slow or there’s too much of it all at once. Some days, she works for 14 hours.
But that’s all part of the experience: “When I get up and I get out of bed I’m saying to myself, ‘Woohoo, I’m making dolls today. I’m making jewelry or I’m painting clown faces.’”
“Even though I left behind security and a steady paycheck I know truly that this is what I was meant to do. Etsy has brought so many people to me already. It seems to be growing and my fans are growing and people who like my shop are growing.
“It’s a great place to be being self-employed and making handmade things. You know, it’s so much better than sitting behind a computer all day.”
Here is a gallery of her work.
