UNSCHEDULED: selling online

2010- my little brother Jared helps me set up a website and connected me to Etsy. However, I give birth two weeks later to my first kid. Life changes a little. I get busy with full time solo parenting and full time teaching and I sell whatever art I can muster hot off the press to mostly folks that (maybe) are, more than actually needing a new mug or painting for their home, (most likely?) wanting to help me out as a single mom and keep me on track to fulfilling some art dreams while I figure out the reboot on adult life. 

Selfie taken in 2010.

10 years pass. I let the website drift into oblivion. NO Etsy sales ever happen. Not a single one. Every piece of art I seel is in person or word-of-mouth connections for commissions. Also for a big chunk, 2015-2020, I work out of a public studio that doesn’t allow artists to sell work that is made there. So that’s 5 years of gifting/donating to auctions. Very liberating from capitalism, but also puts a clamp on trying to at least pay for my clay habit.

2021- My older brother chats through my ideas/needs and gifts me my logos. A wonderful gift I will cherish.

2022-I start using one of the logos for my makers mark and the other for my business cards, etc.  The woman who created my makers mark, Natalia, is from Ukraine and when I go to post a grateful review, I get a response, “Please forgive me if I don’t respond immediately. I and my family are hiding in a bomb shelter with poor internet service”. (She has since relocated to Spain and is safe. My makers mark is very special to me as a reminder of how fragile our safety is. If you ever need a stainless steel stamp, please support her work on Etsy at StampsworksshopCo)

2021 to 2024-Make pottery out of a private community clay studio and sell it at pottery holiday sales using Square swiper and Venmo. It’s enough to cover cost of clay and studio dues.

Build back yard shed studio! 

Get business license! Register as a sole proprietor with the San Francisco Tax Collector and the California Department of Tax and Fee Information. I’m not hiring employees so I didn’t do the LLC.

Fall of 2024- buy rainamast.com domain again.  Start “designing” on Squarespace. A lot has changed since 2010 film processed into digital images at that photography studio. Making it is pretty easy and I quickly realize that I have to listen to my big brother and NOT use my cheap Android to take photos. (Luckily, to get started I had a bunch of nice shots from a lovely photo shoot with SF photographer friend of a friend Nichole Seguin-Morris, who thought our family sounded interesting and included us in her project in exchange for use of the photos.)

Feedback comes in little by little about typos. I also get some input on the need to document happy customers/patrons and realize I have no archive of things that have been sold and gone off into the sunset. I occasionally receive text messages from people happily showing me what they use my pottery for, but I need to be more organized. Do I need a Yelp review section?

Photo by Moni Mast of me with my new camera at a track meet.

2025: February- I get a real camera and start taking real photos of my pottery to sell online. I purchase as little background thingy and realize the dome in the studio provides lovely filtered light. I start to work on the shop part of the website. I learn some Photoshop/Lightroom new skills to make it look professional.

March, April 2025- While setting up website, and while my spouse is away in Las Vegas working for the month and I’m needed inside the home more, I get sidetracked with a sudden return of my love of blogging (i.e. new teacher lament circa 2005). Hyper-focused-stuck (is there a real word for that state?) in the journal feature of the new website, I spend too much time on the couch writing and editing.

Then, because I’m passionate about the journal concept, instead of just finishing the ceramics shop of the website, I create a whole side project with the kids around the family ethos of defying time (being late) and just enjoying life as it comes (being noncommittal). We design sweatshirts and I teach them how to go from concept to design to…print-on-demand?! :) 

May 10th, 2025- share soft launch with friends and family. Hone some font glitches and change landing page after receiving good feedback on things I’m too close and desensitized to see, like “I see a phillips head screw in the wall…” :)

May 20th,2025- realize that the Square swiper I use in person that is connected to my Squarespace account and says in pretty green letters “CONNECTED” does not process checkout for e commerce. Upon further inspection, I realize I need to set up accounts with Stripe and/or Paypal to process payments online. 

May 21st, 2025- set up appointment at my bank to create a business account so that Stripe and Paypal are separate from my personal accounts. Someone from the bank calls me and offers to set up the account over the phone to save me a trip to the bank. 

Friday, May 22nd, 2025 I proceed to send in the requested id documents, sign multiple docusigns, transfer initial funds and then… don’t get an email confirmation that all is well and account is set because the bank closes at 4 and I did this all between everything else on a busy school day. 

Memorial day weekend 2025- have a 3-day lowkey panic that I’ve been scammed and that someone has hacked the calendar feature at the bank and is pretending to set up business accounts using the bankers name, phone number, and email from provident. 

Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend 2025- I get an email saying I was denied a business credit card. Further panic!

Wednesday- I decide to go into my appointment at the bank (that surprise, surprise, I never cancelled), pretty sure that the bankers will know nothing of the transfer and account set up because I’m 80% sure I’ve been scammed despite Andy’s assurance I’m just being crazy. He gets to say I told you so, because in fact, they are real people, just bad at emailing on a Friday, and I have a real account, I just need to submit my teacher contract so I can get a credit card. I may also be crazy, but I will never set stuff like this over the phone to spare myself the paranoia! 

Friday, May 30- Today! Having successfully created a business checking, savings, and credit card (approved!), I am now able to set up Stripe and Paypal accounts to process payments. I also create an alternative business phone number so that customer service isn’t my personal number! Furthermore, I send out my first newsletter that I drafted in April when I thought I was almost up and running.

I’m bracing myself for the reality of shipping things. I’ve watched Florian Gatsby drown in bubble wrap and boxes when he does a big “drop” (sudden available stuff for sale all that the same time), so I’m just selling a few smaller things for now so that I can predict box size and get used to what this feels like. I’m not sure if I need to buy a labeler or usps scale? These are things beyond my imagination for now.

June 2025-As I wait for my credit card so that I can finalize my Paypal business account/venmo and buy a used laptop and some samples of the merch, I can catch my breath and see if any of this online business actually works.