I'm a maker and also a seller of my dolls, and here is what I want to share about the selling part of my crafts. It's a quite sensitive topic for me I've wrapped my head around just recently despite of selling for years.

Would I make dolls if I didn't sell them? Definitely not as many as I've produced already. Where would I put over 600 dolls if nobody wanted them? I shared making of my first ever dolls on social media and sold to strangers right away, that set me on this path. Birds sing, dogs bark, I craft weird dolls. It's just my thing. I have no goal to "get my doll in every house" or "save the world with my dolls".

Would I choose making and selling dolls if it was purely about income? Hell no! But it's been 7 years and I'm not looking for what I should do with my life and how I should make money anymore. I don't see myself as a business owner. I am someone answering the calling and paying taxes from every sale. Long story, but a few keys to being able to do so isn't in being stellar seller, but having poor employment options where I live, growing food for the family, working on self-sufficiency, having no rent to pay, having a supportive partner, lack of social life, constantly working on keeping down the volume of advertising from every corner trying to convince me that I need what I don't need, not going on vacations etc.

There have been people who walked into my craft room (not a public space, but I sometimes accept visitors through friends) expecting that I will present my dolls to them trying to sell. I hate direct selling. I answer questions in person, but I want the dolls do the talking. I still feel quite uncomfortable always announcing about new and old available dolls on my social media and sharing links to where to get them. But that's a part of my job and I will do that here too. If I didn't sell, I probably wouldn't keep doing it or grow and develop in this craft. I've been trained well by Instagram algorithms to sell, seek attention, pretend to be authentic without telling the whole story... Sorry, I hope to leave that behind. I've left Instagram. I don't belong there.

In one of my too-low-sales-and-income periods (those happen, naturally) a friend asked why don't I use more shameless marketing. I could tell about my dolls as magical items. Many people who buy my dolls repeatedly swear they are alive, and special and truly help them, and they share these views on their social media, why can't I make it a part of my marketing? This is tricky. I hate consumerism, but I'm a seller of non-essential things. I hate seeing magical solutions sold to naïve people, but I talk about magic when I talk about my dolls because I draw inspiration from folklore, witchcraft, mythology, esoteric and occult world. All that together puts me in a quite uncomfortable position. I don't want to sell promises. I don't want to convince you that you need a doll. I don't sell magic. These dolls are NOT enchanted and I don't put spells on them. There is definitely a thought in each of them. In that sense, every piece of art made by a real human being is a spell that has received focussed energy, isn't it?

I also don't see people as walking wallets. I want to be clear about what you are getting from me. I'm over the Moon every time when someone has received my doll and sees in it more than I saw, feels more than I perceived and breathes life into it turning the doll into active participant in their lives.

Also, I don't think you should walk away if you don't like my price, but want my work. I don't subscribe to the idea that I can actually calculate the value of my work and I don't see it as an insult if someone wants my work but doesn't have a budget for it and offers less. I understand it. I'm always open for finding the price point where we can meet. I give discounts, I do barters, I organize giveaways on my Patreon for all members not just those, who can afford to pay. But doll sales is my main source of income and a source of joy. I still need money. I have expenses too.

I sell through my website SiltiCrafts.com and on Etsy. The prices in my Etsy shop are a bit higher than on my website because that's additional work and additional fees.

I don't want you to buy from me what you don't need. I don't want to lure anyone in. But if you feel it, I might have a doll for you or craft a custom-made one for you.

Poured my heart out. Thank you for reading it all!

Doll from my archive. She has found home long ago.