Lately, I have not been feeling very creative.
Each time I have sat down in an attempt to start painting something, I've gotten back up after about 5 minutes and decided that I wanted to go do something else.
Meanwhile, I have been somewhat actively working on my other beachcombing business which seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance.
Last year, I started picking up a few pieces of driftwood here and there, as well as some interesting oyster shells and other seashells, as well as striped and unusual rocks. This has nothing to do with Alchemy Stones, except for the fact that it's the same trip down the beach that finds paintable stones that also allows me to pick these things up.
So I put these things up for sale on Etsy — at my "other" Etsy shop — and was surprised at how quickly there was interest and sales, and how within a matter of less than two weeks the little informational counters by each item on the seller back end of Etsy were telling me that several of these items are already in 20 shopping carts.
I suppose it can be partly explained by the fact that at least the driftwood is an "art supply" and not a finished product.
In comparison, I have currently 280 different painted Stones listed and maybe five or six of them are in one shopping cart. Kind of makes you feel like you're in the wrong field!
Not taking it to heart too much, though, because I do know that people really like the stones and that they sell really well when we go to outside events. All the same this latest trend does tell me that maybe trying online sales is barking up the wrong tree.
But enough about that!
In other news I got an email from the organizers of one of our big Christmas shows — that recently submitted am application for — that the December 2026 event had been approved! That is great news, because we do tend to do really well at this show, but perhaps not as great news because I will now have to pay the booth fee up front and we will be out that money until we can recoup it almost 8 months from now.
But that's just part of the game, and something you have to get used to.
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2026.04.28 AS-TXT-391/361