Back To The Beginning: Why I Really Started Selling Transferware

Two weeks ago today I had an amazing conversation with an Emmy and Peabody award winning  film maker who asked me how and why I began selling transferware.

I answered the question truthfully but later thought about the fact that right here, on my blog, I have intentionally avoided sharing with you all exactly what it was that lead me to dealing in English transferware.  It has bothered me ever since my first blog post and is something that I have constantly battled with inwardly: whether or not I wanted to share this part of my life.  I have told myself that my blog would be the one thing that I would always maintain as a positive in my life.  But the reality of life is that all of life is not positive.   The plain jane truth is that I've been afraid to let it all out because I am afraid of what you will think.  Perhaps a due result of my quietness in demeanor, my shyness in nature or my unfortunate lack of self confidence I have let my fear of "what people will think of me" keep me from doing so many things in life that I really want to do.   For goodness sake, it took me almost two years to work up the nerve to author a blog, and frankly I'd never have considered it at all had it not been for my sister-n-law, Monica, who writes professionally btw, make the suggestion to me.
Hmm, I just realized I can blame her if this all goes wrong.

I consider myself to be fairly creative and can only say, from my own feelings and experiences, that as a creative person there are times when I am confronted with an uncontrollable need to create...whether it be writing, decorating, cooking, tablescaping, etc.  Creating is something that I feel is innately instilled in me and it is a way in which I express myself without really having to say a word.   I have gone through times in my life where I literally  wake up in the wee hours of the night and know that I could not return to sleep but rather I had to write down what I was feeling or thinking or get up and begin a project.  I had to get out of me what was trapped inside of me, even if only to jot it down on paper never to be seen or shared anywhere, anytime.  That same feeling is what has been nudging me inwardly since my first blog post, regarding sharing my 'real' story here, so much so that I can't seem to shake the compelling urge to write this. 

In my very first blog post, nearly 3 years ago, I told you about how I started selling transferware and how I had made my first online purchase ever, which was a transferware piece, on Ebay.   I wrote that, by coincidence, the seller I bought from lived only a few miles away so I decided to pick up my purchase in person.  As soon as I saw her wonderful collection of Mason's Vista I didn't even want the piece I'd come for.  I wanted a collection that would rival hers.  What I chose not to mention in that post was the fact that at the time I bought that piece I had absolutely no business at all buying anything for myself.  Shawn and I were in the midst of losing our home to foreclosure and selling everything of material value we had to just to make ends meet.  We lived in a lovely English Tudor style home on a private road that was right off a major thoroughfare and were holding weekly garage sales selling things we could in order to try and stay in our home.   Though you all know Shawn mostly as a chef (how that came to be is another story), he was actually an incredibly successful entrepreneur with several business who had become a millionaire by the time he was 30 (that's also another story in itself!).  

 Ultimately we wound up losing my husbands businesses , our homes to foreclosure (ah ha you say... now you understand why we why we have lived in 7 different places in 10 years: foreclosure = bad credit = no home loan = rent a house), our cars, leaving the home we'd worked so hard to create and uprooting our kids not only from that home but from the private school we thought they would each attend from kindergarten to graduation.  Most of our 'friends' were parents of the kids our kids went to school with and when money was not to be had neither were friends.  They quit calling, and in turn quit inviting our kids over to play with their kids.  It was so difficult for me to lose my home, but seeing my kids lose their home and their friends was almost unbearable.  We became invisible to a lot of people real fast and learned that we didn't really have many friends at all.  We lost everything,  materially speaking, that we had and the past 10 years have been in much part spent living in recovery mode.  

The day I bought and picked up that transferware piece I'd purchased online I went home and began assessing what pieces I had in my small collection, including the one I'd just acquired, and started listing those pieces for sale online.  As they sold, I'd use the proceeds to either buy a piece of Vista that I wanted for myself, or moreover, to buy other pieces that I could turn around and sell for a small profit.  I was making bits of money here and there and was able to contribute a little to our families expenses.  I kept buying transferware and the more of it I bought and sold...well...the more of it I bought and sold.   That's when transferware became much more to me than a passion for collecting and decorating, it became a viable source of income for our family.  And...how fortunate that it was something I could do from home and be something that I was totally, totally into.  Seriously...how lucky am I to be able to say I LOVE my job???   My transferware business was completely unplanned, it has been a long and slow evolving process that just 'became'. It is a small business, but one that turned into our sole source of income for nearly two years. 

  As strange as it may sound, Transferware has been a true blessing in my life, and my families life in so many ways.  I am not able to secure a small business loan but  my plans are to continue to grow my business as I have been doing: slow and steady, all the while learning what I can about transferware.   Nearly three years ago I made a big move from selling on Ebay to selling solely on Etsy.  I began with approximately 300 pieces listed online and last Fall took that to about 1000.  Currently I am keeping my inventory at about 1100 unique items by almost daily listing items to my shop.  Etsy and blogging have been absolutely wonderful venues for me not only to sell the wares I offer but to pursue some of my creative interests, find like minded people (some of the most amazing people), and simply to share...share whatever it is on my mind or in my home... like I am so compelled to do today.

Now, all of this leads me to the big news I've been hinting at, and for those of you who were concerned that it was something bad...it is not.  It has to do with the phone call I mentioned in the first sentence, which was what really triggered in me the thoughts that I have kept placing on my minds back shelf for so long and which got the whole thought process going about where I came from before entering the blogosphere, the hardships my family has endured and about how my business has played a key role in where we are, where I am, who I am and who I still hope to become.

Tomorrow, I promise I'll finally share with you some details of my phone conversation with Beth Levison and my big news...exciting news!  It won't be a downer post, ok?

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy life to read this, or any of my posts, and for giving me a voice.


~ Nancy