September recap

Let’s look at what happened in September.

• Joined the Indie Sellers Guild
• Got a “new” embroidery machine
• The Kawaii Octopus freebie
• The Kawaii Sunflower freebie (early access)
• The Kawaii Toadstool, in sewing-machine form
• The Minecraft jack-o-Lantern charm freebie
• The Jumping Spider, expanded
• The Jumping Spider freebie, revised
• The 3d Pumpkin kit
• Pumpkin charms

I’ve been reviewing other folks’ Patreons and Ko-Fis and have come to the conclusion that I’m probably doing too much. Some people do a design every three months for their $5 tier! I’m not willing to go there, but I do need to keep a tighter curb on the level of my free designs. The pumpkin kit absolutely ate my lunch; it seemed very simple but it was so many pictures and steps. It’s still fairly simple to do - those steps are very repetitive - but in hindsight I should have kept the base pattern simpler, and left the variations for expansions.

So here’s the plan: I’m going to continue doing an ITH project every fourth-Friday for the $5 tier. Three months’ of designs will still be available for free. But not every month’s design will be a massive undertaking - which isn’t really a change. But I’m going to plan out my larger projects more carefully, so they fall one every three months. You’ll always have access to one no matter when you join.

And of course the second-Friday designs will continue; the Kawaii Sunflower will drop on the blog next month. I haven’t decided yet what will replace it in early access, but I have a couple of candidates.

I’ve also been poking around in Patreon; the fees are higher there but I feel like that platform has wider acceptance. I’ve been thinking about focusing that one on physical products, but it’s still in the brainstorming stage.

Got an opinion on the virtues of Ko-Fi over Patreon, or what you’d like to see in future designs? Hit me up in the comments below.