Etsy Seller Interview with Anna of MyMandarinDucky

How MyMandarinDucky got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Hello and welcome to the Mandarin Duck Shop! This shop has been around for over 10 years now, and it all started with simple jewellery made out of glass beads and metallic settings. Soon after that, I started working with Polymer clay, and I made quite a few jewellery pieces out of it. It didn't start selling very soon, though. I just kept making them and tried actual physical markets, but nothing really worked. My partner at the time had given me the idea of making a journal cover with polymer clay, so I made a few. They were very pretty, but nobody wanted to buy them even for £20 (British pounds). I kept posting about my art on my blog as well as on Facebook, and one day, when I felt totally desperate to quit and very frustrated, I wrote a post on Facebook, saying something like: "I've got my last £20 in the account, so here I am considering to either buy my last supply of clay or a rope and a soap to hang myself". I was never depressed, and it was more like a sarcastic joke thrown into the Universe out there. I guess I just wanted to finally be heard and noticed. And so one lady has written to me, named Jeannie Havel. She was from the US, and at the time she was the owner of PCpolyzine, an online magazine. She liked my art a lot, and she's been following me silently for quite some time. And so she was of the influential kind, and thus she has taken me into her circle of CLAY PEOPLE very rapidly. In a month or two, I was already known by a lot of famous clay artists out there. So the skill was there—hands, talent—but there was no connection to the elite. She helped me reach those people. I started exploring their art, getting compliments, and finally selling my first items. The connection between famous artists and sales was not there. Most of my sales started to come from random people on Etsy. I guess it all changed because my inner mood has changed. The items just started selling, as if some cork slowly started to fade away, just as if some energetic block started to fade away. Then I participated in a couple of competitions where I also won a few prizes. I can't remember when exactly, but in around 5–6 years since the very beginning, I have reached out to the Bored Panda website editors to ask them to write about me (something like that anyway). They always liked new themes to write about, and when they saw my art, they were glad to write about me. By that time, I had also been doing my free educational and creative YouTube videos for around 5 years. And so Bored Panda has helped me gain a lot of followers both on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Thousands of comments, followers, and custom orders for the year ahead. Money kept coming; I kept designing my own branded craft tools and selling art supplies, as well as PDF tutorials and my own art. And this is where the happy part ends.

Further on (this is for the editor of this post to decide if you want to publish it or not): so further on, I had a very heavy breakup with my fiance (7 years together), who was always the biggest inspiration for my art, always gave me wonderful ideas, and inspired me to move forward. I had to leave London as I couldn't afford to live there on my own, even with my business, which has actually dropped rapidly because of my stress. I had to move back to Latvia (my motherland) and start my life anew. With a mild depression, a fear of being single, and a whole new country, I spent a year roaming about Europe, searching for something, trying to fill in the empty gap with unsuccessful relationships, self-expression, trips, and watching around 150 movies about love. I cried litres of tears, literally...

But somehow I have managed to pull myself together, get happily married, move again to nearby Lithuania, buy a 125-year-old  house, adopt a 9-year-old cow, and open a new chapter of my book called LIFE! 3.5 years have passed since the wedding, but I still haven't made even one journal cover or piece of jewellery for sale. I painted a few artworks, though, and right now my shop is still rolling on inertia from five years ago. I've made it once, Big... publications in journals, books, newspapers, and blogs all over the world. Even a movie company once contacted me in order to ask me to make a special book artefact for their story (it never happened though, But still!).

So where am I now? We are at the end of building a new house next to an old cranky house I live now in on 0.38 ha of land. Upstairs in our new house, I have planned a spacious roof studio for my artwork. I have never had a desire to give up, but it seems like life has swirled me into the "adventure of living" so much that I have never had a chance to relax my mind to the point where inspiration would come to visit me. I was creative in my garden; I made an architectural project of my own new home and designs for every room; I have made a lot of other creative things; I studied Vastu, Ayurveda, and essential oils; but I haven't touched CLAY in 5 years!

Nevertheless, only now have I started to warm up to the idea of trying to make another journal, and it has stopped making me feel bad or guilty. I have understood that if I have to come out there in the World with something else, something new, It will have to be amazing. Otherwise, it is not worth it. The time has gone by; so many people have developed the skill of making journals, and they are now doing it better than me. So from one point, I have created a huge wave that so many people have decided to try, and now they have their own polymer clay businesses. On the other hand, they have outbeaten me so well that I should be proud of myself, as they are all my students, people I have managed to inspire, and I do know for sure that I have made a small change in the world of Art in my life and given hope to so many people, both my students and customers. Some of my journals really gave them hope for a new beginning (people who were fighting deadly diseases like anorexia, depression, loneliness, and creative blocks).

I don't feel that I want to do clay anymore, and I have written about it on my social platforms many times. But I want to create; I want to paint! Now I am developing a collection of my wooden animals with fairytale paintings on them. It takes time, but the idea is there. The whole life story can't be told in one short interview, and I don't want to appear as a weird depressive struggler. But I want people to know that artistic lives and stories of success do have their ups and downs and hiccups, and I am sure many successful people who have changed their artistic medium a few times during their lives can relate. I am now in this long, painful transition, which I have learned to respect. God has given talent; God has given inspiration; and if the need be, he can take it away. So every time I start a new artwork, I pray, "Dear Lord, please use me as your tool! Enter my hands and do whatever you feel is necessary right now for the World to see. I will just follow!" This is how a few of my current paintings came into being. You can see them in my shop.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

I do like my polymer clay tutorials. First of all, they do sell nicely, and secondly, this is something important for others, as this can help teach people, give them inspiration, and give them the skill necessary to make beautiful things. Many of my students and customers tried the tutorials, and no matter how little skill in clay they had, they still managed to complete the project from A to Z. It makes me very happy.

I also like my paintings, but for now they just don't sell yet.

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

As I said, I now have a long-term break from working on my shop, so it does run on inertia. Although, of course, when I paint something new, I post about it on all social media platforms, I take beautiful photos, and so on.

For now, on Social media, I show my life in the countryside and use my photography skills to keep my long-term followers interested and make them stay. Surprisingly, all 15K followers on Instagram and 20K followers on Facebook never abandoned me once I stopped posting. This makes me believe that they weren't there for my art only, but also because of who I am and what my soul can give to others. Art comes in many forms, not just crafting, but also photography, poetry, the art of speech, expressions, quotes, and other things I do.

Managing MyMandarinDucky

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

On Etsy, it was always just me. When I started producing my stamps, tools, and supplies, of course it was other companies I made orders from to stock up on my supplies.

The future of MyMandarinDucky 

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

I want my shop, my website, and my social media platforms, including YouTube, to continue, but as I am now, like a butterfly, going through my metamorphosis, I am expecting a change in the ways (styles, themes) I do art. I really don't have a strong business strategy anymore, but I do hope that it will all be revealed with time. Once I am inspired, things just happen. Besides, there are other creative plans we have as a family, such as having children. Who knows? Perhaps when that happens, the idea and emotional inspiration for my art can change drastically and completely. Before, I was worried that I was failing and that I would never get back to art again. But now I have figured out that I am in the middle of a long transformation, where I am learning new skills and new professions, developing a beautiful land plot with a small and cute house to live in,growing a substantial all-season vegetable garden, and trying to create a child, so a lot of creative energy now goes there. With time, when things might settle down a little bit more and energies will change, I might release the force never seen before out of my heart into the World. Only God knows.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

Many things can happen in the process, like failures, mistakes, successes, failures again, depressions, changes of artistic medium, etc. Life is not just a line; rather, it is a roller coaster. It goes up and gives you hope, joy, success, and financial freedom, but you never know when it can drop you down. It never happens just for the sake of happening. Changes like that happen for a reason. When we grow rapidly, we forget to grow. When we fall down and manage to get up and keep moving forward (in whatever way possible), we grow, we progress, and we change into someone new. Financial and artistic success is good, but succeeding as a soul and leaving a strong imprint in the hearts of others is more important. My example shows that ups and downs are guaranteed. But even after 13 years in this business, I can't say It wasn't worth it. Every step I took in my life was worth it. It led me to who I am now. I definitely know I am a better person now than I was at 24, when I just began. Spirituality, kindness, tolerance, hope, inner strength no matter what, and love no matter what These are the most important things I have accumulated during my journey.

I am wishing everyone to have their own journey, and if there were one or a few suggestions I could give, they would be:

It doesn't really matter what you do, as long as you do it with love.

Find an unbreakable pillar and keep holding on to it. Then you will never fail. It is up to you to decide what this pillar will be. For me, it's God, Love, and Hope.

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: Now it is just a few hundred pounds or less. In my greatest years, it could be up to 2000–4000 British Pounds monthly.