I’m curious, on average how much of your time does Folksy take up? My partner thought that this was going to be a hobby I think 
maybe akin to selling something on ebay? 
.. perhaps he was expecting a couple of hours a week? So, how much time people do you spend working on Folksy/websites? 
For myself, after general duties are done, taking into account that I have to take regular breaks because of disability this is almost turning into a full time job, or it appears too from his point of view… but as he’s at work, he doesn’t take into account my breaks… must say it’s causing tension, but then any changes in regular routines can do that. One of my problems is that when I get that buzz…well, that’s it I’m up and running till it’s finished…
I’ve been working full time since I started my journey in 2014, I joined Folksy late 2018, most days I work at least 12 hours a day.
My items take days to make so if I don’t put the hours in nothing would ever make it to the shelf. I would like to cut my hours down but unless I change what I make it probably won’t ever happen.
A lot of mine is sat hand sewing which is why I chose what I do as ill health/pain prevents me taking paid employment but I also spend a lot of time designing and doing all the other duties involved in running a business.
Hope you don’t mind me asking, why does your partner mind if he is at work?
Debby,I don’t mind you asking at all… he does shift work, so when he’s on early shift, I’m still sewing away or on the laptop or my phone. I think it’s the change that’s caused tension, I’m busy, I’m learning new skills especially with technology so am not as reliant on him as I once was and I’m thinking he’s feeling not needed maybe? My life is slowly changing and some people don’t like change. I’ve started my journey now though and after all the learning curves etc, I’m certainly not giving up 
You have made beautiful items!
Every day I spend an hour first thing, checking for sales, and doing new listings. Then I spend another hour or two painting and taking photos etc. All through the day I pop back to keep up to date on the challenge thread and going onto social media to show my work. I am a pensioner and a widow, so I have no particular commitments and time is basically my own ( although my daughter lives with me, so we do a lot of chatting)…
I also do psychic art and readings for people, so that also fills a lot of my day…
.Then last and very last on the agenda is housework..ha ha…
A couple of hours is spent listing new items depending on many I have.. I like to spread them out over a few days.. I like to keep current on social media..and I like joining in the monthly challenge.. I have no set time as my time is my own but I do love creating and looking for new ideas as in different techniques to use in our designs…
I think once your partner gets used to you having some independence back and you are in a new routine he will be happý for you and the tension will ease.
You have worked really hard at starting your business and taken so much on board in such a short time. Hopefully everything will get a bit easier now and you can enjoy your time creating and all of the hard work will pay off.
I find it impossible to sit and watch TV without doing something at the same time so I do a lot of sewing late at night and if I wasn’t sat working I would probably still be creating anyway. My days are split between designing, sewing, admin, etc but evenings are always used for sewing,
Every day, today an example had an order come in overnight for 14 cards. Had to get them out the stock room, wrap and pack, order collection and label tomorrow. Update accounts, I do those as I sell or buy something. This took about and hour. Sorted some design team scheduling projects for the rest of the month. Would normally work at creating every day but as been ill not done any of that since last Thursday. So maybe dabbling normally throughout the day.
Hi Jill,
As soon as I started temporary fulltime work I realised I would struggle to start, let alone keep up taking photos and listing on both Insta and here. But money was needed and now I’m trying to figure it all out again lol. I managed to get back onto fb and kinda link everything up (I think). I am finding it quite hard to organize myself and things get messy very quickly lol 
It’s actually nice to see what others do with their time so I know I’m on the right track, thank you! It makes a difference with confidence and motivation 
What a very good question! Over a week, I spend a minimum of 8- 12 hours painting, about 4 hours a week tending to my website and Folksy shop, probably 4 a week on social media, 2-3 hours on admin, 2-3 prepping for physical markets, 8 hours at the market itself. Plus time for packaging and going to the post office if I make an online sale, plus numerous hours sketching, photographing and researching new subjects for paintings.So yes, pretty much full time hours, but rarely full time pay. Thank goodness for my pension!
I have no idea how long I spend on jewellery stuff, be it admin, web, making, planning, craft fairs, online shops or anything else related but I know I spend more time on it than I ever did with any outside regular full time work I did before! I was gradually building up the jewellery business, doing courses, working full-time, craft fairs at weekends, supplying galleries, 2 online shops (admittedly not doing well with those) so I started reducing my hours so that eventually I was only doing 2 days in my regular job. Then one year, even that was too much as I’d booked too many autumn/Christmas craft fairs so I gave up my regular job entirely. That was 12 years ago. I love what I do, I’m past official retirement age now, I’m wonky in a few directions and hospital visits are getting a bit too frequent, but it gives me so much satisfaction and a reason to get up and get on with life. I have a dog who interrupts and stops me going too flat out - I can easily get carried away and not notice the day has gone if she didn’t. And the garden which needs attention as we grow lots of fruit & veg. My husband is retired so as Brenda says, housework is way down my list of priorities but he’s quite happy to help out there - he’ll iron and dust but he has to have something on the TV while he’s doing it, good job I’m not that particular! 
As well as actually being employed by Folksy part-time, my pottery business is very Folksy centric so I would say that anything to do with Folksy takes up a full working week and more!
I am usually in the studio every day of the week but I do try to stay out of it in the evenings (apart from in the run up to the silly season) as I find I can’t wind down properly to go to sleep.
Even if I treat myself to a day off - I know that I will still need to pop down the studio to finish something/ package something/ just tinker
ETA - my house is a tip!
Thank you everyone, I think one problem artists have is that when an idea goes ping!! The brain engages and the hands take over do you find that when you’re on a run time disappears? My brain goes into overdrive at night time and I try to put it off till tomorrow but I can’t.. I sit fidgeting and squirming… so glad I’m not alone in putting housework at the bottom either
My husband does most of the housework and I still manage to fill every minute with Bearlescent, I’m very particular or was in the house but as I can’t do it myself now I’ve learnt not to look so closely at the dust. I think the one thing we all have in common is that our craft businesses take a leading role in our lives whethe it’s physically creating or our minds working overtime with all the ideas and things we need to do. We are the only ones who can make it successful so it’s natural that we give everything we can to it. It’s quite refreshing to realise you’re not the only one and it’s all part of the process, there must be thousands of us all scribbling notes and making creations day and night.
I don’t spend anywhere near as much time on Folksy as I should if I’m honest, I do though paint, draw, sketch, every day, I got sadly disillusioned with trying to sell my work and I get bored really really fast, plus, because I have disc issues in my neck I can’t spend a lot of time bent over, so social media had to take a back seat too. I’ve now decided to just enjoy my ever evolving art, especially my recent work, because I can do that without bending my neck, my husband never sees me I’m either up in my studio, down the yard doing horse stuff or in the garden, he has just got used to me never being around much really.
Mine varies enormously and I guess it can depend on how you classify ‘Folksy time’. I can go several weeks doing nothing more than checking in and relisting as needed. But then I can go away for a day or even week, travelling most of the UK for things I wish to photograph.
Right now it feels like full time as I’m going through every listing and spending time working on my SEO. Taken me 4 days of on and off so far and I’m about 1/4 of the way there.
Jill @artisanhatscraftsstudio , I can so empathise with your initial post! When my husband retired a few years ago he then decided to do a year’s full time Masters degree ( in Japanese Studies!). I wasnt working and had wound down some of the things that had taken up my time (running a Toddler group for example) ready to spend more time going away and out and about as we had planned, but now I suddenly had a year to fill before that was going to happen. I decided to do something I had always wanted to do, design and make things, using the quantity of remnants of fabric and left over wool I had collected over many years, and with our daughter housebound with M.E., it seemed a good idea to donate all profit to an M.E. charity, as I was not specifically seeking to provide an income for us.. He thought this a great idea. Thus Samazama was born.
But now some years later, although he is always supportive in theory, I don’t think he really understands how much I enjoy it and want to keep on. And, like you, when I get an idea I just want to do it! My items take weeks to make sometimes, and whilst I can sit and handsew patchwork in an evening whilst we are watching TV together, I really need several uninterrupted hours when it comes to battling with the sewing machine to assemble items. The only time I can get that is on the day he plays golf. Likewise time to photograph and list, and do social media posts. There is never enough time on golf days to get it all done. And when we go away for little breaks, as we do frequently, I hate to keep shutting up shop, so if it is over 3 days we take my stock with me, which causes much humphing and muttering!
Liz de Boo, now there’s an 
idea! My partner will be reaching retirement in two years and I’m dreading it.. it will be here fast as time flies. Such a change of routine is going to difficult for us both but education might be a good idea for him. Alternatively I could always teach him to sew 
I think it is so sad when partners do not support what we do. I am so lucky with Lee. Last year he redecorated my craft room, chose the paint a pale pink, had a new carpet put down. Bought me new furniture and helped me empty in preparation. His words have always been ‘what makes you happy, a happy wife is a happy life’. He has his music room packed full of original 60’s vinyl, having spent the last 40 odd years collecting, record fairs, online etc. I never complain about the money he spends or the time spent sourcing records, cleaning and testing.
I do hope those with negativity can find a way to enjoy your passion.
PS We ‘retired’ very early in 2008 to get away from bullying of me at work. This gave me the time I had always needed to create and have never looked back. We had originally taken a redundancy package in 1990 & 92 from our main jobs. Work after that was just to keep active.
My husband loves that I’m out doing my own thing too, with Folksy he’s always been supportive, he’s the one who suggested setting up the shop, we’re also looking to move to somewhere I can have my very own separate art studio so I don’t have to worry about making a mess and if I asked he’d happily help me with anything, his favourite saying is the same as your husbands ‘happy wife, easy life’ seems to work for us.