This may be the hardest blog post I’ve ever written. I’ve agonized over this decision for many months now, but it’s time to share the news with all of you who have been my biggest supporters over the last 12+ years.
A Kintsugi Life is going out of business. (That sentence itself was incredibly difficult to write!) I’ve got a slow going-out-of-business planned, so I won’t disappear tomorrow, but the end is coming.
But why?
The reasons for this difficult decision are many. Demand for the things I make has dropped dramatically over the past few years, but the cost of doing business continues to rise.
The quality of the supplies I need keeps going down while the cost of them goes up and their availability drops. The new tariffs will only make that exponentially worse. At the same time, people are spending less and less as economic uncertainty rises.
The costs of having a website continue to rise in both expense and time required to try to stay in compliance with ever-shifting and increasing regulation worldwide.
Shipping costs continue to rise while people’s willingness to pay for shipping (either separately or included in the item price) has decreased dramatically.
These increased costs and decreased revenue not only make continuing economically challenging, but the need to add other work to supplement the declining income makes it hard to juggle everything.
Fortunately, my other Etsy business and my primary part-time job as a librarian are staying stable for now, and my two other part-time jobs are offering more opportunities to work, so my overall income is fine. I just don’t have the excess capacity to keep all the balls in the air anymore.
Since this business has the highest demands in terms of space and time required, is showing such a dramatic decline in demand, and involves the difficult challenge of making one-of-a-kind items, this is what needs to end to make space for everything else.
I’ve tried everything I can think of to turn things around or to stave this off, and while I could keep going to use up all my supplies, the reality is that it just doesn’t make sense to do so.
The slow plan
I still have lots of supplies and quite a few pieces in progress in a variety of stages. I’m hoping to finish up some of those that are in progress to use up at least a few more supplies that way, so that’s why I’ve planned a slow closeout to give myself time to do that.
In the meantime, everything in the shop is now on sale from 10-40% off. The discount is based on how long it’s been sitting on the shelf (so to speak). Older items are discounted more than newer ones. As I finish those in progress pieces I mentioned, they will be added at the 10% off level for now.
As the ones that are 40% off come up for renewal, they will be thrown away. The ones at lower discount levels will move up a level each time they are renewed (or possibly sooner, depending on how quickly things sell out).
I’m working on a plan to add some of my excess supplies at steep discounts for sale as well over the coming month, so keep an eye out for that. (And if you know anyone who uses the kind of supplies I do who might be interested in having these for their work, please send them my way! I’d hate for them to wind up in a landfill.)
At some point as things wind down, I’ll be deleting the A Kintsugi Life website (including the blog and resource pages), the associated social media accounts, and the newsletter. If there is content you want to save, please make sure you do so now! If you host any content yourself that links to my website, you will need to consider how to handle this. Contact me with specific questions, and we can explore moving specific content to another website of mine so that it’s still available.
No personal information (like email addresses for the newsletter) will be sold or shared in this close out process, so that’s not something to worry about.
Keep an eye out on social media (see links at the top of the page) or my newsletter for updates on the closeout sales!
Endings lead to beginnings
Even though I know this needs to happen, it’s still an incredibly sad moment for me. This business has been a source of healing and joy for over a decade and working with the art of kintsugi has been profoundly moving for me.
I’ve been so fortunate to come into contact with gracious and supportive readers and fabulous customers along the way. I’m immensely grateful for each and every one of you!
As sad as it is, though, I know that everything does end sooner or later, and that there is always a new beginning on the other side of every ending. So it will be in this case.
My new beginning may just be more space for my other four jobs and a personal life. It may be another new creative venture (since I just can’t seem to help myself). I don’t know yet and likely won’t know until after this closeout is done and I’ve had some time to rest.
I do have complete confidence that something good will emerge from this, so although it’s sad in the moment, I have faith that all will be well in the end.
Thank you for being here, and please let me know if you have any questions as things wind down here at A Kintsugi Life.
Want to check out the closeout sales? You can do that at A Kintsugi Life’s Etsy shop now!
Image created with a stock photo from a Canva subscription package.