12/12/2022
It's with a heavy heart that I announce the liquidation of Glamberger Originals. I thought this would be my year. I bet on myself for the first time instead of pouring all of my energy into helping someone else's business succeed, and I lost. Big time. I've been doing this since April of 2018 and it's grown and shrunk and morphed many times, but the main principles and purpose were always the same. To make sustainability glamorous and to give myself freedom. But I'm not free, it hasn't been glamorous, and this year has been the worst financially since I began, in spite of all my efforts to produce better products. I vended at 3 markets this week. Woke up at 4am to schlep my merchandise back and forth to Manhattan in the rain and snow for what's usually my busy season hoping for sales to make up for the previous months of none. In total, at 3 markets, at which I spent a combined 24 hours, I made $425 minus fees and commuting costs of about $125. Today I spent my last $50 to get to my last market of the week, and only made a single sale of $30. As painful as that was, the most painful part was being largely ignored by customers, while those who did look at my things looked at the prices and walked away. I understand frugality, it's in my blood. But if you're looking for a bargain, don't look at handmade. I poured my heart and soul into every detail of everything I made, painstakingly measured, cut, measured again, sewed, ripped out any imperfect stitches and stitched them again, creating wearable functional works of art that I felt proud of. Then I packed them up and took them to markets to be rejected over and over for hours at a time in this soul crushing ritual. I'm exhausted by all of it, and yet I would continue to carry on if not pressed by the demands of keeping the lights on. But I've invested countless dollars and hours into a business that isn't supporting me and I've run out of time to keep trying to figure out what the world wants/needs and how to give it to them. Maybe this business will return as some other iteration, but for now, I have to sell my equipment to survive since my work has no value. Please shop small/local when you can. It matters.