Support me on Patreon
I have been pondering a dilemma for a very long time, and this weekend I have finally made a decision.
Since the day I created my first batch of Pokémon patterns back on an old Deviant Art account, I always swore that I would never charge for the patterns I make. Since then, so much has happened – I went from a hobbyist on Deviant Art to a blogger, creating my own website dedicated to these patterns. I braved social media, creating Facebook and Tumblr pages. What was a hobby now feels like a part time job. But I don’t mind – in fact, I love it. I find it so rewarding to see the projects that people have made for themselves and their loved ones – it makes me happy to know that my hard work is making other people happy.
As some of you know, recently I have been a victim of art theft. A certain E-bay user has been downloading my patterns and selling them. It made me incredibly angry, as people have paid good money for these patterns when I offer them for free, and the seller didn’t even attempt to ask my permission. But it also made me realise that people are willing to pay for my patterns. This was further reinforced when I had a very kind message from an Etsy member a few days later. Thank you Etsy member for your kind words, they meant so much to me.
Since then I have found it far more tempting idea, especially as the costs of my hosting increase, and my advertising campaigns bring in a maximum of $0-$0.03 a day. With the exchange rate for $ to £, there’s no way that advertising can cover the cost of hosting Birdie Stitching. My incredibly patient, supportive (and tolerant) fiancé has told me on more than one occasion that people would be happy to support me by paying for a pattern, but I made that promise to myself on day 1 and I can’t go back on it.
After a lot of thinking about this, I have decided to register on Patreon. In keeping with my promise, I will never charge for patterns, so I’m afraid that there will be no pattern rewards that are exclusive for supporters. I hope you understand my decision – I don’t want to exclude anyone who can’t afford to support me from a pattern, as otherwise I might as well be selling them.
Instead, my rewards will affect every visitor. Currently I only have enough time alongside work to add two rewards (I do work full time, often with overtime), but I hope to add to these in the future.
My $5 reward is the ability to request a pokémon.
My $10 reward is two for Tuesday – every Tuesday you will get 2 patterns uploaded, not one. This does mean that only one person needs to pledge $10 for an extra pattern to be uploaded to the website.
Thank you all so much for your ongoing support and kind words, especially recently. I appreciate every message I receive from you, although I don’t often get the time to reply to them. I hope that you understand my decision. To those of you who would like to support me, please follow the link below.
Thank you
