Has your Instagram follower growth fallen off a cliff? Has the new algorithm rendered you invisible to your current followers? Are your hashtags no longer bringing you new views? And have you blamed yourself, thinking that maybe your art is stale, your photos boring, your Stories irrelevant?   And have you tried many new improvements with little or no results, until self doubt starts to eat at your creativity like slugs in a garden? Me. Too.

I'm a chronic researcher. Another way to say that is I'm curious- maybe even a teeny bit nosy. I found plenty of helpful tips on Instagram Shadow Banning. I did the suggested fixes. It helped a bit. I began getting more likes per post, but my Follower growth was still sludgy. In my Notifications I could see an average of 25-30 new Followers a day. My growth should have gone up by 100 every 3-4 days. Yet I would not advance to the next 100 for weeks at a time. I reported the problem several times.

I discovered this website that tracks your daily followers. Alarm bells went off! On the same days that I was seeing new follower growth of 25-30 people, I was losing followers overall! My count was going down! A Google search for that problem led me to the lesser known issue of Instagram's Soft Block. Take note of #7 on that list! I found the best answers for why my follower count was stuck here. I still have not found out why my numbers were going down. But I did find out how to fix it- which is just as good! I asked my followers for help in this post.

And blessings flowed! I can never thank you all enough. You've saved me. My follower account has risen by even more per day than before my problem started. So here are all the things that I found helped:

1) I took a 3 day break from Instagram- no posts and no peeking.

2) I asked for help, and found out this is happening to many people. It didn't feel so personal then! I also shared insights and learned some new tips. 

3) I put hashtags in my title, not the comments. I am now experimenting with no hashtags. That might be my preference. I think no hashtags or just 1-2 are getting better results.

4) I am only checking IG 4X a day max. Checking too often now makes you look like a bot. So does replying to comments too quickly.

5) I found out that comments help posts show up. That's probably why giveaways work so well. I am now commenting on accounts who have helped me more rigorously. We can help each other!

Hope this helps you out. If you have other suggestions please leave them in the comments. I will try to reply to all questions, too. One thing I love about Instagram is that we can learn from and grow with each other. You are my creative support! Let me be yours once in awhile. Let's use Instagram to find more beauty and enchantment.

I make large batches of this applesauce several times a year, and each one disappears like a video on fast forward. It's simple, and you absolutely can't really mess it up.It's also very healthy. You can make it without the Grand Marnier, and use coconut sugar to make it paleo style. It's still good! The one essential is high quality apples. Organic apples are almost always more intense in flavor, and worth the splurge. I use a hand held blender stick but you can get great results in a food processor, making some batches very smooth and some slightly chunky, then mixing the 2. This gives a nice rustic texture. When using the blender stick, push the apple chunks towards the blade and be careful not to puree into a single baby food consistency. It tastes best when there are some chunks of apple, although no larger than pea size.

Ingredients:

6 sweet apples

3 tart apples

1t cinnamon

3/4 C sugar

1/4 C Grand Marnier

2 C apple juice or apple cider

2 T butter

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Peel and core apples, then cut into small chunks (about 1/2 " D) Put in a large 9 cup microwave safe bowl. My large flower bowls or large Arabesque bowls are the perfect size. Add cinnamon and sugar; stir to coat. Add Grand Marnier, apple juice, and butter cut into pats.

Microwave on Hi for 10 min. Remove and stir. If apples seem dry, add a bit more juice. Microwave another 10 minutes. Blend with a hand held stick blender or in batches in a food processor. Be sure to leave slightly chunky. Serve warm or cool. 

A fan is someone who derives great pleasure from what you do or make. They see and seek to understand the smallest details of what goes into your process and design. They watch the evolution of your work with enthusiasm. 

If you mention on social media that you are having a bad day, fans will console you with real feeling. If you are having a good day, they will celebrate with you. Nothing surprised me greater when I first started out than to see an actual fan base emerge. Studio artisans are, by nature, introverted souls who lead lives filled with great internal pleasure but sparse external flamboyance. We tend to think, "there's not a lot to see here, folks", even though that's not actually true.

As you may recall, I alternate my reclusive quiet with audiobooks. My current fav is outside my usual genre. It's in Sci Fi and Fantasy, titled Ready Player One. It's great fun, and exceptionally well written, but what essentially grabbed me is how it articulates perfectly what is means to be a fan. 

Like the book's protagonist, I grew up in an unstable and neglectful home. In the 50's, there were no video games, no internet, and much less access to movies and shows, but we did have books, art museums, some notable filmmakers. And by my teens, the bands of the sixties! The best bands of any generation before or after. My home life was a mere backdrop for my real life, which was rich in female heroines struggling to assert our own power, creatives breaking the mold of conformity, and artworks that challenged minds and kindled passions.

Fans are blessed with the ability to transcend one's singular and individual circumstances. We are nurtured and fed by authors and artists and musicians as much as from our families and friends. A buyer wants a well made, functional, attractive piece of pottery, as a gift or a splurge for oneself. Sometimes that buyer feels the exquisite balance, notices the well placed foot rim, or the astonishing smile of a hand formed owl, and a fan is born. That is who I am working for. 

If you are a fan, I get you! Me, too.

These listings will be stocked Tues, 9/27 @ 7pm EST

Preview 

Also watch for the Just Listed pieces;:noodle bowls, mugs,Birds Nest casserole, small poppies, large nesting bowl set, Arabesque nesting bowl set in Turquoise.

Just Listed 

I'm trying something new. This is a preview of the new work for you to see before it goes live. Remember that you must check out to complete a sale. Just putting something in a cart won't hold it, so make your selections quickly!

These will be available here when the Restock opens Wed. Hope you can make it!