Facts
Who: Xenia
What: Handmade mineral relief wall sculptures and textured wall panels
Format: Physical product · Worldwide (EU, US, Canada) · English and Spanish
Started: June 2025
Audience: 900 – Instagram followers, Etsy shop favourites, Pinterest saves
Payers: 200 – Etsy buyers and custom art clients
Promotion budget: up to ~$100 – around €60 a month on Etsy ads on average this year
Income: main income
Status: active and growing
Channels: search & AI traffic, video platforms, DMs & cold email
The short version
What worked: Etsy organic search, built on photos and videos that carry the texture – plus cold emails with a presentation catalog to interior design studios in Spain.
The result: Etsy search and ads bring 90% of sales; around 200 buyers and her main income within a year.
The catch: Almost everything rests on one marketplace and its algorithm, and every role – artist, production, marketing, packaging – is hers.
Background
I’ve had many different creative ventures in my life. By education I am a show director, but even as a student I was less interested in writing scripts than in crafting props, stage sets, costumes, working with my hands. Over the years I made and sold clothes, kids’ apparel, floral bouquets, leather goods, textured interior paintings. Later I worked as a show director and event organizer.
The ultimate turning point was my last job. I was working at a marketing agency where I truly wanted to grow. I was deeply passionate about the company and the brand. And then I was laid off. It was incredibly hard to process and accept.
That was the moment I realized I never want to work for someone else again – so I would never have to feel that pain of parting ways. I wanted to pour all my energy and passion into something of my own, something that would stay with me forever, where no one could ever fire me.
Thinking logically about what I genuinely love, I came back to wall decor. I painted a lot with oils in my childhood and always loved creating with my hands. I am deeply drawn to minimalism and the Wabi-Sabi aesthetic – simplicity, natural shades and materials, and the raw beauty of imperfection in every stroke and texture.
I spent a long time studying materials and experimenting. Today I am running a fully established studio, selling my handmade mineral relief sculptures, receiving enthusiastic feedback from interior designers and buyers, and continuing to grow.
Starting point
I started in June 2025. My first sale came about three months later, in late August, and it shipped to the USA – and it was not a wall piece at all, it was a decorative mineral bowl. At that point I didn’t have the budget for wood artboards and framing materials for wall sculptures, so I started experimenting with smaller objects and bowls. Once I reinvested those first earnings into materials, I moved to textured wall panels and relief sculptures, though two of the bowl models are still in the shop today.
After that first sale it took about another two months to reach my first ten sales, around November and December. Then came a quiet winter. Sales picked up again around March 2026, and the shop has been building steadily since. Only recently have I started taking orders outside Etsy as well.
My first clients came from organic Etsy search results.
What worked
Etsy has been my primary channel – Etsy search and Etsy ads together bring about 90% of sales. I focused heavily on organic growth. I spent a lot of time perfecting my photos and detailed videos to convey the tactile feel, texture and depth of the materials. Over time, as I added new pieces, organic search took off, early positive reviews started rolling in, and the shop grew steadily.
I never ran ads continuously. I would run them at €1 to €3 a day for two or three weeks at a time and then turn them off, either to test how organic was performing on its own or to manage expenses. €5 a day was the highest daily limit I ever set, and only recently. Across this year it averages out to about €60 a month.
The second thing was cold outreach to interior design studios. Once I defined my visual style and niche, I created a professional presentation catalog and started sending cold emails to interior design studios across Spain. Despite being cold outreach, it yielded a surprisingly high response rate – designers left very positive feedback and saved my contacts for future projects.
What didn't work
Balancing everything alone is tough. You are the artist, production, marketing, packaging and content creator, while also raising a child and managing family life. It’s hard to prioritize when money is tight and you need tools, materials or studio space.
Emotionally, it’s hard when you spend weeks testing materials, mixing plasters, building frames and perfecting a new piece expecting a “wow” reaction – and then get quiet views. Add unpredictable Etsy algorithms and cash flow gaps from returns, and doubts creep in.
What clearly doesn’t work for me is scattering energy across endless platforms with a random, mismatched product line. Trying to do everything, from pottery to frames to unrelated crafts in different styles, doesn’t build trust. But I never wanted to quit. Having built businesses before, I know growth comes in waves of highs and lows. If you keep pushing at the same point, things eventually click.
The turning point
The biggest turning point was validation from real, unbiased strangers. It’s one thing when your husband or mom says your artwork is beautiful, and completely different when professional interior designers from Madrid write back to your cold emails saying your work is fresh, stunning, and exactly what the market needs.
Combining those responses with my first organic sales and glowing reviews on Etsy gave me absolute confidence. No fixed salary at a job can compare to the feeling when someone buys your work simply because they love what you created with your own hands.
Audience
There are two. Private buyers who appreciate warm organic minimalism – people who love Japandi and Wabi-Sabi aesthetics, natural textures and calm interior accents, and who value handcrafting and unique pieces over mass-produced decor. And interior designers and decorators: B2B clients looking for tactile wall art for residential or commercial projects, for whom the differentiator is that I can create fully custom pieces, tailoring size, color palette and relief shape to their concept.
Understanding this matters for how you sell to each. Private buyers need high-quality visual content and clear photos to picture the piece in their home, while interior designers care about custom flexibility, reliability and direct professional cooperation.
Looking ahead
Over the next year my main focus is on growing direct B2B collaborations with interior designers and architects, creating fully custom pieces tailored to their projects and spaces. For me this is the most promising path. Alongside that I want to create cohesive collections unified by a single texture, story and concept, offering them as complete visual solutions rather than individual decor items. In my niche, success comes from narrow specialization, a defined style and strong visual discipline.
Practical takeaways
On a marketplace, the listing media is the growth lever. For work whose whole appeal is physical, photos and video that carry the texture are what organic search rewards – and what buyers who cannot touch the piece are actually buying.
The same product can be sold to a second audience with a different tool. A presentation catalog and cold email opened B2B design studios that marketplace search would never have delivered.
Run paid in short bursts, then switch it off. Stretches with ads off are the only cheap way to see what organic search is doing on its own, and they keep spend from turning into a standing cost.
DNKAdecor
Tactile, mineral-based wall sculptures made by hand for quiet, minimal interiors.
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