Ten Years of Persistence and €6 in Ads: How a Latvian Stone Artist Built a Global Audience Through Etsy

Who: Ronalds Jaunzems
What: Stone-carved mortars and pestles, flowerpots, wall decor, candle holders, candlesticks, symbolic table decor, garden stone flowers, sign stones, ritual stones and sculptures
Format: Physical product · based in Latvia, market mostly USA, English
Started: 2015
Audience: About 100–150 Etsy shop views per week
Payers: 82 orders
Promotion budget: Practically $0 – about €6 total over ten years
Income: Side income
Status: Active and growing
Channels: Text social media, video platforms

What worked: Nearly all sales come through Etsy's own search – he's spent about €6 on paid promotion in ten years
The result: 82 orders and 28 five-star reviews after ten years, with pieces shipped as far as the US, including one over 80 kg
The catch: No repeatable acquisition move to copy here – the growth came from the marketplace surfacing his work, not from anything he actively did to drive it

My roots in this field go very deep. I was not even born yet when my father had already become a professional and internationally well known sculptor.

I grew up in a sculptor’s workshop, surrounded by art, seeing the creative process every day and meeting other sculptors. I have been part of Latvia’s sculptural tradition for as long as I can remember.

I also graduated from the Art Academy myself, with an education in sculpture and design. Throughout my career, I have participated in international sculpture symposiums, which gave me the opportunity to meet artists from different countries and share experiences.

During my studies, I experimented with different materials, but after graduating I returned to natural materials – especially stone. That connection with stone felt natural to me, and it became the foundation of my own creative work.

But at some point, I had to find my own path. I have always been searching for something original, and I don’t spend much time looking at competitors or following what others are doing. I am not someone who approaches creativity from a market perspective – I look inward and try to discover something new within myself.

Alongside my connection with natural stone, near the end of my studies I became interested in turning techniques and metalworking. Since I graduated from the Design Department, I was fascinated by the lathe as a tool and by the possibilities it offered.

While searching for my own creative direction, these two worlds naturally came together: turning and the stone. This combination led to the creation of the stone lathe, a tool and a technique that had not existed before.

Before I started selling on Etsy, people were already coming to me in person to buy my products. For the first two customers, I asked them if they could purchase the items through Etsy instead. They were the first buyers of my Etsy shop, and I already knew them personally.

The first two customers were from Latvia, and I still remember that the very next order came from the United States. After that, my Etsy customers were mostly international buyers from outside my country who discovered my work online. That was the moment when I realized my creations could reach people far beyond my own country.

I have a fairly large audience on Facebook, but I believe that most of my sales come directly from Etsy – from people discovering my products through Etsy search.

The people who are actively looking for products on Etsy are also my customers. I don’t do anything special outside of Etsy to attract buyers or drive traffic to my shop. People find my work naturally through the Etsy platform itself. The people who see my work on Facebook are mostly local followers. Those customers usually contact me directly and personally rather than buying through Etsy.

I only used paid Etsy advertising once, for a few listings. In all these years, I have spent around six euros on advertising in total – and that is it.

I have never tried to force my business or push sales aggressively. I am not naturally someone who approaches creativity through calculations and marketing strategies. My focus has always been on creating something meaningful.

At one point, I decided to add larger works from my portfolio to my Etsy shop. I listed pieces that I had already created, set higher prices, and honestly, I didn’t even know exactly how much it would cost to ship them to the other side of the world or to another continent.

But it worked in a different way than I expected. People started to view my Etsy shop not only as a place to buy products, but also as a gallery or exhibition space – a place where they could see what I am capable of and what kind of work I create.

Even if they don’t purchase those larger pieces, they get an understanding of my artistic level and my approach. There have been cases where I have shipped very large works overseas – including shipments to the United States weighing more than 80 kilograms.

Even though I am an artist, I also wanted to understand the business side of things. Early in my Etsy journey, when I didn’t have many sales yet and the shop had not built enough trust, I decided to try a more traditional business strategy – I lowered the price of a product set and created a discount, the way many stores do.

Looking back, I realized that this approach was not really right for me. In general, I have wonderful customers. They are thoughtful, respectful, and the communication with them is always very pleasant.

However, after lowering the price, I had one customer who was quite demanding. The shipment was still on its way, and he became impatient and wrote that he was angry because he had not received it yet. Fortunately, the package arrived on time, and everything ended well.

That experience taught me something important: I should not lower my prices casually. The value of my work, the quality of the materials, and the relationship with my customers are more important than simply competing through discounts.

Instead of lowering my prices, I prefer to give a gift to a customer when we have had a good, friendly, and meaningful conversation. I value the personal connection that develops through communication with my customers, and I believe that a thoughtful gift creates a much stronger relationship than a simple discount.

At one point, a colleague called me and said that she was looking at my Etsy shop and noticed that my stars had disappeared. At first, I didn’t understand what had happened. I wondered if I had done something wrong or if there was some problem with my shop.

Later, I found out that it was simply because there had not been any purchases for a longer period of time. Once I received a new order, the stars returned automatically.

And that is how my five-star rating came back to my shop. It was a small reminder that activity and new customer experiences are an important part of how Etsy evaluates a shop.

Most of my audience comes from New York State in the United States. What I have learned from their interest and requests is that the function or practicality of an object is not always the most important thing.

People from New York like my unusual, creative, and sometimes a little crazy ideas – things that I create from stone. Many of these pieces do not have a practical purpose. They simply exist as unique objects with their own character.

Before, I was more focused on making things functional. I thought that usefulness was an important part of an object’s value. But my customers from New York changed my way of thinking. They showed me that an idea, creativity, and the feeling an object creates can be just as important as its function.

With the support and appreciation of my customers, I have slowly gained more confidence, courage, and freedom as an artist.

When people appreciate your work, you don’t feel the need to please everyone. You can create your own world and follow your own ideas. And when people on the other side of the world find your work interesting and valuable, it gives you the courage to become more and more free.

I like mixing different things, materials, time periods, and sizes. I hope that in the coming year I can approach my work more like jazz improvisation – freely experimenting, combining unexpected elements, and discovering new ideas along the way.

I carve mortars and pestles, flowerpots, candle holders, garden stone flowers, and sculptures from stone – often pieces with no practical purpose, existing simply as unique objects with their own character. My work is for people who value an idea and a feeling as much as function.

This video has 61,000 views. Check it out, it's very interesting!

Etsy: StoneDecoRJ
Instagram: ronalds_jaunzems
Website: stoneartworks.weebly.com
Facebook: ronalds.jaunzems

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