In my 33 years of life, I have known many crafty women. Now, I don’t mean crafty as in manipulative soap opera type women who know what they want and who they have to step on to get it. I mean women who can do things with a glue gun, paint brush, scissors, or whatever material that I couldn’t dream of doing.
It started with my mother. When I was a kid, Mom sewed like a maniac. She sewed most of my clothes and many of my toys. Later, and now, she began painting portraits of people and animals as well as landscapes and, well, just about everything else. Her crafty gene worked itself into my sister who is a scrapbooking savant. She is constantly inspired and goes to conventions to stay on top of all the coolest scrapbooking….um….things.
The crafty gene missed me entirely. Give me a glue gun and I’ll glue my eye shut before I can create art. Give me a paint brush and I swear I will try to eat it. All of my friends are artists or musicians—they all do miraculous things that I can’t.
In the spirit of this female crafting envy I have, I’ve been visiting Etsy a lot lately. If you are a crafter and you aren’t familiar with Etsy, you'll want to be. Etsy is a place for crafters to sell their goods and make a living, and for those of us who love crafters to support them and get totally awesome, affordable, high quality, unique stuff that all our other friends envy.
But you don’t want to hear about Etsy from me, I can’t create anything—let me introduce you to some Etsy experts who have a lot to say about the place they love.
Anda Corrie- Anda is in charge of social networking for Etsy. She also works on the Community Team and she is Etsy’s staff illustrator so she draws all the illustrations you see on the many pages of Etsy.
June Jessie- June is not only an illustrator and toy designer but she also creates resin jewelry for her shop isewcute.She describes her store, "...sweet, fun, cute jewelry for teens on up from resin, cupcake candy sprinkles, & glitter…as well as unique accessories for crafty gals who love knitting, crocheting, & embroidery! If you want a unique hand embroidery pattern of a family member or favorite pet…then I’m the gal you’ve been looking for to make that happen! My passion is to make well loved items which will be treasured for years ...inspired by cartoons, toys, candy, pinups & more!"
Audrey Jill Mann- Audrey is an artist and interior designer. She has a home decor shop on Etsy called Audzipan Design. Her store has, "...all kinds of home decor. The style is clean, simple, and contemporary without being too modern."
Erin Keck- Erin is the owner of Artisan Adornments by sidhejewels. Erin uses both glass beads and Swarovski crystal to make jewelry. Her store has, "...handmade jewelry, mostly out of glass beads and Swarovski crystal. I try to keep the designs simple and choose materials that stand out on their own. Recently I've also gravitated toward more romantic, vintage looking pieces -- chandelier earrings and necklaces with extra chains and dangles seem to be in style right now, so I'm hoping to make more like that soon!"
How did you first hear about Etsy?
Anda: It was July 2005. My friend Nora came running into my apartment all a-flutter, babbling excitedly about some new website she had heard about on Craftster.org where you could sell your handmade stuff. As an artist and crafter, I thought it sounded like the answer to my enteprenueral prayers and signed up for an account then and there. I spent a year selling full-time on Etsy before I managed to convince Matt to hire me to work for them.
June: A crafty friend told me all about it & really pushed me to try it out!
Audrey: My sister, Azurerocket, showed me the site one year while I was shopping for my mom's birthday.
Erin: I think I ran across it couple of times when I was looking for beads, because people also sell crafting materials on there. But I wasn't sure what it was or how ordering worked, so I didn't pay much attention to it. I had been working on building up my jewelry inventory for a couple years but hadn't really considered selling it through Etsy until I was looking for jewelry to wear for my wedding and saw all the unique things that other people were selling there.
What draws you to work for and support Etsy (to the sellers I added, "instead of Ebay")?
Anda: It's addictive to be a part of Etsy, it's hard to resist. Every aspect of the site is so hopelessly appealing: participating in the handmade/DIY community, supporting small businesses and individual artists, the huge variety of work itself.
June: I’m only a buyer on Ebay… I prefer Etsy for selling my unique creations because it’s more specific to selling handmade, supplies, & vintage items… not selling just anything. Ebay fees are too high & I’m not crazy about their feedback setup where sellers are concerned. I'm a pretty big buyer on etsy too...I can find unique things there that just aren't available anywhere else!
Audrey: I really love the idea of a community where nothing is commercially made. Each item has its own personality, because the artist took individual time to work on the project. I also like to think that it creates an environment where it is easier to "make it" as an artist.
Erin: I actually tried selling my jewelry on Ebay first. It didn't go very well -- in fact, it seemed people were barely looking at my items. It seemed like there were just so much jewelry on Ebay, and a lot of it was low quality or priced really low because they were being sold from Asia, that my listings were just getting lost in the shuffle. After about a month of that, I moved everything over to Etsy and started getting a lot more interest in my jewelry, along with my first few sales. The big draw for me, and I think for shoppers, is that it's a site where you know everything is handmade and that someone personally made what you're seeing and is vouching for the quality of what you're getting. There's more of a connection and respect in transactions because buyers know they may be talking directly to the person who made what they want to buy, and sellers know they're talking to someone who appreciates their work. There's also a lot less "noise" because you don't have to sift through the same mass-produced items you might find while searching for something online. Plus, a lot of items are unique and one-of-a-kind, so it almost takes on the feeling of buying art, even if it's something functional.
Come back tomorrow to get these insiders' Etsy buying tips!
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Thanks to photographer Zela.