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Etsy Teams Digest: Local Teams Bonanza

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:56:00 -0000

With the Etsy Teams having just reached the milestone of having 10,000 members and over 250 Teams, you can imagine how much there is to report on! To make things a little more digestable, this month's Teams Digest is split into Local Teams and Global Teams. To get the scoop on Global Teams, check out the Global Teams Digest!

All the Teams have been busy bees, promoting their shops, their Teams and Etsy, this is just a short list of some of the Events and news bits from Local Etsy Teams:

Boston Handmade is one of Etsy's newest teams. Based in the Boston, MA area, Boston Handmade is a juried team and includes members located throughout the Commonwealth. To stay connected, the team has an active blog where all members contribute articles, photos, and announcements. The Boston Handmade blog is one location to find links to all team members' Etsy shops and personal blogs. This spring, members of Boston Handmade will be showing their handmade work in FOUR self-produced Artisan Fairs in Jamaica Plain, MA. This is the second season of the JP Artisan Fair, which is sponsored by JP Centre/South Main Streets and will be held during the neighborhood's monthly First Thursdays evenings of art, music, poetry, and outdoor performance. The dates of the Boston Handmade Artisan Fairs are Thursday, May 1, Thursday, June 5, Thursday, July 3, and Thursday, August 7, each evening from 6-8pm on the lawn of Curtis Hall located at 20 South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA.

Photo by MuchachaK of Boston Handmade on Flickr

After a long and painful process of reorganizing and regrouping, the Indiana Etsy Street Team can proudly say it has made it to 100+ members. "It was a long time coming," says Kim of The Peach Martini. "After a few months of existence, the IN Crowd imploded and many of the original members walked away. Now we've got a strong blend of new and old members and have completely reorganized the layout. It's great!" The IN Crowd is made up of artisans who call Indiana home — from the shores of Lake Michigan to the Kentucky border — it's easy to see there truly is more than corn in Indiana! Any Hoosier on Etsy is welcome to inquire about membership – all contact information can be found on The IN Crowd Team Page.

The Connecticut Etsy Street Team is proud to announce it's first craft event, Craftastic! It will be held on Sunday, April 13th from 10 am to 4 pm at The Space. The Space is a great alternative venue that deals primarily with indie bands and cultural events throughout the New Haven area community. The are located on 295 Treadwell Street in Hamden, CT. The team is offering free goodybags to the first 150 people through the door. Every single item within the bag was donated by individual Etsy sellers as well as members of the NewNew York and Connecticut Team! Music will be provided by Fusion Sound DJ. There is also an on site cafe and vintage shop! So please come down and show your support for the Connecticut Etsy Street Team! Live in CT and interested in joining this fab team? Just convo Ms.KittyFantastico for more details! This way you too can take part in more great up and coming events!

The Made In Vermont Etsy Street Team is a new team started on March 8, 2008. We already have over sixty members and welcome other Vermont Etsy shop owners to join us. We have a chat forum donated and made for us by two of our members. Our committee members are working hard on projects to benefit the team. We have a group blog where members have been busily posting. You can visit our blog at http://vermontetsystreetteam.blogspot.com.

Photo by Staceyrebecca of the Arizona Crafty Burrito Collective on Flickr

The Arizona Crafty Burrito Collective of Phoenix is a busy bunch over the next few weeks! They'll be participating in First Fridays in Downtown Phoenix. On Sunday, April 27, from 10-4, Paper Studio is hosting Etsy artists in a parking lot show/sale at 520 E. Southern, Tempe (across from Tempe Public Library). Meet loads of talented artists, shop local, buy handmade!

Chicago Style Crafters meets monthly at local hot spots to discuss promotional ideas, business opportunities, Etsy, crafting and all the latest craft gossip. Their website contains all the latest details about crafting in and around Chicago. We also maintain a calendar of events and deadlines related to Chicago crafting, and routinely post our newest projects on Flickr group, Etsy Illinois Street Teams. We hold crafting challenges that feature Chicago in design or function and will be having a field trip the first weekend of May to visit the Kane County Fair on a supply finding expedition. We are also considering caravaning to participate in Art vs. Craft as a group. We'd love to have enough members sign up that we can make a miniature, handmade version of Michigan Avenue in Milwaukee.

Photo by JDStar of the Oklahoma Team on Flickr

On Sunday, May 18th Etsy Dallas will kick off the summer season with a festive trunk show at the home of one of its members, Larry, a.k.a. the Kessler Craftsman. Etsy Dallas’ first annual Beer-B-Q will boast over 20 local artists and crafters selling their handmade goods. Shop for jewelry, stationery, photography, bags, hair accessories, glass art, soap and bodycare, clothing, home décor, and so much more! Customers will also be greeted with the delicious smell of grilled meats and veggies, cold beer on tap, soda, and live music — all free to the public! The first lucky 25 customers will receive a goodie bag chock full of promo items and coupons. Etsy Dallas will also offer a Make-&-Take booth for all ages. Customers can explore their creative side for free and experience first-hand the joy of the handmade way! All unused supplies will be donated to a local children’s charity. So bring your appetite, your creativity, and your support for local artists and crafters, and get ready for a day full of handmade food, music, and fun with Etsy Dallas!

Members from the SFetsy team will be selling their handmade wares at the upcoming Bazaar Bizarre that will be happening as part of the 2008 Maker Faire. The event will take place Saturday May 3rd & Sunday May 4th at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. The Maker Faire celebrates the DIY movement by exhibiting works made by creative people ranging from crafters to scientists. Etsy stores that will be participating in the faire are: mediumstomasses, nouveaumotley, scabbyrobot. Click here for info on the Bazaar Bizarre & the Maker Faire.

The Local Etsy Teams are doing such a brilliant job getting together and getting things done! There are all sorts of new Etsy Teams forming daily all over, so be sure to check the list of Etsy Teams to see if there are any where you live, and browse the Etsy Teams Blog Ring to stay up to date on all the Teams' events!

Mega-Beth Tour: Chicago Edition

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:31:00 -0000

Beth, who works on the Etsy Business Operations Team, is on the road with a slew of business trips for Etsy, and so she's meeting with Etsy sellers along the way and filling us in on her travels. Thus, we're calling it the Mega-Beth Tour, Beth's professionalism notwithstanding. Here's her latest installment...

Last weekend I headed out to Chicago for the Country Living Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference, an event attended by 600 women entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. Before the conference, I met up with a few Etsy sellers to hear their perspectives and get their ideas for the site.

Pictured: ButtonEnvy, thedarkcottage, Marstinia, BrianKennyChicago, Momomatic

This ambitious group got up early on a Saturday to meet me and we had a great time. I always love meeting sellers, but my favorite part is seeing all the cool things that they make up close — or even better, works in progress. Three of the sellers were wearing their own designs: ButtonEnvy was wearing one of her bracelet creations made from scrabble tiles (similiar to this bracelet in her shop), momomatic was wearing one of her rings, and marstinia was wearing these great pieces:

Thedarkcottage creates wood art, magnets and jewelry holders and BrianKennyChicago creates original cards and pop-ups (he showed me one of his prototypes and it is awesome.) You can also check out BrianKennyChicago today in the virtual labs: his shop is getting critiqued.

We discussed many, many topics, but here are some of the highlights:

Shipping – Shipping is always a hot topic when I visit sellers. Chicago is apparently at the extreme end of challenging for shipping. Buttonenvy mentioned, “I kiss it for luck and say please make it.” When we got to the topic of how we can make it better, some of the suggestions were to create a how-to on how to use PayPal to ship (comment below if we need to add more to these how-tos!) and adding a store policy section for shipping.

Enhanced Profiles – The group was very interested in showing their workspaces and seeing other sellers' studios in the profile section of shops. Another suggestion was pictures about what inspires the artist to make the items they well. We love these ideas, too. We are working towards making the profile section much more dynamic and customizable to help people learn more about you in the coming months.

Shop Critiques – “How in the world do you get one of those?” one person asked. I asked the lovely Mary (who organizes shop critiques) for her advice on how to get picked. One way is to volunteer to be critiqued by adding your name to this thread. You can also show up during the shop critiques in the Virtual Labs. If you can't make it for a Virtual Labs Session you can also check out past Shop Critique articles. You can keep on top of what's coming up by clicking the Shop Critiques "Featured Column" on the Storque.

Alchemy – In general, the group really liked Alchemy, particularly the request a custom item button in the shops. A few ideas popped up throughout the conversation. The first was to charge a small fee for each request to weed out the not serious requests, a sort of mini-deposit. If the person requesting the item accepted a bid, they could put the “deposit” toward the item. Another idea was a way to sort, by expiration or newly requested items.

Promotion – We talked a bit about how to promote your shop, including selecting business cards, joining Teams and sending free stuff or promotional material to very targeted viewers. One person in the group had great success sending customized items to bloggers, who then wrote about her. They were all excited about our new Cooperative Advertising campaign.

[Photo by Anna Griffin]

At the conference, I met many dynamic entrepreneurs, including many Etsy sellers. A few of the sellers I met include Vintage Scraps, follow your bliss, Red Otter and eeniemeenie, who jumped out of the audience to ask me a question, proclaiming to the entire audience she is an “Etsy whore” – meaning, of course, she spends lots and lots of time buying on the site. (The audience burst into sympathetic laughter.) Another woman I met, LeAnn aka luluology, took what she learned from the conference and went out and bought beautiful new business cards from paperandink. Now that is action!

I was also on a panel with Heather Bailey, fabric designer and well-known blogger who did a magnificent job capturing the day on her blog.

To top off the weekend, I got to experience Chicago’s St. Patrick’s day weekend, including seeing the Chicago River turn green. That is a serious St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Thanks to everyone in Chicago for a fantastic day and for sharing your thought about Etsy.

Etsy on Your TV. And Your Computer. And in Print.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:30:00 -0000

Update:
Try to tune into the segment on Rachael Ray tomorrow December 18th! Online Shopping Ideas.

Let’s start with an update. In case you missed it, you can catch the news segments featuring Etsy sellers katinkapinka and gorgeousredhead on KEYE 42 CBS in Austin, Texas. Also, take a gander at Anne Holman talking about crafting on WTTE FOX 28 in Columbus, Ohio. Great job ladies! Out on the west coast, EyePopArt is featured on the HGTV show That's Clever! which airs on Friday, December 14.

Regina Lewis, otherwise known as, “Your advisor to the best online” has caught the Etsy bug. Not only did she mention us in not one, not two, but three of her recent blog posts, but she also talked Etsy up on a recent episode of The Today Show, and again on The Rachael Ray Show which airs on December 18.

Moving on(line), the folks at Babble.com made some great choices for their holiday gift guides, featuring Etsians in the handmade, green, and stocking-stuffer categories. SF Station, a local guide site in San Francisco, mentions us among their favorite holiday shopping options too. And they always manage to find fun stuff over at Apartment Therapy NY and Los Angeles, this time it’s felted bowls and photography. Chicagoist featured interviews with wickedpen and Up in the Air Somewhere, and decor8 by Holly Becker rolls on with her Take Five Tuesdays.

And in the printed word, we’ll start with today’s mention in USA Today, followed by several mentions in the Philadelphia City Paper’s Holiday Gift Guides, and continue with a lovely piece in The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin. There is also a very cute baby wearing a pdxbeanies creation in the January issue of Parents magazine. Also, check out stonesoupjewelry in the Boston Globe. Looking northward, you’ll find a piece on Etsy in the Calgary Herald. Both of these also have a thing or two to say about the handmade pledge as well.

DIY Trunk Show, Chicago!

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:52:00 -0000

This Saturday in the windy city, head over to Pulaski Park to get a jump on your holiday shopping at the fourth annual DIY Trunk Show. Cinnamon Cooper and the Chicago Craft Mafia have assembled a stellar lineup with 96 of the finest indiecraft vendors the Midwest has to offer. This year's theme boasts, they're "taking craft to school" – and judging by the vendor list, we believe it.

This year's show will also feature a raffle to benefit Handmade Nation, a documentary by Faythe Levine about the indiecraft movement. Raffle tickets are just $1 each (or 6 for $5), and you get a chance to win some fabulous items donated by vendors at the event.

Here are the details:

When:
Saturday, November 17, 2007
10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Where:
Pulaski Park Auditorium
1419 W. Blackhawk
Chicago, IL 60622

How much:
Admission is free!

Check out www.diytrunkshow.com for more information!

Etsy In The Press: All Over the Place

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:30:00 -0000

Whew! With all the rave reviews lately about Etsy, I had to stop and take a breather before sitting down to write this.

It seems like everyone had something to say last week, from Woman’s Wear Daily Fast to Details online. Also chiming in were the folks at Metalsmith magazine, who had kind words for coreyackelmire and meganauman (as well as meganaumanhome).

Apparently the Windy City loves Etsy as well, with Chicagoist interviewing LePhotique, and Apartment Therapy: Chicago buzzing about jamtartbaby, JoanJewels, jenskelley, and gamiworks.

Last but not least, decor8 blogger Holly Becker has picked out more great artwork for another Domino slideshow. Her theme this time is animals. I suggest you start reading, as this may take a while.

P.S. The related items below are from the Domino slideshow mentioned above, as well as everyone who's mentioned here. Check 'em out!

Etsians Out and About in Chicago: Rockwell Crossing Artwalk

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:36:00 -0000

Beadoodles sent this event — The Rockwell Crossing Artwalk — into us at The Storque. She says many an Etsian will be there there, selling their fine artwork!

The crossing of Lincoln Square is one of the few places in Chicago where the “El-Tracks” meet street level. A quaint little part of Lincoln Square, the art walk takes place on a tree lined street with shops and restaurants. Make sure to mark your calendars to come out and show your support to the local artists of Chicago!

Details:
Date: Saturday, October 6th
Time: 10 a.m. -5 p.m.
Where: Rockwell Crossing, Lincoln Square- Chicago

Open Studio Tour: Circa Ceramics

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:03:00 -0000

Walking into the Circa Ceramics studio in north-side Chicago, I was overwhelmed with the urge to create. Lauren and I were in for a real treat on this studio tour. Although Andy and Nancy apologized profusely for the alleged messiness of their space, through my eyes it was exactly as a workspace should be: buzzing with energy, well-equipped, and clearly well-used. Their studio is brimming with drawings, clay, kilns, and ceramic pieces in all stages. I prefer to equate mess as evidence of a healthy, humming studio practice.

Circa Ceramics is a collaborative studio team composed of the warm and wonderful Nancy Pizarro and Andy Witt. This dynamic duo creates a delicious world of candy-colored ceramic dishware, magnets, tiles, tabs, and cylinders adorned with their signature decals. Their fun and functional decorated wares can be found in their Etsy shop and at craft fairs.

One of the most fascinating elements of visiting a studio is witnessing other makers’ creative processes and the behind-the-scenes secrets. Andy and Nancy were incredibly generous and open about sharing their process. They walked us through all the steps of how they make one of their mugs, from the production of a mug to surface decoration to firing.

Andy's focus in the team is to produce the pieces (mugs, bowls, cylinders) using a pottery wheel that he converted from an awkward kickwheel to smooth motorized wheel. The clay, either porcelain or earthenware, is pressed into one of their handmade molds and formed on the whirling wheel with the aid of a wooden template, which carves away a consistent interior. This process is repeated for every single piece of dishware that Circa Ceramics creates.

Nancy's focus in the pair is on the surface design of the pieces. She applies the glazes and decals to the wares. As an ardent fan of all things Gocco, I was particularly intrigued by their decaling process. The decals are created either by printing with overglaze through a Print Gocco screen, or by printing from a laser printer (which contains iron oxide in the toner), onto decal paper. Once the decal is ready, Nancy "floats" the paper backing off, leaving only the image adhered to the gelatin surface of the decal. The decal is then applied to the mug (or bowl or cylinder).

I left the Circa Ceramic studio longing to revel in a ceramics studio, getting messy and making stuff in this intensely hands-on, process-oriented medium. I am thoroughly motivated by this prolific pair, who are living proof of the possibility of making a living making things. Viva Circa Ceramics!

For more information on the wares and process of Circa Ceramics, visit:

http://circaceramics.etsy.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/circaceramics/

http://circaceramics.blogspot.com/

Silk-Screening Show Stoppers at Flatstock 13

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:48:00 -0000

I'm barreling my way through the muggy heat and cacophony of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago when I reach a seemingly serene group of tents in a corner of the park. On closer examination, brightly colored missiles, fluorescent lollipops, staggering zombies, and dangling tentacles greet my eye courtesy of the silk-screened posters created by the many artists that have gathered here to sell their work as part of the 13th Flatstock Poster Convention. A collaboration between the American Poster Institute (API), Gigposters.com and the Pitchfork Music Festival, Flatstock began in 2002 as a way to promote the work of silk-screen artists from across the world and takes place in several different cities (Austin, Seattle, Chicago and Berlin) throughout the year.

"You're bringing together all these different people from all over the country and all over the world who may be in their little podunk town doing silk-screening," said Geoff Peveto, President of API, commenting on the wide spectrum of artists on display. Stemming from the website Gigposters.com, a forum launched in 2001 where silk-screen artists could share posters and tips, Flatstock (a play on 'Woodstock' and the two dimensional quality of the posters) grew into an international festival. "Any time you get a big group of nerds together, you start having conventions," joked Jay Ryan, organizer of the Chicago Flatstock and owner of silk-screen design studio The Bird Machine. "Clayton Hayes started Gigposters and suddenly all these little communities found each other over a very short period of time."

Silk-screening, the stenciling process developed to paint designs and logos on t-shirts and advertisements, has seen a resurgence since the heyday of the 1960's, when screened rock posters touting the Grateful Dead and Santana at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco were part of the pop culture landscape. Close to 6,500 artists now list their silk-screened work on Gigposters.com with more adding their work each day. "It just kind of blew up," said Peveto. "There are poster artists from Israel posting stuff on Gigposters... Through this website we've all started networking."

John Solimine, owner of Spike Press, commented on finally meeting some of the Gigposters artists he communicated with online. "You get to know people's visual style very quickly, but you have no idea what they look like, so you get here and you're like, 'Oh! I know that guy!' and get to meet the person behind the art." Diana Sudyka, a co-collaborator of The Bird Machine offered this explanation of screenprinting’s social roots, "Print-making takes a lot of work. It's very physical and you're often working with other people, so it's collaborative. I think that spirit transfers itself to the community and the sort of support we have for one another." Billy Baumann of the Delicious Design League added, "There's a lot of little tips and tricks and stuff that you just absorb from talking to everybody in this community which is invaluable."

Posters advertising gigs for indie acts like the Decemberists and Animal Collective to rappers like Snoop and Rakim adorn the rows of tents lined with eager festival-goers. Ryan mused on the attention the convention was receiving, "It's an interesting time to be doing [silk-screening] because people are becoming much more aware of it. We've managed to build an audience. The people who come to this thing, for the most part, are an educated audience who understands that these are prints that are handmade in limited runs and that they're different from the Brittany Spears offset poster that you're gonna find at the mall."

The do-it-yourself approach includes not just the art, but also the process. When Mark Brickey of Hero Design Studio in Buffalo, NY bought a silk-screening press for his company, "None of us knew how to screen, so we taught ourselves, figured it out, started doing posters and it's been like, the best thing we ever did. We started really focusing on doing things for ourselves the way we wanted to do them and finding ourselves as artists along the way." Solimine had similar feelings. "I got into web design and that quickly got really sterile and antiseptic, just sitting in front of a computer all day... Doing this was great because you get your hands dirty and you're sweating and it's very visceral and tangible."

For most artists at Flatstock, the worlds of music and art often intersect. Many of the silk-screeners had been in a band or were currently in a band. "Someone says, 'Well the drummer can draw, he can make a poster.' And then the band breaks up but the drummer keeps making posters," said Ryan said over the roar of concert-goers in the distance. Dan Macadam, owner of Crosshair Studios and member of the band Arriver, chimed in with his own experience, "A lot of the people we've done posters for over the years are people who started out as being our friends and now some of them are in known bands."

Speaking with Ryan about the popularity of the posters he said, "You have to understand that some of these posters, to some degree, are sort of special as an object, as advertising ... for bands that are not on the cover of Rolling Stone all the time." For many of the artists, the the lines of accessible pop art and more expensive fine art continue to blur. Jeral Tidwell of Crackhead Press commented, "Just in my short career as a poster artist, posters that were on poles are now on eBay for like 100 bucks. It’s just insane how it works out."

Looking around at the hundreds of different styles and ideas layered on each poster, I wondered where inspiration struck for many of the artists. For Brickey, "The thing I was amazed at in this industry is that so many people who are designers are really, really creative ... and have a great vision for things. On my hunch, 90% of everything you see back here was not art directed. Almost all of it is the designers vision.” Brickey paused and then continued, “I think it's kind of funny that this is what happens when you let talented people do their own thing and don't try to micromanage them."

As dusk began to fall and the music came to a crescendo in the distance, Ryan remarked, "It's been a great thing to be involved in ... I was really lucky to get into this when I did."

FURTHER RESOURCES:
American Poster Institute: www.americanposterinstitute.com
Pitchfork Music Festival: www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com
Geoff Peveto: www.thedecoderring.com
Gigposters.com: www.gigposters.com
Flatstock: http://www.flatstock.com/
The Bird Machine: http://thebirdmachine.com/
Spike Press: http://www.spikepress.com/
Diana Sudyka: http://dianasudyka.com/
Delicious Design League: http://www.deliciousdesignleague.com/
Hero Design Studio: http://www.heroandsound.com/
Crosshair Studios: http://www.crosshairchicago.com/
Jeral Tidwell: http://humantree.com/

Storque Flickr set: http://flickr.com/photos/etsystorque/sets/7215760

Renegade Chicago: It's That Time Again!

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:50:00 -0000

This weekend, the crafty masses will converge in Chicago for the fifth annual Renegade Craft Fair. It looks to be a doozy! Over 150 vendors, and all of them with something cool to offer. If you've been to Renegade before, you know that it's a craftinista's dream come true. (Though it can be a little daunting at first -- the "where do I begin?!" feeling is intense!)

The Renegade Craft Fair is September 15th and 16th from noon until 10 PM each day, on Division between Damen and Wood Street in Chicago. We'll see you there! Let's schmooze! Look for the Etsy booth!

To get psyched for the event and get an idea of which Etsy sellers will be there, check the forums!

P.S. If you're in Chicago, make sure to check out Renegade Handmade, the new "brick 'n' mortar" destination to buy many of the items sold at Renegade - all the time!