Search results (title) for: "mega beth"

Mega-Beth Tour: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Edition

2008-09-15T13:26:00-05:00

As an Etsy admin on the Business Operations Team, Beth aka bethela, has taken her MBA on the road and met up with sellers around the country to get feedback and hear about their Etsy experiences face-to-face. That MBA is short for Mega-Beth-Awesomeness for those who don't know!*

Falmouth, Massachusetts, a gorgeous small town in western Cape Cod, was the latest destination on the Mega-Beth Tour. MoUO graciously hosted the group as we discussed items and shops, promotion, sales techniques and preparing for the holidays.

Selling Strategies
The group discussed some of the challenges of selling on Etsy and some tactics that have proven successful. These helpful practices included:

Avatar — Change your avatar to something "eye-catching" that you have sold. A few of the sellers, including finsfare and Meowstro, commented that they saw their sales increase after doing this.

Forums — Spend time in the forums to not only learn from other sellers, but to let other members know you are out there. If you comment on a thread, many might be curious about who you are and check out your shop.

International Shipping — For international shipping, use priority flat rate envelopes if possible. It's easier to estimate shipping costs and they can save lots of time. If you don't use the flat rate envelopes, be sure to factor in your shipping materials and time.

Pricing — There was lots of discussion about pricing, including wholesaling. The consensus was simply to experiment, but be sure to cover your costs, as well as the working wage you want to earn. Additional resources on pricing can be found in the Art of Pricing series.

Photograhy — There is always room to improve when it comes to photography. Some ideas included:

Using a photo light box — This will help you get even quality pictures, and there are collapsible versions if you don't have a lot of space.
Natural light is great for high quality pictures — One seller mentions she tries to take all of her pictures at the same time of day. This helps her shop look more cohesive. In this post, you can see a video with Gemmafactrix, a seller well known for her listing photography.
Use the macro setting on your camera — Another recommendation was to create your own DIY macrophoto studio.

Great photography is an important component to a good-looking, effective listing. There are lots of photography resources on the Storque including many how-to articles.

I am always thrilled to see sellers' work and this group did not disappoint. There was a wide variety of handmade talent at this table, and all were eager to see each other's arts and crafts.

Goofy Alien Vessel by MuOU

Earrnings and handmade box by Baublegarden (similiar Raindrop Danglies earrnings)

Sea inspired necklace by thebeadmuse

Go Fish Journal and Minibooks, including Creepy sea creature by Meowstro

We also discussed a few of our favorite sellers. These Etsy sellers' products were represented in the room, modeled by their owners.

Binary Code Bag by RedPaperRecord

Bubble Lace Ring by ColleenBaran

Sushi Addict Earrings by Thetinyfig

Sellers from Cape Cod!

Top Row (L to R): bluemermaid123 (Gail), 1stExpressions (Debie), Annie, Lisa, thebeadmuse (Donna), baublegarden (Angela) Bottom Row (L to R): finsfare (Corrin), Meowstro (Ruth), murzilka (Anastasia), MoUO (Sarah)

* (Just kidding — she actually does have an MBA!)
To read about more of Beth's travels on the Mega-Beth Tour, go here!

Mega-Beth Tour: Washington, DC Edition

2008-08-11T11:57:00-05:00

Ashley and I headed down to Washington, DC last week to attend eTail, an e-commerce conference. We were privileged to see Rob Walker, author of “Buying In: The Secret Dialogue of What We Buy and Who We Are”, speak at the conference. We were pleasantly surprised that he highlighted Etsy as a prominent example of a positive movement where consumers have decided to participate.

The finale of our trip was a round table discussion with a dynamic group of sellers—some veteran, some new—and Sara, an active buyer from Crafty Bastards DC. The discussion was a nice mix of ideas for Etsy and sharing shop tips and promotion ideas with each other. We had a few experts in our midst:

Shoofly is featured this month in How Magazine’s special issue focused on handmade design. The article is titled "Paper Market: If you indulge your creative jones by designing your own stationery, you're not alone. Online outlets like Etsy are helping designers sell their handmade products. Meet 7 people who are doing it well."

Scenicartisans was on DC’s local Fox News coverage (second video) of the Washington Glass Studio where he does his glasswork.

To learn more about how to pitch yourself to local press check out DIY PR: Local Press.

Some of the suggestions that arose in this lively discussion included:

Ability to change name: One person told us she had changed her shop name three times, which meant closing one shop to open another each time.

Easier to get a Treasury: “I just can’t get one.”

Videos in profiles: Videos would be a great way to enhance a profile and show products in a different and compelling way.

Judaica section: “The Rosen Group, Niche Awards and many other quality craft shows consider 'Judaica' its own category. It would be great if Etsy did too!” It was discussed that it would be especially helpful for those who want to attract wholesale as well as retail. And not to mention, “There are a lot of temple shops that like to buy handmade crafts.”

Listing templates: A few of the sellers mentioned that they are cut and pasting anyway. A template would make the whole process a lot easier.

Notification when in a Treasury: Notification is “totally not spam,” one seller exclaimed.

Ability to delete items: If you sell an item elsewhere, the ability to completely delete the item from your shop, not just make them inactive. “It clutters my inactive section.”

Vacation Mode: This is a feature that launched a lengthy discussion. Many were worried about leaving their shops for a few days.

Rearrange items in shop: Ability to arrange items in your shop in another way besides chronological order. This would be great to create color stories and other relevant groupings. One seller mentioned she holds listings while she waits for other items to finish to put them in the “perfect order.”

In addition, some of the new features they really liked were the new separate policy section in shops, drop down categories when listing and the ability to rearrange photos in listings.

Thank you to all the DC sellers who came out to visit with us. We enjoyed meeting you and appreciated your candid thoughts and ideas for Etsy.

Photo at top: Back Row (left to right): AStichtoWear (Allison), bethela (Beth), pileofcraft (Sara), shoofly (Rania), scenicartisans (Sean); Front Row (left to right): geltdesigns (Rachel and Liz), finchmetal (Jill), LizzyJdesigns (Liz), thesoapseduction (Patrice). Special thanks to winenutnyc for the Megabeth t-shirt made by Spiritwear that he had designed using Alchemy.

To read about more of Beth's travels on the Mega-Beth Tour, go here!

Mega-Beth Tour: Talbot County, Maryland Edition

2008-06-16T10:59:00-05:00

Road trip! My husband had a triathlon in Cambridge, Maryland, so we packed up the car and hit the road. There's nothing like a summer drive to get me excited for the (shameless plug) Storque's travel series Gotta Travel On next week. I was thrilled we made it down to Talbot County with enough time for me to make a few stops to meet a few sellers that I found using Shop Local.

First stop was St. Michaels, Maryland for the St. Luke's Craft Show and Strawberry Festival to see Limamike (also known as Lori Anderson) and to get some fresh strawberry shortcake to beat the heat. Below is a picture of her beautifully designed tent with many pieces made from lampwork beads and larimar, a unique precious natural stone only found in a one kilometer remote mountain range in the Dominican Republic.

She seemed to have a non-stop flow of customers, but we did get some time to chat. Limamike, like many sellers, is also a huge fan of buying on Etsy and is slowly replacing the artwork in her home with Etsy artist creations. She showed me one of her recent buys, a handbag by onehappytree she purchased using Alchemy.

Limamike's pendants were displayed in a decoupaged wood box by CarolinaCottage, who custom made it with vintage paper. What a creative way to add a decorative touch to your craft fair table.

My second stop was Gryphon's home, where I got to see first hand the preparation for dying yarn. She may have one of the most scenic yarn dying set ups anywhere, with her backyard overlooking the bay.

Pictured: asingledream (Christine), bethela (Beth), beadstillmyheart (Kendra), gryphon (Gryphon)

We sat in Gryphon's living room, surrounded by her collection of gorgeous antique looms and her current work, a perfect setting for an Etsy discussion. We covered lots of topics including the slowing economy, Etsy's positive impact on the hand dyed yarn business and the level of communication they expect from Etsy. Some of the more specific topics (including topics discussed with limamike) are outlined below:

Guest Buyers — Ability to purchase without registering on Etsy. This would allow buyers who want to measure their experience before becoming a full-fledged member.

Ability to Change Name — "When I realized my ID was my shop name I thought, why did I do that?" said one seller. If we can't change this, it would be great to make it more clear that you can't change your name once you register, possibly with an "are you sure?" button during the process.

Alternative Payment Methods — "A lot of people hate PayPal," one person noted. Another noted that choice is generally good.

Search — Search is on everyone's minds these days, including ours at Etsy.

More Personalization Options/Etsy-"powered" Personal Site — One person noted that for her products she needs more granular categories and sub-categories and wants to create her own aesthetic, look and feel to her shop. They didn't want it to be "boring," but not too many widgets like on Myspace.

Notification When a Favorite Seller Adds Something to Their Shop - An opt-in feature to alert you when a favorite seller has a new item or is conducting a sale in their shop. This could be via email or conversation or a page you could go to in "My Etsy."

Batch Feedback — This is particularly of concern for high volume sellers, as feedback can be cumbersome.

Auto-relist Feature — For items such as patterns, when you sell an item the option to opt-in to auto-relist when one item is sold. Many patterns are linked to from blogs, and when they are sold, the link sends the person to the sold item and not the place to buy it.

Edit/Click to Finish — Streamline the process of editing one page (so there is no need to go through all pages to finish). This is particularly important for people on slower connections

Block Buyers — Ability to block problem buyers from your shop.

Sale in Shop — Ability to conduct a sale in a shop: for instance, 10% off or a coupon code function.

Ability to Pay Etsy Bill with Other Methods — Pay Etsy fees via auto-withdrawl from bank account or PayPal.

One of Gryhon's antique looms.

One of the best part of my job is to hear first hand about members experiences on Etsy and their ideas to improve the site. We sometimes focus on the "needs improvement" side of things because we are eager to enhance the site, but it was also gratifying to hear that they love the front page, the beautiful layouts and how it is often cleverly color coordinated. "Just beautiful," one noted. We have Ashley and all of her hard work to thank for that.

Thanks to limamike, gryphon, beadstillmyheart and asingledream for adding a little local flavor to my weekend road trip.

To read about more of Beth's travels on the Mega-Beth Tour, go here!

Mega-Beth Tour: Connecticut Edition

2008-05-27T19:10:00-05:00

This Memorial Day weekend, I had the opportunity to head out to my home state, Connecticut (where I grew up in a small town, Cheshire) and meet a fantastic group of Etsy artisans at The Space, an arts and music venue in Hamden, CT. I was completely overwhelmed by the reception and enthusiasm of the group. I was greeted by 20 sellers, all full of questions and eager to talk about their experiences with Etsy and their ideas. They carpooled (thanks for being eco-conscious!) from the far corners of the state for the afternoon.

MsKittyFantastico, the leader of the CT Etsy Team, did an amazing job organizing the meeting. The amount of appreciation and admiration the group had for her was instantly clear. She was described as organized, dedicated, vivacious, selfless — and the list goes on. I was told that she “keeps [the team] together” and “organizes team challenges.” A few people asked me to “please, please name MsKittyFantastico team leader of the year.” Did you hear that Sarawearsskirts?

Standing (L to R) Lauren (tagliatela), Aja (embellishedday), Audrety (kaboogie), Emily (boutiquegirl), Kelly (colorscapedesigns), Carrie (carrieWdesigns), Lis-el (heartofthefire), Sharon (Morganstreet), Jillian (MsKittyFantastico), Cathleen (Mysticafelicity), Shana (ArtDecade), Paula (peewog), Sue (Sulimos), Liz (LAADesigns), Sitting (L to R) Mary Helen (ScribbleNation), Lauren (Ornametal), Jen (gooseontheloose), Sharon (cozycoleman), Patricia (SilverDragon), Nora (FenrisLorsrai), Beth (bethela)

This group was not shy and was eager to share their thoughts. Some of the ideas included:

Treasury and front page notification: The team would like to see an opt-in auto-notification when a seller is featured in a treasury or front page.

Listing templates: Start from a drop down menu of previously listed items which would save a tremendous amount of time. Batch listing and batch tagging would also save time and encourage more listing.

Filters: Shopping filters, such as “ship to my country.”

More specific location information: Shop local (which they loved) would work a lot better if there were sections for state, province, country, etc.

More marketing content on the Storque: After Sulimos declared that “the Storque is awesome!,” we discussed the idea for even more tools and articles about marketing their shops.

Registries: Either personal treasuries or gift registries.

Enhanced profiles: We discussed ways for shoppers to get to know sellers better. Some ideas included:

Photos in profile — something a little bigger than the current avatar.
Links to mentions in Storque or featured on front page — like an Etsy resume or CV.

Unified checkout for buyers: In the meantime, make it clear that you can check out once if you buy from the same buyer and/or a continue shopping at the same shop button before checkout.

Auto generated member list for teams: Ability for Teams to download a roster of the team to an Excel or CSV doc.

Tents for Craft Shows: It's tag sale season (depending on what part of the country you are from, garage sale season) and a few ladies found great deals on tents for as little as $10. Keep your eye out!

As usual, I was completely impressed with all of the sellers. My favorite thing about meeting sellers is seeing new work, or even better, works in progress. Two sellers (cozycoleman and kaboogie) were busily working throughout the meeting. Kaboogie, who has been recently featured on the local Connecticut televsion program, Better Connecticut (go here to see the video clip) was finishing up one her cute booties and Cozycoleman was working on a new stitch she has invented for a recent pattern she has listed on Etsy.

The CT Etsy Team maintains an active blog, flickr group, myspace profile and ning page, where you can learn more about the sellers in the group. I took an informal poll, and 11 of the 20 of the sellers present blogged. Many discussed how their blogs have generated sales from unsuspecting places like California and Australia. The Team also just received a grant for their upcoming Jewelry Spectacular on June 7, 2008 at the Holiday Inn in North Haven (next door to the Friendly’s I worked at through high school and college).

Keep up the great work, CT Etsy Team! Thank you to everyone who came. I hope to see you all at a Connecticut event soon.

To read about more of Beth's travels on the Mega-Beth Tour, go here!

Mega-Beth Tour: San Francisco Edition

2008-04-29T11:20:00-05:00

Picture: bethela (Beth), oishiiknits (Erika), bemidesigns (Christie), handcranked (Robyn), curbsidetreasure (Annie), theseawithin (Nadine), 2inspire (Eleanor), localcolorist (Nancy)

Meetings and the Web 2.0 Expo brought me out to San Francisco last week, which also gave me a chance to sit down with some of the members of the SF Bay Area Etsy Team and the California Crafters Club of Etsy (CCCOE) teams. We met at the Ferry Building, also the home of the farmers market, outside of Peet’s Coffee for an early morning chat. A random woman, who did not know of Etsy (or any of us) joined in. Turns out she designs shoes and localcolorist gave her the hard pitch to start selling her designs on Etsy!

I had checked out these sellers' shops before I got there, so I knew this was a very talented group. But when I met them, I found that not only were they passionate about their own work, but also the work of other Etsy sellers. Many talked about helping other sellers get started and what they learned from other sellers along the way. They were also brimming with ideas, outlined below:

Ways to promote/highlight a sale in shop – handcranked suggested it would be great to have a way conduct a sale in your shop – either all items or a part of a shop, without having to re-enter all the prices in the shop. Also suggested:
- A way to easily shop sales, a promotional area where buyers will be likely to find it (probably unlikely buyers are in the forums).
- Alerts when an item or a shop in your favorites has a sale.
- Promo codes – ability to conduct sales with promo codes, to track where people are coming from.
- Ability to shop sales by price range
More Offline Teams Events – Encourage teams to have more face-to-face interactions and partner with local artistic museums, shows, etc. It is great for sharing ideas and promoting Etsy in the offline world.
Etsy-sponsored live events – Sponsored events across the country for sellers to come together and learn new skills and share ideas.
Sort favorites – The group was in agreement that sorting favorites will make shopping much easier, driving increased sales.
Ability to adjust for sales tax – Option to clearly state relevant taxes for specific items or specific states in the checkout process. Some items require taxes, some only require taxes in some states, etc.
More ways to help and welcome newcomers to Etsy – Some thought Etsy can be overwhelming to some at first. Here are some suggestions to make learning how to use Etsy easier:
- Step-by-step instructions to use the site – Create a “how-to” that is easy for a new buyer or seller to find and easy for someone to direct a new person to. “The site can be intimidating to a lot of people at first.”
- FAQs on the top navigation bar
- Glossary – a list of “Etsy” terms for newbies and not so newbies
Treasury notification – ability to opt in to get notified when you have been included in a treasury
Favorites for forum threads - Easily keep track of threads that you may not have anything to contribute to but want to save.

All in all, a great discussion. So here's a little about the sellers. Localcolorist, formerly a stage set designer (sounds like a fun job!) now makes delicate orgami birds. Bemidesigns has a few businesses; she makes hemp jewelry, sells supplies in her withlovedesigns shop and has a letterpress business. Inspired by her twin sister, 2inspire creates cards and stationary. As a complement to this business, she also uses her own style of calligraphy to address invitations, tags, etc. Both Bemidesigns (letterpress) and 2inspire (cards and calligraphy) have seen a dramatic increase in sales after the handmade wedding series.

Below we have theseawithin modeling a quilted neck warmer/cowl designed by French designer malam.

I can see why she owns three of these unique neck warmers. Theseawithin was also sporting a screenprinted wallet by quietdoing handmade.

Theseawithin is talented in her own right, creating great bags. She is looking forward to teaming up with her sister who is a screenprint designer and use the screenprinted fabric designs for her bags.

Handcranked, modeling a screenprinted shirt by avalove, recently opened her shop and is full-time designing after leaving her job as a copy writer for an advertising agency at the end of last year.

Handcranked designs silver jewelry and her designs were recently discovered by a magazine through her flickr stream. You never know where people will find you!

Curbsidetreasure design mixed media collages and even brought her collage journal with her.

Above, curbsidetreasure is showing us her tote made by maryink.

Oishiiknits (oishii means delicious in Japanese) is also a new seller on Etsy. She is currently in design school and has lots of artistic projects on her plate. Here she is showing all of us her adorable knitted baby hats.

A close-up of her hats — I love all the bright colors.

It was a great conversation. I got lots of ideas not only for Etsy, but for my own personal shopping (this could be dangerous). Thank you to all the sellers who came out to share their personal experiences.

If you are interested in joining a Team or to start a group similar to SF Bay Area Etsy Team or the California Crafters Club of Etsy, check out our Teams section! Meet your fellow sellers and make connections today!

Mega-Beth Tour: Chicago Edition

2008-03-21T14:31:00-05:00

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.

The Mega-Beth Tour: Anaheim Edition

2008-02-25T18:44:00-05:00

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 account...

This trip, I was accompanied by the lovely Christina (aka missbatch) where she showed me the ropes at the annual Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show. This was a huge trade show, comprised of nearly a thousand craft supply manufacturers — and I was certainly overwhelmed, but we met a lot of great people and hopefully planted seeds that will turn into great partnerships and relationships. We are excited to tell you more about that once it is developed in the months to come.

While I was disappointed to be so close to Disneyland and not have a chance to hang with Mickey, I was very happy to be able sit down with a couple of fantastic Etsy sellers: Nina of ninagibsondesigns and Christine of chocolateandsteel, who made the trip from Los Angeles to meet us. Both were very excited about our new Cooperative Advertising Program, although they were disappointed they missed getting a spot (I hope you had better luck the next time around). Some of their favorite features are Shop Local (also my personal favorite), where they received a few local orders for Valentine's Day, and Pounce, which is a great way to find new and upcoming artists.

Christina and I also got a sneak peak at ninagibsondesigns new prototype necklace (on the left in the picture above); she was inspired by a buyer request to turn one of her tally mark earring designs into a necklace. The necklace on the right, made from precious metal clay, is by chocolateandsteel. It is called Accept Love and is for sale in her shop. Both ladies welcome custom orders, so drop them a convo if you have something special in mind.

While walking the floor at the CHA, Christina and I had the opportunity to meet Cathie Filian, an avid Etsy seller, blogger and co-host of DIY's Creative Juice, along with Steve Piacenza (pictured above, left). We also met Cathie's husband Gary Byers (above, right), who admitted since the writers' strike he has been very busy helping her fulfill Etsy orders. Their energy was infectious and their crafts are just too cute! Check out the glossy Elizabeth Taylor pop art they made for Plaid paint.

Other highlights of the trip included catching up with Storque contributor and westcoastcrafty blogger Susan Beal, whose new jewelry book, Bead Simple, hits newsstands the end of March.

Christina met up with Vickie Howell, Etsy seller and host of Craft.Rock.Love., her series of podcasts, available for your listening pleasure here. (She was actually texting the pattern for a knitted tie to a friend, when we snapped her picture: we love when high-tech meets handmade!)

And last, but certainly not least, we got to preview crafty chica Cathy Cano Murillo's new line of crafty goodness for Duncan, including paints, stencils and glitter (of course!), plus lots of fun bases for embellishment like Frida-printed totes, "Create a Saint" icons and chihuahuas! Don't you love her customized apron?

Many thanks to everyone for sharing their time and thoughts about Etsy. I am looking forward to seeing another group of sellers soon in Chicago.

See Beth's post from her previous trip to Miami.

The Mega-Beth Tour: Miami Edition

2008-02-08T16:09:00-05:00

I was recently in Miami for the Internet Retailer conference and looked for local sellers to meet. This is something I hope to do more as I travel to different parts of the country (and if I am lucky, the world) on behalf of Etsy. Before I left Brooklyn, I used our Shop Local feature to find and convo some great local sellers, most of whom were available to meet up for a chat. (It was also a really great reason skip the boring parts of the conference!)

Ivysclaycorner (Ivy), luchaworkshop (Ronni), designedbyDiana (Diana), Tanteleah (Lynne)

This was my first time meeting sellers outside of Etsy in person, so I was a little anxious to meet the group. However, the conversation started easily thanks to the dynamic sellers IvysClayCorner, luchaworkshop, designedbyDiana and TanteLeah, who enthusiastically shared their thoughts and ideas for the site. I was excited to see TanteLeah lavishly decked in her Etsy finds: a fun, reconstructed dress by secretlentil and earrings by ArchaicDesign.

TanteLeah, a producer and connoisseur of fiber arts, also showed off some amazing hand spun yarn she recently discovered. I loved that designedbyDiana was carrying her own newly designed and stitched prototype bag to test for comfort and durability. How great to get a sneak peak at a new design and a glimpse at the creative process!

We talked about lots of things that are interesting and valuable to Etsians. The group had many great ideas, reinforcing many of the themes from the Forums and comments around Etsy, like adding pictures to profiles, more statistics, batch editing for tags, and a single place on Etsy to announce site changes. They also gave a special shout out to our very own labs divas Mary and Danielle for all of their work in the Online Workshops and around Etsy. What was fun for me was that everyone in this group creates very different products, with luchaworkshop designing great silkscreened t-shirts and IvyClayCorner crafting creative polymer clay dolls and figurines.

Beanblossom (Pam), eclecticamiami (Katrina), phbeads (Monica), silverside (Kate)

My second stop was eclecticamiami’s newly opened “brick and mortar” (although it was really made of concrete and steel) shop. Lots of vintage, salvaged and repurposed finds were inside. (eclecticamiami is also a member of the Trashion Team). I was thrilled to see her promoting the Handmade Pledge in her store, which is a great idea to bring to craft fairs as well.

It is there that I met beanblossom, who had recently moved to Miami from Indiana (and promised me she would finish her bag projects and list them), phbeads, a marine biologist who is keeping her right brain alive creating jewelry from precious metals and stones, and Kate, aka silverside, a photographer and aspiring Etsy seller. These ladies are from the newly formed MAG group (Miami Artisan Guild) that plans to hold Sunday crafternoons: a chance to get together, share techniques and host craft supply swaps. The time flew by, and fortunately for me, phbeads graciously drove me back to my hotel.

Thanks to all the wonderful Miami sellers who took time out of your day to share your thoughts and making the effort to meet. It was a treat to meet so many diverse and talented artists all in one day.

For all of you that are looking for a group or to start a group similar to MAG, check out our Teams section! Meet your fellow sellers and make connections today!