La Times : Independent artisans are crowding onto the Web

Lure of a global marketplace has craftspeople competing for shoppers through such sites as Etsy.com, Artfire.com and 1000 Markets.

SMALL BUSINESS

March 01, 2010|By Cyndia Zwahlen

The online indie craft scene is getting crowded as home-based entrepreneurs move beyond craft fairs or networks of friends to tap customers from around the globe.

Merchants offering handmade items are flocking to online websites such as Etsy, ArtFire and 1000 Markets to find buyers. Etsy said last week that it now has about 400,000 active online shops. They offer items ranging from the kitschy to the sublime.

Most sellers, some who own more than one online store, don't typically make a living from their handiwork, whether that's hand-painted silk scarves or hand-painted cow skulls.

And many find that selling online is tougher than expected. Competition among sellers has grown as more crowd online in response to the increased demand for handmade items. A recent search for "necklace" on Etsy.com, for example, turned up more than 600,000 results.

"It is a great vehicle, but because of so many jewelry shops on there, it's hard," said Eagle Rock jeweler Rose Braunstein, who has an online shop at Etsy.

Yet she and other artisans are drawn to the online marketplaces because of their reach and because the shops are inexpensive and easy to set up. Sites such as Etsy also make it easy to tap into a network of other crafty entrepreneurs for tips and support.

"Right now I have a very small craft empire, but one day I hope to be a very large craft empire" with the help of her online shop, said Erin Korda of Sherman Oaks.

There is no charge to set up a storefront on most sites. Sites make their money in part by charging sellers a percentage of each sale. 1000 Markets, for instance, takes 5.5% plus 50 cents. Etsy charges 3.5% and 20 cents to list an item for four months.

That may not sound like much, but listing fees can add up if sellers follow sites' advice to relist items daily so they show up higher in search results.

A popular site, Etsy has also attracted spoofs such as a Sherman Oaks site Regretsy that makes light of some of its offerings.

No one tracks the sales of handmade or vintage items, but the Craft & Hobby Assn. said consumers spent $27.3 billion on arts and crafts supplies in 2008. That's down 14.5% from 2008.

The interest in handmade goods, which some experts attribute to consumers' reaction to society's over-commercialization, has helped artisans such as jeweler Braunstein.

She quit her day job two years ago to make seed-bead mosaic rings and sterling silver jewelry, which she sells on Etsy, in brick-and-mortar shops and at craft shows.

Etsy, the largest online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, has had growing pains since its launch in 2005. With the millions of transactions, buyers and sellers find things to complain about, including clunky searching and only bare-bones tools for sellers.

Changes meant to address some of the concerns are afoot at the company that reported gross sales of $180.6 million for 2009, spokesman Adam Brown said. The website's former chief executive, Robert Kalin, 29, who co-founded the company when he was 25 and remains its chairman and major shareholder, returned in December as CEO.

Etsy is hiring engineers to improve its search functions and create new seller tools, Brown said. The private New York company is also hiring customer-service workers as part of its plan to launch phone support this year.

The site works for Karen Koenig of West Los Angeles, who creates frog-skin leather cuff bracelets, among other leather goods, for her Unearthed sites on Etsy, 1000 Markets and ArtFire.

"We aren't Balenciaga," she said, referring to the luxury fashion brand. "But we are paying our bills."

That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work - nytimes.com

December 17, 2009

By ALEX WILLIAMS

QUIT your day job?

To some craft enthusiasts that is just the name of a popular blog on Etsy, the fast-growing Web site that serves as a marketplace for crafts and vintage goods.

But to Yokoo Gibran, it was an epiphany.

Ms. Gibran, who is in her 30s, had been selling her hand-knit scarves and accessories on the site for less than a year when she decided last November to quit her day job at a copy center in Atlanta. Thirteen months later, she would seem to be living the Etsy dream: running a one-woman knitwear operation, Yokoo, from her home and earning more than $140,000 a year, more than many law associates.

Jealous? How could you not be? Her hobby is her job. But consider this before you quit your day job: at the pace she’s working, she might as well be a law associate.

“I have to wake up around 8, get coffee or tea, and knit for hours and hours and hours and hours,” said Ms. Gibran, who leveraged the exposure she got on the site to forge a deal with Urban Outfitters. “I’m like an old lady in a chair, catching up on podcasts, watching old Hitchcock shows. I will do it for 13 hours a day.” And even after all those hours knitting, she is constantly sketching new designs or trading e-mail messages with 50 or more customers a day.

“Etsy saved my life,” Ms. Gibran said. But, she added, “this is the hardest job I’ve ever had.”

These days, the fantasy of building a career on Etsy, an eBay of sorts of the do-it-yourself movement, is not just the stuff of dreams. Even before the recession, the site, which was founded in Brooklyn in 2005, was riding the “crafting” boom to prominence. When the job market collapsed, many hobbyists who already were selling jewelry or glassware as a sideline suddenly needed a real income.

While most people would find it impossible to meet a mortgage payment selling $8 crocheted mug cozies, some top-sellers on Etsy have moved beyond the stage of earning pocket money and are building careers — in some cases, earning six-figure incomes.

But even the successes add a note of “seller beware.” To build a profitable business on the site, they say — well, it’s a business. You need to build a brand identity, which often means courting design blogs or the news media. You need to manage distribution, which might mean standing in post office lines with a baby on your hip and a garbage bag filled with 30 self-packed boxes to ship. And as with any start-up, you need to maintain the morale of the labor force, which can be particularly challenging when you are the labor force, and the workday runs from “Good Morning America” to “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

“Working from home, people think it’s so easy and great,” said Caroline Colom Vasquez, of Austin, Tex., who last year made $120,000 in sales from her Etsy shop, Paloma’s Nest, which specializes in ceramic and wood collectables for weddings and other special occasions. But “there’s nobody there to tell you to take a break, or take a vacation.”

This year, she expects her business to have $250,000 in sales, but she will have to divide that with the three employees she just hired because Ms. Vasquez, who has a young daughter, could no longer handle the strain.

“I physically could just not do it in 24 hours,” she said. “My husband and I used to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning before the baby, then stay up till 1 or 2, stamping boxes, making shipping labels.”

As sales heated up for the holidays, Angie Davis, a former project architect in Minneapolis who lost her job last year, said her Etsy shop, Byrd and Belle, which sells handmade handbags and cases for iPods, laptops and cellphones, has “easily matched a month of architecture salary in five days, but I’m also working 16 hours a day.” To deal with the holiday rush, Ms. Davis said, she had to produce 112 cases in 48 hours, which involved turning her loft into a mini assembly line, where she cut leather and stitched and sewed cotton and wool fabric until 10 p.m. “It’s surprising how physical it can be on my core muscles,” she said. To get the work processed in time, she had to call in her mother from Iowa to help make tags and press fabric.

The number of people turning to Etsy as a full-time career is unknown. The site does not track how many of its members try to make a living, and it does not disclose the sales figures for individual sellers, said Maria Thomas, chief executive of Etsy. But over the last year, the number of registered members has more than doubled to 3.75 million, and the Quit Your Day Job blog on Etsy now attracts 2 million page views a month.

Several shop owners interviewed for this article, including Morgan Peterson, who runs a fashion label — Eliza + Axel — on Etsy, view their layoffs from traditional jobs as an opportunity to build a more fulfilling career online. In Ms. Peterson’s case, she lost her job as an assistant designer for Dillard’s and decided to create and sell her own line, made from reclaimed fabrics.

“In fashion school, they tell you you can do anything, they push you to be creative, but as soon as you get a job in a corporate environment, you’re only able to do certain things and it has to make money,” said Ms. Peterson, who said that she supplements her income on Etsy by selling wholesale to several boutiques. “With Etsy, I have my styles that make a lot of money, but I can also put work out there that I do just for creative reasons.”

As with eBay, start-up costs are a lot lower for people opening a “shop” on Etsy than a shop on Main Street; the site charges sellers 20 cents for each item listed and 3.5 percent of each sale. Etsy, which has a user base consisting largely of women, also provides a support network, including several blogs and forums where sellers swap tips and words of encouragement.

A healthy income, however, is far from guaranteed. After Tara Scheuerman was laid off from her job as an office assistant at a college in Milwaukee, she started a company, Cracked Designs, that sells greeting cards and wedding invitations on Etsy. After a slow start, she said she is thrilled to be selling more than 50 cards a week and is optimistic about her long-term earnings, but said she now spends more than 40 hours a week on her line, not only designing and making her products, but tirelessly promoting them on design blogs like Poppytalk and Design*Sponge as well as in magazines (her cards were recently featured in House Beautiful). So far, she said, she is earning about $15,000 to $20,000 a year, which on the low end works out to about $7.25 an hour — the same as Wisconsin’s minimum wage.

“You have to be really realistic with your goals and know you’re probably not even going to make a profit the first couple of years,” said Ms. Scheuerman, 26, who relies primarily on her husband’s income.

Such experiences were the focus of an essay, much-circulated among so-called Etsians, that ran last June in DoubleX, an online lifestyle magazine. In it, the journalist Sara Mosle (also a contributor to The New York Times) argued that Etsy was profiting off unrealistic expectations held by many women. “What Etsy is really peddling isn’t only handicrafts,” Ms. Mosle wrote, “but also the feminist promise that you can have a family and create hip arts and crafts from home during flexible, reasonable hours while still having a respectable, fulfilling, and remunerative career.”

But the experiences of at least some of the site’s successes, like Ms. Vasquez, don’t support that view. Still, Ms. Vasquez said, there is an unforeseen psychic tax even when — or especially if — one’s profit outstrip initial expectations. As her business, once a sideline run from the kitchen table, grew into a six-figure powerhouse, her work not only swallowed more rooms of her house, but also her family life. At dinners, she and her husband talked only about business.

“I felt like I was being a bad mother, a bad wife, being all-consumed by business. That was the breaking point,” she said. Ms. Vasquez has found time to exhale, at least occasionally, since hiring a staff. The family even took a trip, the first since she started the business, to the nearby Texas Hill Country.

Still, the challenge is to find balance. “What’s the point of doing something you love,” she asked, “if you are too exhausted to do what you love?”

The Economy is Bumming Everyone Out! Buy Independent & Feel Good!

The economy has been a huge bummer this year and will probably continue to bum us out well into 2010. Big business has taken huge hits, bank bailouts, unemployment & foreclosures are still on the rise. Impulse buying & buying on credit is out. Lots of independent businesses across the US have closed up, plenty right in my town, and even us Etsy sellers have felt the pinch - since about March/April of this year. Everything was incredible on Etsy and then March happened, ha! Sales have declined like crazy, there's a large influx of new sellers on Etsy, and people are just not spending like they once were - food, clothing, & shelter are at the top of everyone's list. (not to further bum people out on the economy, just being honest)

Anyhow, what I'm getting at is that now more than ever I feel its important to shop at local businesses, independent retailers, farmers markets, etc. support your neighbor & neighborhood. To me the dream of being self employed and independent business coexists with the 'American Dream', which is quickly becoming the American Nightmare. We are big corporate, big business, big bank, big government central. Independent businesses create wealth for our local communities, drives competition in business, generally supports better labor practices, and the list goes on. I don't know about you, but I find the fact that Wallie World is the largest US employer down right scary.

As we approach the holiday season, please take the time to consider independent, handmade, & locally owned business for all your shopping needs! There's lots of info below!!!

Check out this website on the 3/50 Project - it also includes a big list of independent Brick & Mortar stores in every state in the US : http://www.the350project.net/home.html

Pledge to Buy Handmade! Visit BuyHandmade.org to sign the pledge and encourage others to do the same!

A Few Good Reasons to Buy Handmade from Buyhandmade.org:

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.

The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can
be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people.

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

Buying handmade is better for the environment.

The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.

From MSNBC.com :

Small retailers feel sharper pinch

Cuts in consumer spending hit mom-and-pop shops hard

By Allison Linn

Senior writer

updated 10:20 a.m. ET Aug. 31, 2009

Chris Fine has been selling remote-controlled cars, boats and other hobby items for 27 years.

These days, he’s hoping he’ll be able to hang on another few months.

“I hope I make it to December because I’m going to do everything in my power,” Fine said on a recent day in which he had sold a paltry $26 in items by midday. “I’ve got to figure out a way to survive.”

As the recession has gripped the nation over the past year and a half, Fine said monthly sales at his store, Mid-Hudson Hobbies in Middletown, N.Y., and online business, Fine Design, have tumbled by more than 50 percent.

Perhaps most disturbing, Fine said entire swaths of business — such as his customer base in hard-hit Michigan — have fallen away completely amid rising unemployment rates there and elsewhere.

For many, he suspects, it’s an easy choice between buying a new hobby item and paying the utility or food bill.

“This is disposable income,” he said. “If people have any extra income, they come in.”

Although the recession has been a struggle for all U.S. retailers, there is evidence that it has been especially difficult for the nation’s smaller, independent retailers. With Americans cutting back drastically on their spending, some stores have lost business as shoppers have turned to cheaper discount chains, while others have found that their customers have simply gone without the kind of discretionary items some small retailers sell.

Sales at privately held retailers fell 3.63 percent on average for the first seven months of this year, as compared to an average drop of 1.34 percent for publicly held companies in the same period, according to Sageworks Inc., which provides financial data on privately held companies. The data is based on financial records from thousands of accountants.

The focus on penny pinching is especially hard for small retailers that deal in widely available items, like books or music, and may find it difficult to match the prices at big chain or online discounters.

“Those are the ones that have had the biggest challenge and have really had to find ways to add value to their service,” said Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, which helps community businesses band together to promote their businesses.

In addition to the drop in business, experts say small businesses may be having a tougher time in part because they don’t necessarily have the cash reserves to make it through a deep trough. The credit crunch has exacerbated that problem, leaving some small retailers unable to obtain credit to either ride out the storm or keep the inventory they need to stay in business.

“Independent businesses obviously are smaller and don’t have the financial wherewithal to survive a sustained downturn maybe in the same way that their bigger counterparts do, and so that’s obviously a concern,” said Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Self-Reliance, which promotes local community development.

Faced with few other options, many small business owners may also find that they have to rely on their personal savings or credit cards to stay afloat, meaning that any businesses troubles can quickly translate into personal financial problems as well.

Burning through savings
To keep his hobby business going even as sales have plummeted, Fine and his only remaining employee – his brother – have stopped taking paychecks, and he’s burned through much of his savings. Nevertheless, he said he’s behind on his home mortgage and worried about whether he’ll be able to pay next month’s rent on his store.

Meanwhile, he’s watching many of his competitors go out of business, along with several other local businesses in the downtown area where he’s located.

He said he’s also facing stiffer competition from his suppliers, some of whom have dropped prices on their own mail-order retail business in order to attract more customers.

On a recent night, Fine said he was up until 5:30 a.m. tinkering with his Web site and racking his brain for other ways to pump up his business. It’s a position he never dreamed he’d find himself in.

“It’s very frustrating to be at this point in my life, at 50 years old, to have to worry about this,” he said.

Perhaps the worst part of Nishan Shepard’s day is the drive home.

“I go home every day and see a new store boarded up,” said Shepard, who has run Rockridge Kids in Oakland, Calif., for the past 17 years.

As he’s watched so many of the other local businesses in this once-vibrant shopping district succumb to the recession, Shepard said he’s also struggled to accept that his business has had to change substantially.

Customers that once regularly splurged on high-priced toys are now shopping for cheaper items, or not at all. Last holiday season, he said, “We didn’t sell a product that was $79.99 and up.”

To cope with the recession, Shepard said the store, which sells toys, strollers, furniture and other items, has started agreeing to discount an item when a customer requests it, something he’d never previously done in 17 years business.

Meanwhile, he’s also increasingly overhearing one customer offer to sell another customer their used strollers or other items, effectively taking a sale away from him right in his own store.

To avoid drastic measures such as cutting his staff of nearly 20, Shepard said he’s rooted around for ways to save money on things like phone bills and warehouse space. He said that’s allowed him to keep his competitive advantage: expert advice and customer service.

Meanwhile, Shepard himself is dealing with a drop in income as well as a substantial hit to his retirement savings, meaning he’s had to cut back on spending himself.

“It does bother me to some degree, but it also makes me understand when my customers come in and don’t spend as much as they might have two years ago, or are looking for bargains,” he said.

Pockets of hope
Despite the difficult times, Milchen, of the American Independent Business Alliance, said he is heartened to see that many businesses have fought aggressively to keep customers coming in. In the past year and a half, he said, there’s been much more interest in small businesses banding together to form community alliances for marketing and other purposes.

He’s also seeing more consumer interest in community-supported agriculture, in which locals buy produce directly from area farms. As people think more carefully about what they spend money on, he thinks some are also giving more consideration to where their dollars are going.

“There are clearly people who have shifted their spending to Wal-Mart, and I think there’s another group of people who have responded to the recession by making an extra effort to support businesses that are owned by their neighbors,” said Mitchell, of the Institute for Self-Reliance.

After months of fretting, Shepard said he and some other local business owners recently realized that they simply have to get comfortable with the idea that business will not be like it once was.

Shepard also realized that he had been spending so much time worrying about the business that he’d stopped taking time to enjoy his work. He likens it to the period after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when many stores opted to close their doors.

“We decided to stay open, first of all because I’m stubborn (but also because) I just wanted to hear those kids come in, laughing and playing at the train table. I knew it would make me feel better,” he said.

These days, he said, “I’ve started listening to the kids again. … That’s what keeps me going.”

© 2009 msnbc.com Reprints

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32586241/ns/business-retail/page/2/

In case that's not enough information:

Here's 101 Reasons to Buy Handmade from Poppytalk Blog:

101 Reasons:

In order to support the handmade community, and promote the importance of buying handmade goods, we asked artists, designers and shop keepers to provide us with 101 reasons why one should buy handmade. Here are their replies: Please help us spread the word, and link back to this page (feel free to grab a banner from the right hand sidebar, thank you)!

1. help contribute to establishing a new economic model

2. w/ the exception of postage cost - contribute to decrease in fossil fuel erosion
(purchasing mass produced products generally come overseas - barging it all over, production costs etc, sweatshops, fair labour et al.)

3. this new wave of craftspeople are using recycled materials. this is CRUCIAL. there is too much stuff in the world already.

4. purchase from artisans/craftspeople who ENJOY creating their wares. the object holds that positive energy and it spreads.

5. support the artisan directly. the artisan needs more support for their vocation - more than most.

6. support local community. thus building.

7. buying from craftspeople is a conscious decision. people need to be more conscious of spending of where their hard-earned money is going, changing hands etc. this contributes to the bigger picture.

Sonja Ahlers,
Makeitawesome.etsy.com

8. My favorite reason to buy handmade is just that - it's handmade, which means quality, and a whole lot of love!

Another reason:

9. I buy handmade because someone else is using their talents to create gifts and decor that I myself cannot make. Buy handmade today!

Thanks,
Cammi Higley
ScribbleIt.etsy.com

10. Because handmade = made with love, care, and thought.

Madeley Rodriguez
ttp://www.chickprint.etsy.com

11. Handmade products are more than just a product. There is love, creativity and uniqueness. And that shows.

Karin
stiksel.etsy.com

12. Love. You give gifts with love. When you buy handmade you can be sure that your gift is also made with love. You can think of love as a fairy dust that has been sprinkled over your gift throughout the making and gift giving process. And that fairy dust will make your loved one feel so much better than formaldehyde residue.

13. When you give a handmade gift it's more like writing a letter to someone than giving them a newspaper gift-certificate.

14. Human rights & ecological aspects. Buy handmade and you support a true artist. You can be sure that human rights are respected in the making of your gift. Handmade gifts are for many reasons often more ecological than mass produced: indie artists are superb recyclers (and we mustn't forget upcycling, upcycled gifts are a big hit this year!) and of course handmade in most cases outlasts mass produced.

15. Price vs. value. If you buy your best friend a handmade journal instead of a mass produced one and spend twice the money, it'll be worth every penny. Treasures are handmade with love and thought, not mass produced.

Kaija
paperiaarre.etsy.com

16. When something is handmade, very likely the craft person is deliberate and mindful about that next right stitch, next right bead, next just right rusty object that looks more like a dog nose on a found object sculpture than the last rusty treasure they picked up. Handmade products always feel more personal to me. I think about who might have been the artisan and wonder at how they managed to produce the item of the moment I am most smitten with and can't live without (no doubt, that rusty dog sculpture). I love knowing I'm supporting someone's passion. And even though I buy from handmade artisan's in states and countries I've never visited, I feel a sense of community when receiving an item that travels from their hand to mine. I like that I know who to contact to say "it's here! I love it!" - one person to another.

Manny
Mannybeads.etsy.com

17. Giving handmade is truly the essence of gift-giving. When you give a friend or loved one a gift, you are really saying "I care about you." A handmade gift conveys so much more than something pulled off the end-cap display of a mega store. Of course there are the obvious economic benefits of supporting independent makers and artists, but buying and giving handmade is, at heart, a loving act.

Thanks!
Cassie

Clementine Jewelry
ShopClementine.etsy.com

18. You are supporting local artisans and craftspeople and not large big box stores.

19. It guarantees that no one will give the same gift as you!

20. The items are much more fashion forward....there is no "wait-time" for large businesses to design and then mass-produce. One indie designer can list something *today* that he/she made *today.* (So it wasn't designed and planned last Christmas...for this Christmas)

21. Many items are much more environmentally friendly since there is no use of large manufacturing machines, chemicals, labor (some of it probably illegal) and waste. Many Annie and Olive items (for instance) are made from sustainable wool felt that has been naturally dyed, a needle, thread and my two hands.

22. It's fun to see the creativity and excellence of the very, very talented designers out there. It harkens back to the days of old when craftsmanship, creativity and quality were paramount - You are buying items not mass-produced and impersonal but are very personal not only to the buyer, but to the maker.

Bethany
AnnieandOlive.etsy.com

23. The biggest reason I buy handmade is to support the many talented people out there who are trying to get started with their business. I find the care and love taken in making everything I buy comes through when I get it. I feel a sense of extra worth and pleasure with each purchase knowing I have helped someone get one step closer to their dream. Supporting each other is after all the most rewarding gift we can give each other!

Bueller
Bueller.etsy.com

24. When you buy handmade you create a direct relationship with the artist or designer of the product.
25. You can be proud knowing that your supporting small businesses.
26. It's great for the economy
27. You don't have to say that you bought it at Ikea.
28. You can be the first one of all your friends to discover a great designer...

Avril Loreti
avrilloreti.etsy.com

29. "I give handmade gifts because the artist/crafter who made the item probably really enjoys what they do. I know they put their imagination, best craftsmanship, and love into making that gift unique. It has heart and that's what I want to share with the special people in my life."

Heather Smith Jones
hrsmithjones.etsy.com

30. To support the idea that something made from hand from a fellow human is a little more precious than the something which is not.

Susan Schwake
artstreamstudios.com/shop/

When you buy handmade you .....

31.) are getting something that is made with love by someone who loves what they do
32.) are giving the handmade artist a huge compliment and actually saying "I love what you are doing" which in turn keeps the artist "doing " it.
33.) are making a personal connection
34.) are telling the gift recipient that you cared enough about them to buy something as individual as they are.
35.) are contributing to an insurance policy that helps to keep the crafting industry alive, in return allowing for more unique and different items to become available each year.

Stacy Altiery
InkSpot Workshop
inkspotworkshop.com

36. -it's unique
37. -personal
38. -well made
39. -supports an artist
40. -builds community
41. -people appreciate handcrafted pieces
42. -affordable

Mike McDowell
mudpuppy.etsy.com

43. Not only are you receiving a beautiful creation made with genuine love and care, but when you are by buying handmade, you are also supporting and BECOMING part of the dream of: freedom, financial independence, being in charge of your own moral compass, having a daily life's purpose, experiencing more joy, all as a result of doing work you truly love. There's nothing better.

Marisa
creativethursday.etsy.com

44. Because normally, buying handmade does not require fighting for a parking space, having your ears pierced by blaring holiday music, walking around in a daze under flourescent lights, fighting to push a shopping cart with one bad wheel, or having a cashier you don't know ask for your phone number and zip code.

45. Because handmade items are what your Great Great Grandma used to buy.

susyjack*
contemporary paper
susyjack.com

46. When i buy handmade i am buying more than a product. i am supporting an artist who has put care, creativity and love into the product. i am supporting their vision. the product has such a personal history and story.

Pamela Sherry
pixelimpress.etsy.com

47. Buying handmade is win-win situation : You enrich your life with beautiful handmade goods, and you enable an artist to continue following their creative dreams.

Stephanie Levy
stephanielevy.etsy.com

48. You make two people happy. (buyer and seller)

Amy
amyb13.etsy.com

49. There's a personal connection between you, the product, and the product's creator. There's someone you can email and say "I love your product! Thank you!" and actually get a response back, which spreads the warm and fuzzies around for everyone.

50. Supporting handmade artists, which is absolutely vital in this current economy. We need to support local, small businesses and artists over the big corporations.

51. It's handmade! Someone's hands touched that product, and put their time, attention, and love into it. It wasn't mass-produced in some factory where several people attached one item to create the whole over and over and over again.

Molly Schlemmer
paperwire.etsy.com

52. ITS THE BEST WAY TO AVOID SHOPPING MALLS!

Cecile Blake

53. Exclusivity: Each of the handmade things is a unique and a one of a kind. There are not two handmade items that are the same, which makes each item a special object. Crafty hands are behind each object fabrication process, from the design sketches till the wrapping and shipping.

54. High Quality: the things I make are things I would buy. Many times I need things and when I look for them at the shops I don't find anything that I like or that covers my expectatives. And in fact, this is one of the reasons I began selling handmade things. It was common when I made one for me and then my friends began asking me for them.

55. No human explotaition, (but myself and since I enjoy doing the things it can't be called explotaition!): people that make handmade things usually control the whole 'fabrication' process. When we need someone else's services, we know the people who works with us and pay fair prices for their work. We like to ask for their families and know their children.

56. Environment careful : it is common to use recycled materials when making handmade items.

57. Boost creativity: everyone loves to see and have handmade items around! It makes people feel special! It inspires!

58. Handmade items are great works of art (at affordable prices)!

59. Customized items: how many times you like something someone's wearing and then you go to H&M and notice it was bought there?...and then, everyone is wearing it and all are uniformated.With handmade items you can be sure THIS will never happen!

60. Encourage traditions: how many happy hours have I spent learning how to knit with my mom and grandmom? There will never exist a knitting machine that can tell so many interesting stories!

61. You can always meet and talk directly with the designer, craftmaker or artist that made the piece you bought!...and we will be so happy to talk to someone who bought one of our handmade items!

Martha Gomez
popamox.etsy.com

62. Buying handmade gives me that instant feel-good factor, knowing I'm supporting a fellow artist and that my money goes directly to them. I love the personal touch, whether I'm emailing with a customer or talking to a seller - I get the best of both worlds! The handmade revolution has meant that art is suddenly so much more accessible, and the pleasure derived from having beautiful art in your home is made all the more special when you can email the artist and thank them.

Susannah Conway
unravelling.etsy.com

63. Have inbuilt positive energy and soul. Making things is fun- even when it’s your job. It’s the difference between buying something that was made carefully and joyfully rather then buying one of a million made in a factory by a machine. Yay Soul!

64. Money is well spent. Rather then most of the cost going towards the profit margin of a huge conglomeration you’re paying for a fair wage for one (or a few) people.

65. Special and unique. Even something that is handmade in multiples from patterns, cast, etc will still always be a unique and made just for you.

66. One of a kinds. You can have detail and personality in a handmade item that is hard for a machine to reproduce. It is actually better creatively for and artist/designer/crafter to make one offs.

67. Quirkier. Companies won’t commit vast machines/factories to make quirkier, riskier odder things at the risk of not selling 1000’s or millions of mass produced units. But that is exactly what is best and fun about making something oneself. Experimenting with new and different things! Odd shapes and combinations that may not be commercial but are definitely fun.

68. Connection and transparency. It is lovely to know where, how and by who something was made. I’m a born collector (and occasional documenter of said collections) and I love the personal aspect. I particularly love getting little bios with handmade things.

69. Made to last. Unlike Old Navy, Le Chateau, or the many other manufacturers who make things with a purposelessly short (seasonal) lifespan a handmade item will be made to last. This, of course, is much better for the environment. Quality over quantity!

70. Sincerity. People don’t hand craft things just to make money. They’re not just the product of a slick R&D department for profit. They make things that involve years of learned skills, passion, enthusiasm, commitment and sincerity.

Colleen Baran
colleenbaran.etsy.com

71. Buying handmade shows our children that not everything in this world needs to be mass produced. It teaches them to love and appreciate the unique and the imperfect. And it inspires them to do their own creating as well.

Jill Bent
Jill Bent Bags and Pillows
jillbent.com

72. By communicating directly with the artist you may be able to customize your item! If Target only sells that scarf in blue and > green, you can't ask to have it in black and white.

73. Individuals as opposed big groups tend to come up with more unique things. There is less need to compromise to suit the masses of group think. You support inventiveness and originality.

Nina Jackson
beadsinthebelfry.etsy.com

74. Buying handmade celebrates humanity.

Julie (jb) Booth
linkedin.com/in/juliebooth

75. Fosters the value of self-expression and creativity, which in turn will inspires everyone.

76. Is buying directly from the maker, which is a much more intimate and personal shopping experience that isn't available from corporate companies.

77. Shares a story; whether it's about the maker, the material used, or the origin, it adds more interest to the item itself. Knowing this increases one's appreciation of the object and decreases the likelihood of throwing it away.

78. Builds a higher appreciation for things they are made with quality, devotion, time, and care.

79. Embraces how things are made and where they come from. This keeps everyone more grounded and appreciative of things.

80. That are often one-of-a-kind and that in turn makes shoppers feel more special.

81. Delivers honestly made merchandise at a honest prices. Products are not marked up purely for their label, but they're priced to sustain a living for the maker.

82. Rewards creative thinking, entrepreneurship, and craftsmanship.

83. Encourages independent thinking that breaks corporation's homogenizing tendencies.

84. Typically supports goods made with greater consciousness of their environmental impact.

85. Embraces and celebrates the diversity of regional cultures, ideas, and resources from around the world.

86. Allows opportunities for customization where shoppers can participate in the creative process to further personalize the item.

87. Inspires collaborations that progressively build upon interesting ideas and products.

88. Celebrates the inherent variety in handmade goods that allows the buyer to more accurately express their own style and personality.

89. Supports the concept of keepin' it real!!

Chika, Dylan & Jean
Chikabird.etsy.com
ladiesandgentlemen.etsy.com

90. What everyone said, plus:

Handmade puts humanity back into our lives. You carefully choose something that you love, that was created with love, and will be received and cherished with love (if it's a gift)

http://www.nyhedy.etsy.com

91. Because we're individuals!

Sophie
duckduckgoosestuff.co.uk

92. Because you are not just buying an item, you are buying a piece of the artist. You are supporting the love, sweat, tears, future, family, confidence, mind, body and soul of that person. It creates an amazing relationship between 2 people: the buyer and seller. You are not just a customer, you are a supporter, a fan, a collector of art.

Kim Quinn Nicholson
kimquinndotcom.etsy.com
kimquinn.com

93. Avoid the malls! No crowds, no traffic, no sea of same, same, same, no depressing crush of commercialism.

94. As wonderful as the cyber world is, it is virtual, untouchable. In some ways it connects, in other ways it creates a disconnect—it can be all image and no substance. Handmade is a terrific balance to this tendency. Actual objects that are made by hand have a visceral connection to the real world and to real individuals. They connect and root us in the tangible world in a life-affirming way.

95. When you buy handmade, you buy from the producer. You aren't lining the over flowing pockets of some corporation or distanced executive. You are taking part in a process of revising our economic model to one that rewards hard work, talent, creativity, initiative and personal responsibility.

96. It's just simply delightful.

Erin Sledd
Key Lime Design
keylimedesign.net

97. I enjoy buying handmade toys for my children because you can't get toys that are so cool anywhere else. They are well made and many made with recycled items.

98. I also enjoy buying handmade because you can help design what your looking for its a whole different way of shopping.

Crunchy Crafts

99. Because somewhere out there in the world, you are helping sustain someone while fulfilling their DREAMS of being a painter, sculptor, milliner, printmaker, etc. without their having to worry about applying in a big corporation only to be told that "You're not what we're looking for at the moment."

100. Because somewhere out there in the world, you are providing additional financial support for stay at home moms, who have chosen to stay home to take care of their kids & provide personalized care & guidance for their children, who in turn will (hopefully) grow up to be better people who will have wonderful memories of their childhood with a parent.

101. Because you could own the next Rothko, Mapplethorpe, etc!


thegreenzebra.etsy.com
Proud member of Etsy Moms Street Team

Portland’s ‘young creatives’ tough it out - msnbc.com

Many well-educated adults willing to stay in hip town even without a job

The Associated Press

updated 5:32 p.m. ET July 25, 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. - Ceramics artist Heidi Sowa had her eyes set on Portland for years. The city was not too big, had a cohesive arts community and plenty of easygoing and helpful people.

Within weeks of arriving, she landed a gig making costumes for 8-inch puppets in "Coraline," a 3-D stop-motion animated movie. Her job ended last year, and the movie opened in theaters earlier this year.

Now, at 26, Sowa is living on unemployment, sleeping in a single room apartment and eating from a refrigerator in a studio she shares with other artists under a bridge ramp in Portland's industrial east riverbank.

And she's not planning to go anywhere.

Like thousands of well-educated young adults who have flocked to Portland, she is determined to weather a recession that is testing their affection for the city.

The newcomers, called the "young creatives" by local economists, have helped give Portland the reputation over the past two decades for being one of the hippest cities in the country. They have been lured by the city's brew pubs, bicycle and mass transit culture, access to mountains and seacoast, and a tolerant, off-center way of life.

Now, they are trying to hang on while hanging out.

'Easygoing and helpful'
Sowa cites the city's love affair with bicycles and mass transit, its scale and its mood for her decision to stay.

"It seems a small enough but a big enough place," she said. "It's easy to meet people, and the art community is cohesive. People tend to be pretty easygoing and helpful, too. I haven't met many abrasive people."

Sowa is keeping busy with a whirl of projects and prospects, ranging from film pitches with a "Coraline" colleague to fashion corsets — she helped a designer create them in exchange for learning the how-tos of a trendy garment.

A Portland economist who has studied the "young creatives" says Sowa is typical.

"It's not as if it's great somewhere else," said Joseph Cortright, chairman of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's council of economic advisers and author in 2005 of a study of young people and American cities, "The Young and Restless in a Knowledge Economy."

Cortright said the United States soon will face a shortage of well-educated workers. Baby boomers are retiring, he said, and the rising percentages of women and college graduates in the work force are leveling off.

That, he said, will make winners of cities such as Portland that offer creative, entrepreneurial young people something distinctive, whether it is warm climate, cool culture, a combination of the two or something else entirely.

Cities with 'stickiness'
Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas, are others that have Portland's "stickiness," he said, attracting outsize numbers of the 25- to 34-year-old cohort and keeping them.

High-tech entrepreneur Luke Sontag vows he'll stay in Portland despite a hard first year in town.

In September, Sontag led a crew of 34 high-tech workers on a latter-day "Oregon Trail" road trip, moving from Tulsa, Okla., in a convoy of rental vans and RVs, circling them at night on the western plains and building campfires to illuminate performances by the in-house band.

Within weeks after Vidoop Inc. arrived, the financial companies Sontag hoped to snag as customers were out of the market for his Internet security services. The layoffs started in November. The company, he said, was reincorporating, planning for new financing and workers.

In the meantime, he's plotting a company in mobile marketing with colleagues and living on savings. "If all went to hell with this, I would not be moving," he said. "I wouldn't give a flip if I had to pick up trash."

Living cheaply
Young creatives turn more often, though, to the coffee shops for work and their default job — barista.

Brodie Kelley, 29, is a comics artist and unpublished novelist who eventually landed a job behind a grocery store's deli counter. He tells a story about the competition for jobs slinging espresso drinks.

Attracted by an ad, he went into a jammed coffee shop, which he figured meant a thriving business and good prospects. Then the manager looked over the throng and said he'd begin taking applications: "But, first, is anyone here a customer?"

Some young creatives are nurturing enterprises on the cheap through co-working — renting space that's often loft-like with communal copiers and espresso machines. The environment is more businesslike than a home office.

CubeSpace, a prominent co-working spot, failed in June. Among the company's workers is Reid Beels, 24, a free-lance Web designer and programmer. He said CubeSpace was ideal for Saturday "code sprints," exercises in problem-solving that drew together otherwise independent high-tech workers.

These days, Beels said, he's doing his free-lance business out of coffee shops.

"I've been living very cheaply lately," he said. "I've still been doing enough work to pay the bills."

'I'm hanging in'
Hanging on in Portland is a month-to-month decision for 26-year-old Julia Sexton, who is originally from Florida. She came to Portland a few years ago to help a family member get married, and she fell in love with the scenery and the scene. "I couldn't believe this exists, the place I want to live," she said.

Hoping to work in interior design and architecture, she moved here for good last year. But she got laid off from a job in the sales room of a furniture builder in January. She sold her car, cashed her tax refund and hung on with family help.

"My grandma is awesome," she said.

By early July, she was working part-time and had a portfolio under consideration by an architectural firm. Her application, she said, is one of 41.

"I'm hanging in," she said. "I know this month's rent is paid for."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32143201/ns/us_news-life/page/2/

Your Consignment Assignment: Shop 'Til You Drop - examiner.com

June 29, 4:00 PM · Cathy Phillips - DC Fashion on a Budget Examiner

www.CurrentBoutique.com

Shopping consignment is one of the best deals out there. There are different kinds of second-hand retailers, and consumers often lump them all together and get discouraged from frequenting them. Vintage can sometimes still be pricey and thrift stores are usually 90% junk but the good consignment stores are filled with carefully selected product at amazing prices. Consignment stores mostly carry clothes, shoes and accessories that are only a few years old, were worn by the original user a handful of times and have been hand picked by the store owner as pieces that are still fabulous. And, lucky for the District fashionistas, there are several great consignment stores in the area! Three of my favorites are Current Boutique, Inga’s Once is Not Enough and New to You.

For the Socialista: Inga's Once is Not Enough is tucked away up a set of stairs on MacArthur Boulevard in Georgetown. Inga is known for her designer inventory. She carries tons of Chanel, Gucci, Manolo Blahnik and other higher end designers. Her pieces are not vintage but are often 3-5 years old, which lets you know that they can stand the test of time.

For the Recessionista: Current Boutique is located in Arlington, VA, along the Clarendon-Courthouse corridor. Owner, Carmen Lopez, is one of the city’s most stylish fashionistas and hand picks the best pieces from her regular consigners. She won’t take anything that is not in excellent condition, a good brand, and stylish. At Current, you'll find a lot of designer jeans such as Seven for All Mankind and Citizens of Humanity and brands such as Free People, BCBG and Trina Turk. And as the name suggests, her inventory is always current, I’ve even seen pieces in there that were still in the department stores, but at a third of the price of course.

For the Fabulista. New to You is another great treasure that can be found in Falls Church. The girls who work there are passionate about fashion and very knowledgeable about their inventory. They carry a wide range of brands from J.Crew to Moschino to Gucci. Their fabulous inventory always moves fast so check in every few weeks for the best finds!

And don't forget, if you have some fabulous pieces in your closet, in good condition, that don't fit or that you just don't wear, call these stores for more information on how to get some money for your unused wardrobe.

Turn Your Crafts Into Cash - ABCnews.com

Make Money in May: Sell Your Handmade Crafts

By TORY JOHNSON
Workplace Correspondent

May 22, 2009 —

The do-it-yourself movement has opened financial doors for people who love to make their own crafts.

Web sites like Etsy.com have made entrepreneurs of artists who peddle their wares  such as furniture, jewelry, stationery, clothing, cookies and so much more  with little overhead. That means lower prices for the consumer and greater income for the artist.

In April 2009 alone, Etsy buyers spent $12.6 million purchasing 786,825 items from the site.

Click here for all of our Make Money in May ideas.

Meet six talented women who nabbed some of that cash:

Lori Ward: MissRubySue.Etsy.com

This mom of four in Idaho got hooked on Etsy when she bombed at a craft fair. None of the locals wanted her funky necklaces and accessories. Ward knew she needed a global audience to appreciate her style. Now her sales average $3,500 a month, and after expenses, she's clearing a whopping $2,600. Not too shabby for a very talented woman who hadn't earned a paycheck in more than 14 years and was determined to help her husband cover the household expenses.

Success tip: Even though Etsy charges only 20 cents to list an item, Ward spends about $300 a month to refresh all her listings each day so they appear at the top of the results pages. (The company says it's about to introduce a newly formatted results option, which will help buyers and sellers with more relevant returns.)

Tracy Rowland: BlitheGardens.Etsy.com

This married mom in Kansas turned her passion for nature, gardening and recycling into a business selling beautiful terrariums. Rowland keeps her overhead low by using recycled mason and apothecary jars that she often finds at flea markets. Her prices range from $18 to $56, and she makes about $2,000 a month.

Success tip: High-quality photographs allow shoppers to see the detail of each item up close and personal. Repeat business is generated from satisfied customers who appreciate the level of care put into each creation.

Sherry Aikens: BabyPop.Etsy.com

From her home in a Philadelphia suburb, she's the seamstress to pint-size superheroes around the world who don her custom-made capes and costumes. Aikens sells an average of 250 pieces a month, pulling in $4,000.

Success tip: It's all about the price. Aikens said keeping the price low enough for moms to afford in this economy -- even though she's been told she can charge more -- keeps the orders coming.

Jessica Whiters: EllaBelleBoutique.Etsy.com

This Texas gal brings Hollywood glam to her jewelry. An Etsy favorite is green beauties inspired by Angelina Jolie's Oscar emeralds. She's generating about $500 a month in sales.

Success tip: Whiters promotes her pieces to blogs and offers free giveaways in exchange for exposure, which drives customers to her online shop.

Michelle Crafton: GooseGrease.Etsy.com

The GooseGrease shop on Etsy has made self-employment possible for two stay-at-home moms in Brooklyn, N.Y. They paint natural wood dolls for intricate wedding cake toppers and one-of-a-kind decorative objects. In the first four months of 2009, the duo raked in $20,000!

Success tip: Visibility on blogs, especially various Martha Stewart sites and top wedding blogs, has generated most of their sales.

Cheryl Ludwig: CherylLudwig.Etsy.com

This Bishop, Ga., artist turns ordinary stones into magical pieces called Starhearts, which are hand-painted and sprinkled with a touch of fairy dust. She's been a lifelong artist, but has just started to dabble on Etsy.

Success tip: Detailed descriptions that accurately explain the item and invoke a sense of whimsy and imagination have generated great responses from buyers.

The fine print: Etsy charges 20 cents per listing, plus 3.5 percent on every transaction. If you use PayPal to collect your money, prepare to give PayPal 2.9 percent, plus 30 cents per transaction, for payments made within the United States if you earn less than $3,000 a month. For $3,000 to $10,000 a month, the PayPal rate drops to 2.5 percent.

Etsy is not a site to slap up any old art project. The beauty of the site is the quality of the artists and their dedication to their craft. This isn't about getting rich quick; it's about turning a passion into cash.

Tory Johnson is the workplace contributor on "Good Morning America" and the CEO of Women for Hire. Connect with her at www.womenforhire.com or on Twitter.com/ToryJohnson.

Clive Thompson on the Revolution in Micromanufacturing - wired.com

See also : Can Etsy Save the Economy? @ re-nest/apartment therapy

Last summer I spent weeks shopping for an anniversary present for my wife. I searched all my usual retail sources but couldn't find anything that hit just the right note. Then I went to Etsy—an ecommerce site where artisans sell unique handmade goods—and found the microstore of ClockworkZero, a woman who turns old electronics gear into steampunk accessories. Presto: ClockworkZero's stuff was both gorgeous and geeky, precisely the vibe I craved. I came away with a necklace made from a vintage vacuum tube.

It turns out that I'm not alone in my search for that perfect one-off treasure. Judging from the explosive growth of Etsy and other online boutiques, the Web is spawning a curious new trend: micro-manufacturing. Consider the numbers. Etsy has 2 million users buying nearly $90 million worth of stuff annually. Its sales have increased twentyfold in the past two years. I was aware of the site but had dismissed it as some sort of urban-hipster thing—until I started seeing chatter about it on discussion boards for wealthy professionals and stay-at-home moms.

The economy may be cratering, but people are stampeding to handmade goods. Why? Part of it is a supply-side phenomenon: Thanks to the Web-fueled boom in DIY culture, there are more one-of-a-kind products being made. With sites like Instructables.com, Makezine.com, and Knithappens.com, it's now feasible to train yourself in a marketable craft using nothing but online guides. You can learn even derangedly complex knitting patterns or skills like circuit-soldering when you've got a YouTube video walking you through each step.

And if you're making awesome stuff in your spare time, pretty soon you'll start thinking: Hey, I could sell this, couldn't I? Not a bad way to recession-proof your household.

The other side of the equation is demand. The Etsy guys attribute their success in part to customers tiring of cookie-cutter products. "The '90s were the period of wearing big-box names on your chest," says Adam Brown, who heads up Etsy's cooperative advertising program. The site's popularity may also be a reaction to the slightly sour, rummage-sale feel that taints eBay, progenitor of the modern microbusiness.

But I believe our craving for one-off goods goes deeper yet. Digital culture has always been about customization and individuality: blogging your thoughts, designing monster houses in The Sims, Flickring your life, crafting unviewable MySpace backgrounds. It's all about creating a personalized aesthetic. After years of molding the digital world to suit our style, is it any wonder we want to do the same to the physical realm?

As Virginia Postrel wrote in her superb book The Substance of Style, Americans have become more discriminating over the past few decades. In the '60s and '70s, we worried about getting good-quality stuff, she says, because mass-market manufacturing was often of such poor quality. But most products these days are decent: the bargain-basement TV you get at Best Buy will last 15 years. So now we're focusing more on aesthetics, beauty, and uniqueness.

Indeed, as this market evolves, the physical world is going to be increasingly customized—built to your specs by craftspeople. Etsy now runs a service that lets you describe something you want—a pair of pants, a shoulder bag, a table—and how much you'll pay, then artisans can offer to make it for you. (Ponoko.com has a similar setup.) And as high-end atom-hacking tools like 3-D milling and laser cutting become cheaper, those folks on Etsy will be able to quickly deliver you customized versions of a huge array of personal products: Laptops, bicycles, even robots. The Age of Bespoke Everything, as it were.

Oh, and for the record: My wife loved the necklace.

Email clive@clivethompson.net.