Wednesday, 21 November 2012

How-Tuesday: Stitched Snowflake Ornament

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/how-tuesday-stitched-snowflake-ornament/?ref=fp_blog_image

Published on Nov 20, 2012 in Make

We’ll be crafting in a winter wonderland with this week’s How-Tuesday post. Jessica Marquez from Miniature Rhino is here to lead you through a project glittering with seasonal cheer from her beautiful new book, Stitched Gifts.

A winter snowfall is something I never thought I’d look forward to. Growing up in perpetually sunny Southern California, I hardly experienced the seasons — I thought winter ended in December when all the TV programs stopped airing their holiday shows. When I moved to upstate New York, I learned that this is not at all the case. While I may never fully acclimate to blustery winters, I do love the snow. Nothing is more seasonal for me than white, blanketed streets and snowy days. Celebrate the season with this little snowflake ornament, and if you’re on the sunnier side of things, these will help you create your own little bit of winter. You can also find a ornament kit with all the materials you need to make this project in my Etsy shop.

You Will Need:
Ornament Template
Tracing paper
Pencil and eraser
Extra Fine Point Sharpie
Ruler
Transfer method (transfer paper or tear-away stabilizer suggested; see pattern instructions)
Water-soluble pen or hot iron transfer pen (optional)
3″ (7.5 cm) embroidery hoop
5″ x 5″ (12.5 x 12.5 cm) square of fabric, ironed
4″ x 4″ (10 x 10 cm) piece of Sulky Stiffy, or Pellon Stitch-N-Tear stabilizer (optional)
Sewing pins
Embroidery Thread (DMC brand thread shown in #3865/off white)
Size 5 embroidery needle
Fabric glue
Ribbon

Directions:
1. First, do you want to create a custom date? If yes, use the template to create the date on a piece of tracing paper. Trace the snowflake and the dashed lines under where your numbers will be to help with spacing. To add numbers for your custom date, line up the straight dashed lines with the bottom of the desired number and trace. You can use a pencil to make the initial marks, and then trace over with an Extra Fine Point Sharpie.

2. Choose your transfer method. If you are going to stitch onto a dark fabric, use transfer paper
method or tear-away stabilizer. For lighter fabrics, any transfer method will work well (water-soluble pen, transfer paper, or iron-on transfer pen or pencil). Transfer the pattern in the medium that is best for you.

Transfer Paper Method:
Transfer paper is a general-purpose crafting material, and itt works much like carbon paper. Layer the template over a sheet of transfer paper face-down over your fabric. Make sure all the layers are securely in place by taping them down to your work surface with painter’s tape. Then, with a dull pencil, pen, or tracing stylus, trace over the lines of the template. I like Loew Cornell and Saral transfer papers, which both come in a variety of colors, are easy to transfer, and are reusable. Do not use a graphite transfer paper, because it is permanent and won’t wash out.

Tear Away Stabilizer Method:
For this transfer method, use Sulky Tear-Easy, or a light T-shirt stabilizer. Usually, this material is used under your fabric, but here we use it on top of your fabric as a light, transparent medium. This might seem a bit strange, because you will stitch through the stabilizer over your fabric. But I use this method all the time, because it is fast and easy. Just trace your pattern onto the tear-away material, pin it with sewing pins onto your stretched fabric in the hoop, and just stitch as you normally would. Tear away the stabilizer from your image when you’re done stitching.

For the tear-away method, trace the template with an Extra Fine Point Sharpie onto a piece of Sulky Tear-Away Stabilizer. If you made a custom date, trace that too. Set aside.

3. Mount the fabric in the embroidery hoop. If you’d like a sturdier stitch surface, use a backing stabilizer (such as Sulky Stiffy or Pellon Stitch-N-Tear) behind your fabric. Both the fabric and stabilizer should be pulled smooth and taut in the embroidery hoop. If you are using the tear-away method, pin your pattern to the mounted fabric with sewing pins, which is how I transferred this pattern.

4. Now let’s get to the stitching. The thread I’m using has six strands, or plies, which can be easily separated to create stitches of varying thicknesses. Here’s what I did:

Snowflake: 4-ply back stitch. Start from the outermost point of one of the snowflake’s arms. Because this shape is not a continuous line, it’s okay to jump around a bit. Plus, if you’re going to mount it in the hoop, who is going to see?

Date: 4-ply back stitch.

Small stars: 2-ply cross-stitch and star stitch. Create dimension by varying the length of the star arms and the thread count for a few stars. Do some 4-ply, some 3-, some 2-, and so on. Try different colors, too.

5. A 3″ (7.5 cm) embroidery hoop makes the perfect frame for this piece and is easy to hang as an ornament from the hoop’s hardware. To secure the fabric to the hoop, cut a 1/2″ (12 mm) fabric allowance from the back of the hoop and cut away all stabilizer. Cut the fabric edges into small sections, like tabs about 1″ (2.5 cm) or so apart.

Secure the tabs to the inner wooden hoop with fabric glue, or for a quick fix, use a glue gun. Paint on the fabric with a small brush and push the tabs of the fabric down with your fingers. While fabric glue will dry clear, it can darken the fabric. Make sure to keep your fingers off of the front of the piece and that your work surface is clear of any glue. Fabric glue takes a few hours to dry.

Attach a ribbon and hang up your ornament!

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Mending moth holes with moths, a short tutorial

http://ninimakes.typepad.com/nini_makes/

This was meant for a magazine last year but the mending theme for the issue changed and I was too busy to follow it up so I happily tucked it away to share here for another day.

I often wear huge sweaters around the house with lots of layers underneath. My wintertime mantra is the same as my father's when I was young and complained about a cold house "Put on more clothes." This particular sweater was discarded by it's previous owner when his beer belly outgrew it so I snapped it up to layer with. Unfortunately the moths nibbled a big hole in the shoulder and some smaller ones in the front.

Lisa took some amazing moth pictures a while back and I thought, I might not mind moth holes so much if they were made by those beauties. Then thought, why not cover up the holeswith those beauties (I wouldn't choose the ugly little grey critters that really make the holes).

So I made some drawings of my favourites and pulled them into Illustrator, I was pleased with the way they turned out as line art. I then did some watercolour sketches of my moth selection and created a new pattern set of five moths. So I offer you up one moth patch, click here to download. If you'd like the whole page of five moth illustrations with my watercolour sketch as a guide they're available on my pattern page.

On this sweater I've used two moth patches. The patch above (antheraea polyphemus) I made by embroidering on to felt and needle felting a body. The patch on the front (gnophaela vermiculata) is mostly needle felted with a little black stitched detailing.

This is how to make the patches

First cut out the moth shape from paper.
Then trace it onto a piece of felt or felted wool that is a similar colour to the moth body. I find a ball point (biro) pen the best tool for tracing onto felt. You will want to either cut off the pen mark or stitch over it to hide it.
Next cut around the moth, not right on the line, leave space around it.
Then fill in the moth with embroidery stitches and/or needle felting. I used both embroidery and needle felting for both of these patches.
Referring to a picture of the moth, pick up the thread and start drawing with it. Just start stitching, if you haven't freehand stitched before you'll be surprised at how your hands can use the needle like a pencil. Moths are a particularly good subject to try this with because they are symetrical and therefore easier to position each element in.
When you finish the details of your moth, cut it out, close to the edge but not right on it.
Next prepare your hole for your patch. I mended the holes with a simple darning stitch using mending wool. If you've never mended a sweater before I just searched around for tutorials and found this one on Martha Stewart but any vintage family sewing book should show you. The mending step might seem silly since the hole will be covered up, but mending it first will help your sweater withstand future washes better.
Using mending wool or a couple of strands of embroidery thread, cover your mended hole with the patch and hand stitch around it. Be careful of your tension while stitching. If you pull the thread too tight while stitching the sweater will pucker around the patch, too loose and the patch won't look tidy.
Finally, add the antenae straight on to your sweater being sure to start your stitches under the top of the moth's head to hide the join, again, watch the tension in your stitching.

Hope you have a go. If you download the pattern let me know how you use it, or add an image to the Created with Nini Flickr Group. I'm no nature Illustrator so this art is not exactly accurate for the purists out there, the gnophaela vermiculata for example is much bluer than a real one, but my water colour dried darker than I thought it would and you know I love my blues :)

If you do regular mending and you're on Flickr, join Scrapiana's Big Mend Flickr group to share your mends. She also recently posted a moving piece about sandblasted jeans on her blog; read it, I gaurantee you will shop more carefully for jeans in the future, I know I will.

Happy Wednesday!

Crayon tinting

Found this when I signed on today and thought that it was a wonderful idea.

http://littledeartracks.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/crayon-tinting.html

Hey there crafty people, here is the next installment in my embroidery tutorial series, color tinting! This is a really easy and fun way to add extra color to your embroidery. Did you see the free embroidery pattern I posted here yesterday? That's what I'll be using for this project, if you missed it, you can find it right here. Besides your fabric, pattern and embroidery supplies, you will need some crayons, white paper, and an iron.

Step 1. Transfer your pattern to fabric. I used a plain pencil and light table for mine this time. Now get out your crayons! Place your fabric onto a hard surface and LIGHTLY begin filling in spaces with color. Get creative! your project will look great if you add a little blending. Start with the lightest color and blend in darker shades around the edges. For instance, on my leaves I filled them in with a light yellow green, then added a medium/darker green at the edges, then a tiny bit of aqua blue at the tips. It is important to not press too hard, but just use very light strokes. You can go back and make your colors darker if you want to, after step 2.

Step 2. When you're done coloring, place your fabric on a towel or ironing board and the paper on top of it. Iron over the paper on the hottest setting. This will set the color into the fabric, and also remove any access wax. Iron for a few minutes, until no more wax is being released onto the paper.

3. Embroider your lines any way you like! I like to use floss a shade or two darker than the colored areas it is outlining. When you're done you'll have a unique embroidery piece you can frame, use in a quilt, or use however you like.

If you stitch up the free pattern, please add your photos to the Doodle Stitching flickr group!

I hope you enjoy this fun little project! If you did, be sure and watch for my next book, Doodle Stitching- The Motif Collection, comes out in October! It's already up for preorder on Amazon. It has lots and lots of patterns, and some really fun projects too.

Saturday, 6 October 2012

Make Custom Perfume Wedding Favors

pipettes

Tip: To make a dozen half ounce perfume tins, you will need 4 oz carrier oil, 2 oz beeswax, and 120-150 drops essential oil.

If you’re new to perfumery, stick with one essential oil or simple blends of 2 or 3 scents. Add your chosen essential oils to a small amount of carrier oil in a jar. (Tip: Jojoba oil is a favorite carrier, as it has little smell of its own and a long shelf life.) As you add the essential oils, carefully note the number of drops used (you may wish to make more of the blend later). For the smoothest result, add the oils in the order of heaviest to lightest – base, middle, then top notes. Test by smelling above the container (not into it) and on your skin, using a chopstick. Test a few times; oil blends change with time. I recommend waiting 48 hours for the perfume oil to settle so you can get an accurate whiff.

Measure out plain carrier oil and wax (start with 2:1 by weight, or 1:1 volume). Pour the oil into a stainless steel or enamel pot, and heat it gently on the stove using the lowest heat. Keeping the heat low, carefully add the beeswax, blending continuously using a chopstick until the wax melts entirely into the oil. Remove the pot from heat. Test the consistency by getting some of the mix on a spoon; let it cool off on a paper towel for a few minutes. When it is cooled and appears solid, test it with your finger. If it feels too soft, add more wax to the pot; if too hard, add more oil.

Add your essential oils to the base. Heat can ruin essential oils, so be very careful if you have to reheat the base; keep the mix under 120˚ Fahrenheit. Test your solid perfume with a spoon and on your skin; add more ingredients if needed, until you have the desired scent intensity.

While your perfume mix is still liquid (reheat gently if necessary), pour it into the tins. Wait until the mix is set (hardened and cooled), before moving the tins, closing the lids, or cleaning up any spills; this should take under 10 minutes. Decorate to your heart’s content!

Decorating Ideas
I have a weakness for sealing my perfume tins with Japanese washi paper tape — it’s easy, eco-friendly, inexpensive, sturdy and comes in irresistible colors and designs. You can also incorporate ribbons, twine, rhinestones, dried flowers and other small decorations in colors that complement the theme of your day.

Happy sniffing!

Getting Financing for Your Business

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/getting-financing-for-your-business/

Story by Dana Mauriello

Published on Aug 16, 2012 in Seller Handbook

Photo by annasee

Sometimes it takes money to make money. Most sellers start their businesses with very little cash, but reach a point in their growth where they need access to more money to achieve their goals. There’s no doubt that loans can be intimidating and scary. This post is intended to make the whole world of capital access a little more approachable.

Before You Get Funding

First, consider your goals and your budget:

decoylab

1. Know your goals
What are your business goals? You have to know where you want to go before you can figure out how to get there! Try to put your goals in financial terms, such as: “I would like to sell enough to make $x this year.” Avoid the tempting trap of making loose goals, like: “I want to make as much as possible.” I’ve found that it’s much more useful to create a few smaller goals than one big one. For example, you can easily turn “I want to make as much as possible” into “I want to make $x next month; $y by the end of the year; etc.”

2. Know your budget
Once you know where you want to go, think about the path to get there. If you want to make $x this year, how much money do you need to spend? Maybe you need a new piece of equipment to make your production more efficient or maybe you need to run a big marketing campaign to drive traffic to your shop. Be as specific as possible with your budget and research costs thoroughly so you aren’t guessing – there’s nothing worse than finding the money to get a new piece of equipment and realizing it actually costs more than you thought.

Learn more: Budgeting tips

3. Be cost efficient
Go back over your budget; what do you really need to spend to reach your goal? It’s easy to think that you need to spend more money than you really do to reach your goals. Here are some common mistakes to look for:

Su Evers

Tina of Better Off Wed saves money by using equipment in a co-working space. Read more in her Featured Seller interview.

Overpaying for materials or equipment – A brand new, top of the line sewing machine would look great in your studio, but is it necessary to reach your goal? Could you share equipment costs with neighboring artists, barter a trade with others on your team for used equipment, or use equipment at a co-working space, like Tina from BetterOffWed? On the materials side, are you getting the best prices by buying in bulk?
Overpaying for marketing – Sometimes the best marketing is free. Before beginning to raise capital for a Super Bowl TV spot (just kidding… I hope!), think about how you can leverage PR, word of mouth, social media, and Etsy community resources like theTreasury, Teams, etc.

Funding Option 1: Making More Money

You have an operating business, so option 1 for getting more money should be increasing your revenues. Consider the following:

Reconsider your pricing: In addition to raising your prices, consider other elements of the pricing equation. Finding less expensive supply sources and finding ways to save time will help you create better profit margins.

Learn more: The Art of Pricing for Profit

Creative marketing: Hosting events such as trunk shows, teaching classes (I loveSkillshare for this), sales, social media, cross-promotions with other artists, reaching out to bloggers, and finding ways to get more traffic from Etsy and various search engines are just a few of the many ways of getting out there.

Funding Option 2: Outside Sources of Funding

Your second option for capital is to look for outside sources. If you go this route, it’s important that you feel like you are offering a great opportunity to those who put money into your business, not asking for a handout. If you aren’t confident in your business, you can’t expect anyone else to be. If you are confident in your business, here are some great capital options to consider:

Friends and family fundraising: This is one of the most common ways that businesses get money when they are getting started (even big companies like Whole Foods). Financial gain is not the primary motivation for most friends and family lenders – they lend because they believe in you and your business. No one is saying this is easy – taking loans from people close to you is often uncomfortable and can stress relationships. You can prevent that by using clear, fair terms (you can make a simple contract), including people in your journey (sending frequent updates, free products, etc.), and taking smaller amounts from multiple people.

Ryan and Tilney of MAN vs. GEORGE raised money with their Kickstarter fundraiser. This is the print they gave to their supporters.

Crowdfunding: When you crowdfund, you use a site like Kickstarter to publicly tell your story and raise money from many people to reach your financial goal. Contributors get something from you (a thank you card, one of your products, an invitation to a special event, etc.) based on how much money they contributed. There’s a great fundraising story in this article from Man vs. George, an Etsy seller who wanted to raise $4,000 on Kickstarter to go to the National Stationery Trade Show. It can be a lot of work to successfully implement a campaign, but there are great marketing benefits in addition to the fundraising.

Small business loans from an MFI: When you think of getting capital, you probably think of bank loans first. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are a different type of lending institution offering smaller loans, looser lending criteria, and financial education. This is a good option to consider if you want to build your credit for future loans and growth. ACCION is a great MFI to consider – you can learn more here.

Loans based on sales: You might also consider taking out a loan that is repaid based on how much you sell. Kabbage is a lender that will lend to you instantly through an online application based on your current sales on Etsy — lean more here. If you are starting to get into wholesale, this could be an interesting option for getting the money to buy materials to produce the order before your invoice is paid.

Money doesn’t make your business. A successful business takes having great products that people love, creative marketing, thoughtful management and much more. To be sure, you can do it all with very little money, but you know that you have options. It’s up to you what goals you set and which path you choose to get there. Onward!

The Seller Handbook | Four Lessons for Financial Success

Getting a Helping Hand

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/etsy-success-getting-a-helping-hand/?ref=fp_blog_title

Story by Dana Mauriello

Published on Oct 04, 2012 in Seller Handbook

Photo by ChronicArtAttack

The holidays are approaching and with them, increased demands on your time. We’re here to tell you that you don’t need to do everything yourself! Everyone could use a helping hand. This post is all about practical advice for getting that aid in ways that are consistent with building a sustainable, responsible business on Etsy.

Friends

When Nguyen of KnitKnit got a big order with a quick turnaround time, she knew she couldn’t do it herself and considered turning it down. Instead, she got a little help from her friends. Nguyen had recently been to an Etsy Craft Party and met a group of new friends whom she called on to save the day. She ordered a good dinner, put on a funny movie, provided the supplies and invited them over for a night of knitting. She was prepared to pay people or make a trade, but it turned out that everyone was just happy to participate in the fun experience that she created.

This strategy works well if you have a one-time task to do that takes just a few hours. Invite a few friends so it’s social. Even organizing inventory can be fun if you have three people participating in a sing along — get creative!

Barter

The friends method is not as effective if you need recurring help or if you need specialized skills. In that case, think about bartering. You might barter with your team. For example, The EtsyNY Team, has a system in which sellers can ask for help with something (assembling or packing items and distributing marketing materials are common requests) and teammates who help them are given points. These points can be redeemed for priority access to the team’s craft shows or advertising on the team website, a system that they created to reward those who participate most heavily in the community. Team leader Jason says, “It’s important to reward small business owners for helping each other, especially in a cooperative team environment. The EtsyNY Team’s points system works so well because it creates a common currency that makes perfect reciprocity less necessary, it broadens the overall base of support and enables business owners from different trades to support one another.”

If you need the help of someone with a specific skill, like photography, consider finding the person that you want to work with and offering them a trade. Stephanie Ann ofStitchesByStephann, finds photographers on Facebook whose work she likes and sends them a message to see if they would be interested in a trade. She says, “There are so many photographers out there who are looking to get a bit of advertising (and some free photo props as well). I send them a hat I would like photographed and they send me 4 or 5 pics back that I can use in my shop. They get to keep the hat and get some free advertising. I get free photos. So it is a win-win!” There are even teams to help you facilitate these trades including the Professional Product Photography for Props Trade Team and thePhotographers and Prop Makers Team.

As-Needed Helpers

Sites like TaskRabbit are a great solution if you need on-demand help with tasks related to your Etsy business. Think packing up your orders, taking boxes to the post office, or picking up supplies. You can post any task that you need done on taskrabbit.com/etsy and local people in your community will quickly start sending you offers to do the work. The people who are responding to your requests are already vetted for safety and ability via background checks and interviews.

Valerie, of Walnutstudiolo, recently used TaskRabbit to find someone to mail out her orders while she was on vacation, which gave her peace of mind and ensured she didn’t come home to a crushing amount of work. Her advice to making the relationship successful is: be as specific as possible in your request, hire someone with direct experience in the task, and be patient if they don’t do the task as quickly or in the same way that you would do it yourself. She also hires people for tasks with the intention of considering a recurring relationship if the person does a great job. This way, she only needs to train someone once.

We set up a page on TaskRabbit for Etsy sellers with sample tasks involved in managing your shop already filled in for you. You can use TaskRabbit from anywhere in the world if you are looking for virtual help (listings, online marketing, etc.), but it is currently only available in certain US cities for in-person help. If you are looking for in-person help and don’t live in one of those cities, let us know so that we can try to find solutions in your area too!

Interns

Interns are a good solution if you need ongoing help and have the patience and interest in training someone new to your field. Often interns, or apprentices, are happy to work without cash compensation if you are providing them with the education and experience that they crave. Nicole from LadyPancake is also an art teacher and had offered students the opportunity to work with her to learn how to make a passion for creating art into a profession. She took on as many as 6 interns at a time and loved the sense of community and the fresh voices around her that kept her spirits high on tough days. She recommends asking your intern what they are interested in learning and making sure that you are giving them an experience that provides the kind of education and exposure that they want. Providing a great experience might require a lot of your time to train and answer questions, but it can be a fair trade if you aren’t providing monetary compensation.

Many schools have formal internship programs year-round and you can get in touch with their Career Development Center to post your opportunity.

Assistants

If you need really reliable business-critical help on an ongoing basis, you should find someone qualified, put a contract in place, cultivate an ongoing relationship, and pay them a fair rate.

But how? Rebecca of Rschone hired her mother (whose smiling face is on the shop About page), the talented seamstress who taught her the craft, to help sew her custom wedding dresses. Money was a sensitive subject and at first her mother refused, but Rebecca insisted on paying (per piece based on market rates) and signing a contract. “It’s easy to take free help for granted, but in the end it’s just not fair to take advantage like that. Also, if the help is free, then it is a favor and I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking her to rush an order or be accountable to deadlines.” Rebecca puts together an organized package of materials, patterns, and instructions for her mother to work on in her own time. She also tries to give her similar dresses to work on so that she can develop an expertise in that style. She leaves the unique custom pieces and rush orders to do herself.

Sharon and Jim from Bumbershoot Supplies hired their 18-year-old daughter Emma to help with marketing. They set up weekly contracts with Emma that outline the work to be done, their expectations, and the pay. By keeping the contracts to only one week, Emma can leave at anytime if she decides the relationship isn’t working for her. Sharon and Jim also try to make the experience as valuable for Emma as possible with lots of mentoring, exposure to business issues, and opportunities to offer opinions and ideas on strategy.

Not everyone’s lucky enough to find the talent they need in their own family (or wants to work with their family!). The same advice from Rebecca, Sharon, and Jim holds true for finding assistants or professional service providers outside of relatives. Starting someone on a trial basis and paying by the piece, project, or hour without an ongoing commitment is a great way to begin a relationship and learn as you go.

Just a reminder that Etsy’s policies welcome you to include assistants in the production of your product and the running of your business, as long as the relationship meets the criteria in our DOs and DON’Ts. Here’s a quick summary:

Oversee your helpers. The responsibility for running the shop still falls on you as the shop owner.
On Etsy, it’s “handmade by you.” You can use a production assistant or outside vendor to help only with a small part of creating your items; the majority of the making should be done by you or members of your shop who are noted on your About page.
If you’re only using occasional outside help for tasks like packaging, photography or marketing, then you don’t need to consider those temporary helpers members of your shop.
If you develop a great relationship with a specific helper who becomes a regular and vital part of running your business, give credit where it’s due, and mention them on your About page.

We believe in the power of independent, creative businesses at Etsy. We support you in your journey to grow your business to whatever level you chose — remember that “independent” does not have to mean alone!

What do you need help with as you manage and grow your business?

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Quit Your Day Job: Monster Kookies

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/quit-your-day-job-monster-kookies/?ref=fp_blog_title

Quit Your Day Job: Monster Kookies

Story by monsterkookies

Published on July 03, 2012 in Seller Handbook

Photo by Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

Tell us about your shop and the idea behind it.The name Monster Kookies is a simple summary within itself, really: it’s the fusion of cutesy, creepy, and delicious. Some of my first clay creations started out as food and then warped into something strange, like my tentacle cupcake – one of the first polymer clay pieces that really got the ball rolling. The reaction I got to it fueled the fire for more crazy creations like the Killer Cupcake and Intestine Cupcakes.

There have been many strange reactions from people over the years. I once had someone run away from my table setup yelling “eeeeew” and flailing their arms because they saw some of my Intestine Cupcakes. I found it pretty entertaining.

Tell us about your previous working situation and how you discovered Etsy.When I finished chef school, I thought about going back to the kitchen, but I really didn’t like the “go-go-go! get it out, get it out!” pace, not to mention the hours and strange scheduling. Not being able to hang out with your friends when they are out and about on the weekend or not being able to get together with the family on holidays can be a real downer.

At the same time, I started dabbling in polymer clay. At first, I sold only to friends and family, but then a friend told me about Etsy and said that I should check it out. I did, eventually. It took a month or two to make my first sale, but getting the word out there onDeviantArt and Facebook definitely helped motivate me. People really had a lot to say about it, and I even developed a small following. So I kept it up, and practiced my fingers off.

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

What steps did you take to prepare for transitioning into full-time Etsy selling?
I didn’t prepare. It was like being at the pool and having someone come along and throw you into the deep end when you don’t know how to swim. I learned everything from trial and error. It wasn’t easy at first, and there were definitely months when I called my parents hoping that they might help me make the rent. I am very thankful for that. I definitely hated asking for the help, though. I’ve always been stubborn and independent. Regardless of whether or not people thought this was a “real job,” I was going to do it, even if I had to live on sardines and crackers to get there.

Living a relatively cheap lifestyle helped. Renting an all-inclusive hole-in-the-wall down the street from a cheap market made things a lot easier. I did a lot of walking, and I used public transit. I didn’t have any expensive habits, and my hobby was also my income. I got by. Barely – but I got by.

What is your favorite part in the jewelry making process?
The detail work. Whether it is all the little rivets, textures and panelling that it takes to create an industrial piece, or adding all of the little suction cups to colourful tentacles. My favourite is probably gear work, even though it is the most time consuming. I’ve got a large metal tin box that contains one or two pounds of watch parts that I have collected. I bend the light at my desk as close to the work surface as possible and get out the tweezers. One by one (as I go cross-eyed), I place the gears and watch parts onto the painted clay, trying to get it so the gears and parts actually look like they could possibly function. It’s very therapeutic, I think.

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

What’s been your most popular item or line to date?It goes in phases. The most consistently popular would probably be Barbed Rosette and Fabricated Heartbeat – two hearts from my Industrial Heart Collection. But then the Mechanical Birdies, Steambunnehs, and MechOwlies (especially) are also picking up steam.

When I started making my industrial pieces almost four years ago, I had not heard of “steampunk,” until someone described one of my creations that way. I had to look it up. I’m sure the increasing popularity of steampunk has something to do with the popularity of some of my creations.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job?Technically, I still consider it a day job. When my fiancé gets up to go to work, I get up to go to my clayspace. When he’s finished at five, that’s when I stop. What I like the most, though, is that it’s flexible. If I want to go somewhere on a particular day, I usually can – I don’t need to ask for a day off. Of course, the fact that I don’t have to get all pretty and dressed up for work is also a bonus. I sometimes wander right from bed straight to the clayspace, and I think that’s definitely nice. No commute!

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

What are your best marketing tips?

Sometimes the best kind of marketing is good old fashioned word of mouth. Make a few specific pieces of jewellery for yourself, wear them on a regular basis, and then carry a bunch of business cards with you wherever you go. Chances are that the people who compliment your jewellery may be interested (or know someone who may be interested) in purchasing something like it.
On Etsy, it’s vital that you have clear photos that depict the details of your work and use good tags/keywords for each listing.
Picking one or two websites to post on frequently and consistently is good. If you post on a whole range of sites, I find that the quality of the posts tends to suffer. Pick a few and keep at it. Schedule it if you must – pick a certain day or time that you post, and stay on it. I used to post on a number of sites, but now I just keep it to my two favourites – DeviantArt and Facebook.

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

What tool or technique has been the most effective in getting buyers to your shop?I find that people really like to hear the stories behind the things that I make. For example, in my Industrial Heart Collection, each original design was created for a particular individual. I like to tell people where the idea came from, what sort of concept I was working around, and most importantly, who it was made for. I can’t even begin to tell you the stories I have heard from folks who have requested hearts and the reasons why they want to purchase one. Some of them have been amazing and others have been heartbreaking, but they’ve all been stories that are worth sharing.

I developed a large following in the beginning because I shared these stories on DeviantArt, where pictures are paired with descriptions. People started watching me because they were interested in the stories behind the pieces. I don’t make as many Industrial Heart designs as I used to (I am up to over 140 now), but the stories are still there, being read about.

What’s the hardest part about running your own business?Only having two hands. My busiest time of year is usually around late October to the end of January, when people are buying gifts. Sometimes the amount of orders can be overwhelming, especially when the amount of time involved in creating each piece is quite substantial.

There will be slow days, and sometimes you’ll start to wonder if there is something wrong. But that’s just the way of it – sometimes it’s slow, and other times it isn’t. When you make unique items, you need to stay consistently creative in order to keep people interested. If you don’t come up with new ideas on a regular basis, people can get bored, and suddenly you will be yesterday’s news. That can be a little draining, so it’s good to take a break once in a while, even if it’s through some sort of other outlet. My other outlet is chainmaille. I enjoy the repetition, and it requires more manual dexterity than creativity, so it gives the brain a rest for a little while.

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

What’s the most exciting thing that’s come of selling your designs on Etsy?About a year ago, my work was published in 1000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Art & Gear by Dr. Grymm and Barbe Saint John. This August, my work will be featured in Steampunk: A Complete Guide to Victorian Techno-Fetishism by Vienna Von Schwarz.

It’s also very exciting is to be sitting behind your table at a craft show and hear people tell you that they visit your Etsy shop on a regular basis. Meeting customers in person is exciting, especially when they are wearing the item you created just for them.

What advice would you give to someone considering a similar path?

There are about a billion people creating jewelry. In order to be successful, you need to do something that sets you apart from everyone else. You need to have that extra detail that makes people stop in their tracks and go, “Oh, that looks interesting!” If you can’t make it bigger or more elaborate than anyone else, then find a way to do it better.
Take a walk. Getting away from the workspace can definitely be good for the brain juices. If you’re home all by yourself all day, it can get very lonely. Take time to see your friends. Do something for yourself. Even getting yourself a part-time gig or volunteer position can be good for getting out of the house.
Be prompt and be friendly. If someone messages you, don’t let it sit for a week – people get really discouraged. Answer all their questions, be kind and considerate, and be polite. Yes, sometimes people will ask you the same questions over and over again or get a little short with you if they are on a deadline or something, but just keep your cool and handle it with care.
Take a look at what is selling and what isn’t. Think of ways to make the items that aren’t selling better. There are tons of tutorials and information all over the place to educate yourself in areas that you may not specialize in. Descriptive writing and product photography are some good examples.

Rob Boyce of Your Life In Stills Photography

Anything else you would like to share?Make sure that you take care of yourself. Sometimes the hours in owning your own shop can be long and draining, and once you’re in work mode, you may not stop until you’re finished. Take time to eat, get out of the house, spend time with friends and family, sleep, and just get away from the workspace. It’s worth it. You aren’t going to be up to your full potential if you let yourself fall between the cracks.

Little Things

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

How-Tuesday: Stitched Snowflake Ornament

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Mending moth holes with moths, a short tutorial

Crayon tinting

Saturday, 6 October 2012

Make Custom Perfume Wedding Favors

Getting Financing for Your Business

Before You Get Funding

Funding Option 1: Making More Money

Funding Option 2: Outside Sources of Funding

Getting a Helping Hand

Friends

Barter

As-Needed Helpers

Interns

Assistants

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Quit Your Day Job: Monster Kookies

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/quit-your-day-job-monster-kookies/?ref=fp_blog_title

Quit Your Day Job: Monster Kookies

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