THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED JANUARY 1, 2009 IN WOODLAND’S DAILY DEMOCRAT:
Local artisans share their crafts with family and the Internet
By KARLA HERNANDEZ
While most rushed to retail stores to finish last-minute holiday shopping, a few Woodland artists spent hours at home, making sure others could give a dazzling, personalized gift.
Shopping at the mall and departments stores may have been tressful this past holiday, and online shopping is always risky, if not impersonal. However, an online market place is pushing communication between creator and consumer to the forefront, and has sparked the interest of a few Woodland crafters.
Online market places, like eBay.com and Craigslist.com, are not something new, but Etsy.com has opened a more down-to-earth venue for people to sell items that they specifically make by hand. Etsy has a 20 cent listing fee per item, and a 3.5 percent fee on the final sale price of each item sold, but creating a shop is free and there are no overhead or monthly fees.
Etsy is not new either, it launched in June 2005, but over the last few months four Woodland shops have popped up on the Web site, and some saw increased traffic during the holiday season.
A few days before Christmas, Sandy Simpson was still getting orders for her personalized, hand-stamped jewelry, she said. Like most Etsy sellers, Simpson works out of her home and fills orders whenever she gets a free moment.
She said that she started her Etsy shop, Punky Jane Jewelry, in October and creates her jewelry while her two daughters are at school. She is a stay-at-home working mom and sets-up a working station on her kitchen table when it is not being used for meals.
Simpson said that most of her sales come from word of mouth and people in Woodland who see her daughters wear the jewelry. However, the Etsy shop has helped her make sales around the world. She has sold 13 items on Etsy since October.
One of the big selling factors about Etsy shops is that everything is handmade and customers can request special details or alterations.
Simpson said that people appreciate having the option to add a personal touch to her products. The jewelry can be hand-stamped with any names or inspirational words.
"They look at it and you can see the wheels turn and they start thinking 'how can I make that mine?'" she said.
Not only does Etsy give customers the ability to personalize items, but sellers also inform them about the product's materials and how they are made. Open communication throughout the entire shopping process is a key part of the Etsy atmosphere.
"You feel like you're really talking to the other crafter or seller," Simpson said.
The idea of a transparent business seems to lead to happy and loyal customers.
Sisters Lyndi Eimerl and Kristin Morrow started a business of fashion bags called Fuffy J. Couture in 2006 and have recently started listing on Etsy, where they have interacted with several friendly customers.
"Everybody on there is really appreciative of your business," Eimerl said.
Eimerl and Morrow have their own company Web site where people can purchase items, but they discovered the advantages of starting an Etsy shop.
"It's a lot of work to drive traffic to your own Web site, and (Etsy) gets millions of visitors a day," Eimerl said.
Along with the millions of visitors there are thousands of shops, and it can be overwhelming. However, several Etsy features make shopping a little easier. Buyers can browse through categories, search for specific materials, shop by color, look-up recently listed items and find shops by location.
While handmade items make-up most of the products on Etsy, the Web site also allows people to sell vintage items.
Woodland resident, Cleo Opera, said that she used to work as a custom clothing designer in the '60s and '70s and sold clothing and accessories to shops in Southern California. Now she sells vintage clothing that she has collected over the years in her Etsy shop, Modan Garu.
Before starting her Etsy shop, Opera considered selling the items on eBay, but did not think it was the right outlet for the vintage clothing, she said. She likes that Etsy focuses more on one-of-a-kind items.
She started her Etsy shop in April and has not sold anything through the Web site yet, but thinks that listing the items is a better option than having them in storage, Opera said.
"I've got the stuff, it's not going anywhere," she said.
Similar to Opera's shop that features her collection of fabrics, a lot of Etsy shops are started when people get the idea of creating items out of ordinary stuff or leftover materials from other projects.
Tammy Wisterman hosts scrapbook workshops in her home once month, but there are often a lot of leftover materials after each project, she said. In July, she opened her Etsy shop, Tammy's This n That, to sell scrapbooks and greeting cards made out of leftover materials. Scrapbooks are already personal in nature, but being handmade adds an extra touch.
"If you go to a department store, you'll be getting the same thing as everyone else," she said.
Another difference between products at a department store and products on Etsy is that they are not just another number on a production line. Rather, buyers can tell that Etsy sellers add a personal touch into everything that they make.
"We love this so much that it means when our kids go to bed, we spend late hours into the evening, working on the business," Eimerl said.
