Tuesday Spotlight: Preemie Presents

Today I am spotlighting a fellow Etsy seller, though not one who needs help with her Etsy sales so much as she wants help with a very special project.

Sara is one of the most creative people I know. She has a pretty successful Etsy shop where she sells the cutest cards. But what I love about her is how giving she is. Her son was born prematurely under very traumatic circumstances yet she has turned around and created an amazing yearly event - Preemie Presents.



She is very gifted with words, so I'll let her blog speak for itself. If there is any way you can help, please do.

The Handmade Highway

Today I was accepted to the Handmade Highway - a great directory of artisans and crafts-people.

And here's the link to the companion blog.

I'm really looking forward to becoming a part of this community! I'll be posting more about it as I become more familiar with it.

Today marks the first day of my more regimented blog schedule. I need a little order in my life! Joining the HH is a recap of one of my weekend endeavors. The other is that I finally listed a couple of my Christmas ornaments. I'm quite pleased with this angel:



Tomorrow I'll be spotlighting an artist from Etsy who needs sales. This will also be a regular feature here. See you then!

Art vs Commerce.

Yesterday, a thread was started in the Etsy forums about the many, many sales, tips for sales (packaging) and promotions that Etsy admin seem to be pushing. Based on the length of the thread, it would seem a lot of sellers think it's gone way too far. I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I can understand where they are coming from. That said, I'm not in complete agreement with the majority of the posters. Here's what I posted which is somewhere on page 51 I think:


"I haven't yet read all 50 pages of this thread, though I will try to later. Therefore, my comments may be somewhat random...

However, it seems to me this is just yet another example of the art versus commerce argument that has been around for the last 150-200 years.

Artists have always had patrons, struck deals, and sold their souls in order to produce the work they love *and* make a living at it. The stereotypical starving artist is a product of the Victorian times and, IMHO, does no one any favors.

In this case, I think it's more a question of finding the right balance between what *you* think you can stomach and what your 'patron' (Etsy!) is pushing. I for one, love nice packaging and consider the whole process an opportunity for artistic expression. I can totally see how others would not.

I do think that in the current economy, Etsy is somewhat justified in pushing a lot of promotions. And as a brand new seller, I, quite frankly, am willing to do quite a lot to get my name out there and sell.

That's just my 2 cents of course. I'm sure many of you will disagree."

Just curious if I'm alone out here? I'm sure I'll get some feedback on the thread, too! Let's hope they can keep it polite...

Too many ideas...

so little money! Today we did a big craft supply run. I am a dangerous woman in these shops. I want to try a little of everything! Today we stocked up on some scrapbooking papers for more mats, but I've also got some magnets I want to make and we also got the beads and ribbon to finish off the ornaments I'm working on. I'm looking forward to doing more of those. Since I hand illustrate them, I find them more creatively challenging than the mats.

On another note... trash TV. Tonight I watched Project Runway which I'd DVR'd. This episode was ok, but I preferred the one that aired a week or 2 ago. They had to make outfits out of paper. As a lover of all things paper, I was pretty impressed by what they did. My favorite was this one:

A two-fer today...

I'm combing the internet trying to find interesting blogs to follow. Of course I want to follow Etsy bloggers, but obviously my life isn't just Etsy. So in addition to the program I touched on in my previous post... I'm definitely going to have posts about other things that tickle my fancy. Things like cooking, baking, allergen-free foods, gardening, art & design, design history, etc. I'll try to spare you posts about my appalling taste in television lately. ;-)

Getting organized!

This blog is certainly new, but it's time to set excuses aside. From next week I'm going to start a proper program of posts. I haven't decided what exactly yet, but something along the lines of: Mondays will be a recap of my weekend endeavors, Tuesdays a feature on another fellow-crafter, Wednesdays a new resource, etc.

Until then, I'm just working on getting organized. Marketing your crafts is hard work! Mom and I are also hard at work on the 2 new lines we intend to launch shortly (the ornaments seen below, and some cool placemats). Today we also went through her TONS of jewelry and sorted through them for recycling/upcycling purposes. We're drowning in beads!

Hopefully they will make appearances in some new, exciting things.

Sneak Preview!

Coming soon to my Etsy shop - Christmas ornaments! These still need the final touches but I'm pretty excited about them!