After my children were born, I experienced a shift in my buying habits. Before, I evaluated price as the most significant criteria in making a purchase. But, cuddling those vulnerable babies forced me to consider the health and environmental impact of every item that we brought into our home. Becoming a mother also increased my compassion for those mothers (and unfortunately, children) who slave away in third world factories each day for pennies an hour.
So, in the interest of quality craftsmanship and fair-labor practices, I decided to purchase (or make) as many handcrafted items as possible. Back then, when my oldest child was a baby, it was sometimes difficult to find handcrafted items outside of community festivals and church bazaars.
But a twenty-five year old guy named Rob Kalin changed all that. In 2005, the furniture craftsman started Etsy, an online marketplace for handcrafted and vintage items. Consumers flocked to the site relishing the personal interaction with artisans and the ability to commission custom pieces. And artisans loved the easy-to-use interface giving them the ability to set up an online shop in mere minutes. Though most of Etsy’s sellers use the online marketplace to supplement another source of income, some sellers have found enough success to jump into handcrafting full-time.
The site continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It now boasts over 12 million members and nearly 10 million handcrafted items listed, with over $400 million in sales for 2011. The site’s 800,000 active shops include plenty in the Houston area. And a feature on Etsy called “Etsy Local” allows shoppers to search for items made within a particular geographic area. Using that feature, I found three Houston-area Etsy artisans each offering uniquely handcrafted items. ”
Meet three successful “Etsy Local” artisans
Sugar Land Natural
www.etsy.com/shop/sugalandnaturals
Sugar Land’s Laura Dietz is a brand new Etsy shop owner. She opened Sugar Land Naturals, an organic skin care line, just this past November and though she had been making homemade body scrubs for some time, she had never attempted to sell them. But when Laura unexpectedly lost her job, she decided to take the plunge on Etsy. She was surprised by her immediate success saying, “I listed my products (on Etsy) with zero expectations. After seeing the amazing handmade products listed, I wasn’t sure I could compete. But within one months’ time, I had already sold about a hundred items.”
Laura was inspired to use natural ingredients in her skin care line thanks to her fond memories of her grandmother using aloe vera as a salve for cuts and scrapes. “It always felt so good and it worked! It made the burning feeling go away. The same is true of many things in nature….things our bodies are meant to use for health and longevity. For hundreds of centuries, there was no Neosporin for your cuts. There is an alternative in nature to almost everything you can find in a pharmacy.”
She now combines natural ingredients such as fruits with natural preservatives to create her skin pampering products. Laura’s bestseller is Hand Saver Skin Putty. She says, “It is a putty derived from an organic fruit and dark sugar base that leaves your hands incredibly moisturized and smooth without any residue whatsoever. It has been popular amongst customers with severely dry winter skin and Eczema.”
Laura’s favorite aspect of her job is product development. She spent a significant amount of time formulating her products, but now she enjoys experimenting with new ingredients. “Once I got this formula down, and it took a while, the rest was all fun with fruits! Everything our skin needs is in fruits, vegetables and the sun.” She also enjoys interacting with her customers and receiving their feedback about how her products have helped them.
Laura does admit that there are some downsides to owning your own business, notably the patience required to wait for sales to increase and profits to build. She adds, “Probably the toughest part for me is the profit and loss side during these early months. I was an accountant before I started this business, but for some reason, crunching the numbers is not something I love to do. Any new business is expected to operate in the red for the first 12 months, so I think being patient and waiting for the profit side to increase is hard for any new business owner.”
But Laura isn’t discouraged by the number crunching; she is passionate about her business and only wishes that she had opened an Etsy shop sooner. “I think people long for the quality of handcrafted items and the purity of them. Etsy is made up of people, not corporations. Every item bought, the money goes directly into the hands of a family, not into the hands of a CFO. I think people are starting to see the beauty in an artisan-based online marketplace environment for the same reason, everyone loves a good farmers market. There is a wholesomeness about it. It is good for the buyer, because they get superior products that were made the old fashioned way…one at a time.”
Head to Toe
www.etsy.com/shop/headtotoe2009
Christy Huh, a Pearland-based artisan, opened Etsy shop Head to Toe in December of 2009. The shop specializes in custom monogrammed tissue box covers, though Christy explains that the shop’s name was inspired by a previous product line. “I came up with the shop name Head To Toe because I first started making hair bows for the babies’ heads and ruffled ribbon socks for the toes.”
But business really took off when she decided to make tissue box covers from modern fabrics that she found in her mom’s fabric store. “I noticed in the stores how ugly the tissue boxes looked. Sometimes the tissue box companies would try to come up with pretty designs, which never worked. I thought of using the modern fabrics to cover these boxes. To be able to personalize these tissue box covers makes it extra special for a wedding or housewarming gift.”
As a stay-at-home mom of four, Christy appreciates the flexibility and creative outlet that Etsy provides, saying, “I was a stay at home mom and wanted to do something with my creative side. I needed something that I could succeed at besides take care of my kids. I enjoy being able to work from home.”
Christy encourages potential Etsy shop owners to keep the proper perspective regarding their business and to prioritize time with family. “Work hard but also make sure you have time for your family. Remember to have fun and to not overwork yourself. Etsy has been a fun adventure for me. If you have an idea, don’t doubt yourself. Go with it because it may be the next biggest thing that everyone has to have. Always love and appreciate your buyers; without them you can’t succeed.”
Boy Krazie
www.etsy.com/shop/boykrazie
Sugar Land artisan Arika Jordan opened Etsy shop BoyKrazie last July. The shop focuses on knit and crocheted items specifically for baby boys. The mother of three boys explains her reasoning behind a boy-only shop saying, “When you’re surrounded by boys, you can’t help but think ‘boy.’ I have three sons all six and under. When I gave birth to my youngest a little over a year ago, I searched for photo props and found it hard to find shops that focused on boys.”
Arika admits that she faced some obstacles in opening her shop – notably the fact that she didn’t know how to crochet or knit! But, she refused to let that little glitch hold her back. She took lessons from her husband’s mother and sister and enrolled in classes at Sugar Land Yarn Company and Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft. For advanced skills, she turned to YouTube videos. “I must say that I was a little amazed that I picked it up so quickly. I thought it would take at least year for me to get ‘my idea’ off the ground but through the grace of God and family, I was able to pull it off in a matter of months,” she says.
With her newfound knitting and crochet skills, Arika enjoys working with beautiful varieties of yarn to create lovingly crafted products. “I enjoy beautiful yarn whether it’s from local stores or online sellers. My heart just smiles when I see the finished project. I just love knowing that I made it by hand and that someone else is going to enjoy my creation.”
Arika encourages crafty individuals to take the Etsy plunge commenting, “If you have a product to sell – just do it. Opening up an Etsy shop is free and painless. It’s super easy with very few steps involved. The Etsy app is a must. You can manage your shop in one place on all your mobile devices. I also suggest using the extra apps that are provided by third party developers which help promote your shop on Etsy and on your own website or blog.”
And Arika believes that it’s a great time to jump on the handcrafted bandwagon, predicting a bright future for the movement. “I think the economy has a lot to do with the momentum of the handcrafted movement. As people become more concerned about the economy, I think you’ll find more and more people making and buying handmade products. ‘Buy Handmade’ is popping up everywhere. Handmade items are more popular now than ever and I love that!”
