Great Britain is home to the prehistoric monuments Stonehenge and Avebury, countless examples of classical and neoclassical architecture, and the expansive castles and palaces of the English monarchy. England produced William Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Loch Ness, the most famous lake in the world, is entrenched in the Scottish Highlands. The amount of history, culture and art in Great Britain dwarfs its size – the entirety of the island is barely a third the area of Texas.

Liverpool, England

Liverpool is an 800-year-old city situated in the Northwest of England. It’s home of the “scouser,” a word synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpudlians are known for their sense of humor; many successful comedians have come from the city. Liverpool has a rich musical culture, including a title that would make any city jealous – the birthplace of the Beatles. The population is diverse in the port city, housing the oldest Chinese community in Europe.

Helen of Olganna designs handmade bags, clutches and totes from her home in the ancient city. She first studied fashion and textiles before moving on to footwear design and manufacture. She worked in the fashion industry for 10 years in quality assurance, but switched to being a stay-at-home mom and business owner after Kate (3) and Ryan (1) were born.

Helen traveled the world in her career – assessing factories, developing product and overseeing the production of hundreds of thousands of shoes, bags, sportswear and children’s wear. She’s now settled back down with the kids and enjoys the sights of her home town.

The waterfront is a must-see destination for visitors to the city. It has Liverpool heritage museums, including the Merseyside Maritime and Beatles museums. The Pier Head has the Royal Liver Building, an exceptional architectural structure with majestic Liver birds on the clock towers.

Have a bite to eat in one of the many restaurants on Albert Dock, then take in the latest exhibition of contemporary art in the Tate Liverpool. Afterwards, take a walk through the Liverpool One shopping district up to the historic St George’s Hall, regarded as one of the finest neoclassical buildings in the world. Keep an eye out for the decorated Lambanana sculptures throughout the city – they make for a great photo-op!

Bags have been a new challenge for Helen; she designs them all from scratch. As a product developer, her interest is in the entire process of creation rather than just the end result. See more of Helen’s creative work in her Etsy shop and on Facebook.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh is the breathtaking capital of Scotland, located on the eastern seaboard. Dominating the skyline is the historic Edinburgh Castle, a commanding fortress dating back to the 12th century. Greenery abounds in the city – parks and gardens blanket the landscape, including the stunning Royal Botanical Garden and the massive Princes Street Gardens public park. Edinburgh’s vast array of neoclassical architecture earned it the nickname Athens of the North.

The capital city isn’t too steeped in tradition to have a little fun – Edinburgh is known as the festival capital of the world. The International Festival, a three week event celebrating the performing arts, draws tens of thousands of attendees from dozens of European countries eager to see the music, opera, drama and ballet. New Years is a sight to see in the city; the Hogmanay festival features five days of celebration culminating in a massive New Year’s Eve street party.

Maggie Simak of Zukr Boutique is no stranger to indulgence – she and her husband David create sinfully delicious artisan sweets and pastries. David has worked as a pastry chef for 15 years in restaurants and luxury hotels around the world. He works full-time as a head pastry chef, but dreams of opening his own pâtisserie.

David’s dream may yet come true – the couple starting selling confections online, but have been increasingly pressured by local fans to open a shop in Edinburgh. Zukr Boutique has been gaining notoriety – they’ve recently been featured on Etsy’s blog, Wedding Magazine, and The Telegraph.

Maggie and David sell their sweets on their Etsy shop and Not on the High Street. Follow Zukr on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Rachel of Rachel Elliott Glassworks was born in Surrey, England and gets some odd looks with an English accent in Edinburgh. She moved to the city a decade ago to study Architectural Glass at the Edinburgh College of Art. Rachel creates kiln-formed glass ranging from small sculptures and jewelry to one-off pieces for exhibition and installation.

I’ve always been a maker, but I was drawn to glass after stumbling upon a hot glass studio in New Zealand while traveling. I spent two days transfixed by the family working together, blowing and engraving glass.

In 2009, Rachel set up a glass studio in Edinburgh – it’s a bit pokey at 200 square feet, but every inch of the place is packed. She has three kilns, one of them the largest flat bed kiln available.

I knew space would be restricted, so all of my workbenches are multipurpose. The tops hinge and secure to the walls behind, allowing for more space or access to the light box or steam area.  It’s a proper Heath Robinson affair; short of installing a winch system to the ceiling, every little crevice is used.

Rachel teaches from her studio, including a popular class on screen-printing techniques that she uses to apply kiln-fired enamel to her works. She loves the technical challenge of working with glass in different ways, and troubleshooting after some “unexpected” results. Her work is representational, attempting to catch the viewer’s eye and invite them into her world.

Visit Rachel’s Etsy shop to see more of her inspirational glassworks, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter to see her latest creations.

London, England

Located on the River Thames, London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. First settled by the Romans, London grew to become the largest city in England by the 11th century. Punished brutally by the Black Plague in the 13th century, the city lost nearly a third of its population. The Great Fire of London in 1666 laid waste to much of the capital – over 85% of the city’s inhabitants lost their homes to the inferno.

Despite setbacks of circumstance and a fluctuating stability, London always seems to bounce back and reclaim its status as the world’s most-visited city. Its 43 universities are the highest concentration of higher education in all of Europe. It’s home to the British crown and four world heritage sites, including the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway system in the world.

Hugh Somerville of HCS Metalsmiths finds himself at home in the city’s sprawling streets. A Londoner born and bred, Hugh learned to work with metal at a young age from his father. His wedding rings for men escape the traditional and provide a more creative, masculine ring to suit the customer’s personality. Styled from textured copper with a sterling silver lining, Hugh’s work eschews the generic gold band for a more steampunk, rustic or industrial feel.

 London is a huge city with a vibrant population. It’s very busy and full of hustle and bustle. I love the long history with so many old buildings and streets. The old traditions like the changing of the guard and the Lord Mayor’s show contrast the modern fashion, art and music scenes. It’s an exciting place to live and work.

Everyone who visits London should go to Covent Garden and see the street performers. There are fire eaters, jugglers, buskers and all kinds of entertainers there. Camden at the weekend is great fun too, with many market stalls selling food and handmade goods.

Hugh started designing and making wedding rings for men after seeing the disappointing rings available for men – essentially scaled-up women’s rings. The technical challenges of metalwork styles keep every day interesting; he can hardly remember a time when he wasn’t soldering or hammering.

My father is an engineer; he taught me so much about what I do, despite the fact that he worked with huge machinery and I work with tiny rings. He’d ask me to measure something and expect the answer to be correct within a thousandth of an inch. I can talk with my dad all night about alloys and welding.

Hugh works nearly every waking moment, and often finds his workshop full of people – friends coming to borrow tools or asking him to make an odd bracket, or just coming to have a beer and some food. Sometimes he’ll get away to the Tate Modern, as much to admire the incredible steelwork of the building as for the art.

The HCS Metalsmiths Etsy shop is lined with beautiful photos of Hugh’s artistic rings; for such one-of-a-kind pieces that may be worn for a lifetime, the rings are worth every penny of their modest prices.

It’s hard to stand out on Etsy; it’s equally hard to stand out as a handmade artisan in Great Britain. A country so rich in the arts deserves a fair shake in the online marketplace. Etsy’s UK site is only the tip of the iceberg, I hope to see more shops opening and flourishing across the Atlantic as time goes on.

Questions to ask the show promoter

1) How do you advertise? Radio, TV, billboard, direct mail?

If a sign stuck in the ground in front of the craft show is the extent of the advertising, very few people will come to the show. A good craft show will invest in radio, direct mail or other advertising venues. A good turnout means more sales for you, so it’s important to know how the promoter plans to lure customers.

2) How are assignments made for more desirable spaces?

Corner spaces, larger spaces, and spaces near the entrance are prime real estate for traffic. These are the places you want to be. Does it cost more to get one of these spaces? If not, how do they determine who gets them?

3) Do you fill spaces by category?

A balanced show will fill spaces by category. If they only have 10 slots for jewelry vendors, it may be more competitive for a jeweler to be accepted into the show – but once there, there’s less competition for sales. It also makes for a more interesting and diverse show, since more types of media will be represented.

4) How many spaces are being rented for the entire show?

The number of spaces speaks to the seriousness of the promoter. A show that has 10 booths in a church will attract a different crowd than 100 booths in a convention center. Customers like to shop in a crowded area where they aren’t the only ones looking. The bigger the crowd, the better.

Customers avoid your booth if no one is there, but if you have just one customer eyeing the wares, more will pile on. This phenomenon is explosive at larger shows with more booths and lots of customers.

5) How many applications were received for last year’s show? How many vendors were admitted?

The acceptance rate will tell you how choosy the show promoters are. Does everyone who applies get accepted? That means there will definitely be crocheted toilet paper holders for sale. Determine whether your work will be lifted up or pulled down by the type of work being sold.

6) What kinds of crafts have been exhibited in the past?

Is the show tailored towards high-end artisans, or is it more of an arts and crafts homemade feel? High-end shows will have glass-blown art, furniture, weaving, blacksmithing, oil paintings and other expensive items. The homemade shows will have lower-priced items like beaded jewelry, knitting, greeting cards and the like. How will your work look next to these items?

7) What is the recommended price range for work in this show?

If most of the items being sold are $10-50 and your work is $500, your might be in for a bad day. It’s okay to have more expensive items available, so long as you have something to offer in the normal price range.

8) Is there an entrance fee for customers to get in?

An entrance fee means people are paying to get in – in my experience, these are usually more serious buyers. An entrance fee that’s part of a fund-raiser may be a real draw for community support.

9) What’s the anticipated attendance this year? What was the attendance last year?

Attendance can have a big impact on sales, especially for higher-priced items. I finally figured out that the small school and church shows aren’t worthwhile for me; I needed an established show with an anticipated attendance of at least 5,000.

10) Are there artists I can contact from the previous year to ask about the show?

Vendors aren’t shy about sharing the scoop on shows. It doesn’t hurt to contact a few and hear about their experience.

It’s up to you to decipher what all the answers mean to you and how they’ll result in sales – every type of media will sell differently.

Application Must Haves

The following information should be in the application itself. If it’s not, you may want to reconsider applying for the show at all – or at least be prepared to ask some tough questions of the promoters. Sometimes a book can be judged by its cover; an application is the first indication of how well the show is run.

• How many years has the show been held? Is this an established show or only in its first or second year?
• What is the space fee? What are the other costs beyond the space fee? Electricity? Table rental?
• Is the show juried? Is there a jury fee? How do you assess items to be juried?
• Is the show outside or inside? For outside shows, what are the accommodations for inclement weather?
• Is there another draw to pull people away from shopping? For instance, is this a few craft booths at an apple festival?
• What’s the process and timeline for set-up and tear-down?
• If the show is longer than one day, is there security?
• When will I hear whether or not I’m accepted?

Good luck, new vendors! Go forth and sell.

Martha of PulpArt creates handmade plantable paper, wedding place cards, wedding favors, paper sculpture, cards, gift tags and more. She’s going on 20 years of papercraft and is still delighted by it.

I posted a critical review of Etsy’s feedback failure over a year ago that still resonates today. The seller survey prompted me to share some additional thoughts to consider about the feedback system.

Feedback is forever

Etsy’s feedback system never expires feedback from your seller rating. A negative comment mars your positive feedback percentage until you can overcome it statistically at a ratio of two hundred positive comments to the one negative feedback. The tycoons of Etsy may be able to achieve this feat quickly, but for many Etsy sellers it could take months or years to recover.

Both Amazon and eBay have a policy of calculating seller ratings based only on the last 12 months of feedback. This sliding window allows negative feedback to eventually drop off the map after a year. Sellers slighted by unjust negative feedback can count on it going away, and those truly deserving the feedback can reform their customer service and eventually regain ground.

It’s critical that Etsy adopt a policy that expires feedback. The forums are ripe with examples of stodgy buyers or retaliatory sellers that leave unreasonable negative feedback; Etsy intervenes only in the most extreme situations, so many sellers are left with a permanent scar on their rating.

The nuclear buyer

For low-volume sellers, a single buyer can devastate your seller rating on Etsy. Imagine that someone bought 10 items from your shop – exciting, I know! Now imagine that the shipment was squished under a UPS truck or some other catastrophe out of your control. Maybe you can send out a new shipment to the buyer, maybe the items are irreplaceable – either way, the shipment arrives late or not at all. The buyer can now leave negative feedback on all 10 items and it counts as 10 strikes against you in the feedback rating.

I hate to point to eBay again, but they’ve tamed the problem of the nuclear buyer. A buyer leaving multiple negative comments within a certain timeframe will only count as one negative comment against you in the seller rating. It’s reasonable that buyers should be able to leave negative comments if they feel slighted; it’s not reasonable that one disgruntled buyer can reduce a low-volume seller to rubble.

Filtering feedback

As a buyer, seeing 95% positive feedback will give you confidence when purchasing – but don’t you really want to know what happened with the other 5%? Etsy provides a single stream when viewing seller feedback. To make matters worse, the feedback totals show feedback received as a buyer and a seller, yet these are broken into different tabs when browsing feedback. The only option is to click through potentially dozens of pages on multiple tabs to find the negative reviews.

It’s only fair to provide buyers with a filter to see the negative feedback at a glance. Counter-intuitively, this will often boost buyer confidence. It’s easy to tell when another buyer was being unreasonable, or when a negative comment doesn’t apply to the item you’re considering. The feedback would be even more informative if sellers could publicly respond to negative comments.

Streamlining feedback

Etsy’s feedback page only allows submitting one piece of feedback at a time. Prolific buyers or sellers will quickly be discouraged that they can’t fill out feedback for multiple items and submit them all at once. The omission of this simple convenience feature reduces the chance that Etsy users will participate in the feedback system, hurting the system overall.

Encouraging resolution

Leaving negative feedback on Etsy is as simple as two clicks without so much as a gentle push for better resolution. Encouraging buyers to seek resolution with the seller before filing negative feedback would lead to a better experience for both the customer and the seller. A simple note that appears when selecting negative feedback might be enough to change a negative response into a neutral one, or prompt the buyer to contact the seller.

The Kiss and Make Up feature is empty solace – the experience is foreign to those new to Etsy, and the condescending name starts the resolution process off on the wrong foot. Sellers attempting resolution after the damage is done are already at a disadvantage when many buyers are first-time Etsy customers.

Improving the feedback system is no easy task; the discrepancy on Etsy between power sellers and casual shop owners makes it difficult to design a system that works for everyone. Take the seller survey - make your voice heard and express the concerns that are most important to a shop of your size. What’s your feedback on the feedback system?

The mysterious world of the Etsy forums: it’s not your Grandma’s coffee klatch! It’s more like stepping into a neighborhood bar where you’ve never been before and deciding to learn the local version of a line dance already in progress. Brittany asked to answer some questions about the Etsy forums; I guess it’s because she sees me there frequently! Yes, it’s true. My name is Janet (aka Felton) and I’m a frequent forum poster.

I think the best way to tackle this subject is just to answer Brittany’s questions as she posed them to me. She has some great insight into questions many newbies have about the forums.

The Etsy forums at face value appear to be straight-forward; topic categories, posts and replies, forum rules. Yet from my experience, there seems to be a strong social underpinning. I’ve seen new posts in the forums elicit fire and brimstone from the regulars. I’ve seen threads go off on tangents of cookies, wine drinking and inside jokes. I’ve seen sellers post vapid advice time and again to new sellers or use a holier-than-thou tone. Can you describe the social dynamics of the forums as you see them?

The Etsy forums are definitely a very “human” place and certainly have a “strong social underpinning” (man that’s a great phrase)! I’d also like to point out that posters are frequently passionate and opinionated – and I confess to liking it that way. One of the first things to know, understand, and accept is that words are just characters typed on a screen. Any “tone” or “attitude” might be your perception alone. Words on a screen can’t convey the author’s intent, nor can they show body language – a key component to good communication. Add into the mix that there are so many different personalities, cultures, levels of sleep deprivation, caffeine consumption and even some drunken posting, and the mix can be quite volatile!

Your powers of observation are spot on regarding the cookies, wine drinking, inside jokes and more. Many of those posters have probably “known” each other for years, or possess an uncanny knack for fitting in seamlessly. Just like the analogy of the neighborhood bar, there’s history that’s hard to explain. Google will help you through some of the unknown terminology, and there’s room for everyone. It’s just a matter of familiarizing yourself slowly.

Just so you know, it’s rare for a poster to never draw a jab here or there. It happens. That’s why Teflon pants are part of every experienced forum poster’s wardrobe. Preferably handmade from organic Teflon.

How has the forum landscape changed since you joined Etsy? Have things gotten worse, better, or just different?

The changes in the forums over the time I’ve been here (four and a half years) have been major. The people, personalities and passions seem to be the same, but the rules and the setup have altered dramatically.

Etsy likes to say that the forums are a place for sellers and buyers to ask questions about the site and get business help. The forums also serve as a “break room” for sellers and buyers alike. So many of us sellers work from home and can feel isolated. At the click of a button we can find ourselves with other people, presumably similar to ourselves, and with whom we have Etsy in common. Back in the day, there were a lot more sections in the forums. Each section had it’s purpose, similar to today’s forums; waaaaaay down at the bottom of the forums page was the wild, untamed, rarely monitored “Etc.” section. No discussion of Etsy forums would be complete without mention of this section – and it is dearly missed. That being said, it’s probably the single biggest reason the forums were “tightened up” a few years back. I’m guessing it was for the benefit of Etsy’s long-term business plans.

Worse, better, or different? Well, people are people. They’ll always act like people. With all of our beautiful colors, pastel or fiery. That hasn’t changed, and it never will. The governance of the forums is problematic in my opinion. Rules have tightened up for sure. New rules have been introduced over the years. At a glance, the rules seem pretty straight-forward – but there’s the letter of the law, and then there’s the “intent.” Between the letter and the intent is a gray undefined area where posters have been known to tread and some get sucked into oblivion never to be heard from again.

In any social environment, there’s a range of acceptable behavior. Depending on how far a person strays from that range, their behavior may be seen as quirky, irreverent, interesting, entertaining, enlightening, thought-provoking – or completely unacceptable and worthy of being eradicated. The trick is to know who holds the power to decide, what the limits are, and to govern yourself accordingly if you want to retain the “privilege” of posting.

With the upcoming changes – fewer sections, larger print, no shop names listed next to avatars, no “last poster” listed in the thread summary – I’m afraid that Etsy is on a path to sterilize the forums to a point where it’s no longer possible to use them as a break room and for social purposes. In my opinion, that’s really a shame.

What are the common pitfalls that ostracize people new to the forums?

This is really subjective. In my humble opinion, not reading Etsy’s Terms of Use and familiarizing yourself with the site will often bring wrath down upon your head. It’s important to know that Etsy is a site for Handmade AND Supplies AND Vintage and that hand-assembled IS allowed and that non-handmade Supplies sellers are NOT “resellers” and that you’re not allowed to speak negatively about buyers/sellers, and (takes a deep breath and plunges on) read The Seller’s Handbook before asking for a shop critique – which is technically not allowed in the forums but is often granted by generous posters – and don’t fall into the trap of Newbie Frequent Poster Syndrome (when newbies discover they get lots of views by starting a thread and so each and every day for weeks – sometimes even months on end – they think up a bajillion reasons to start a brand new thread for the sole purpose of milking as many views as possible without realizing that views aren’t the same as sales and maybe they should be working on SEO instead)… runs out of breath and falls over.

Another common pitfall that will bring out the flamethrowers every time is starting a thread that, inadvertently or not, insults others. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but if you’re trying to avoid drama think very carefully about starting a thread that could be interpreted as an insult. A thread of this type raises the emotional level of subsequent posts. Somehow a “train wreck” thread becomes a fire that quickly rages out of control. Like all fires eventually do, it will burn out, but know that you’ll be scorched in the process. Repeatedly. By everyone who feels they’ve been insulted, and by those who are insulted that others have been insulted. This is where you’ll see evidence of that “strong social underpinning.” Suddenly, posters are coming from everywhere. Posts are appearing in a nano-second. The thread is moving quickly. You can feel the energy surging. You wonder how it is that all of these people are somehow finding this one specific thread. The social underpinning has some potent radar.

How is it that people actually get to know others? For regulars this is a community, but for some it can feel like being the new kid that no one talks to on the playground.

I can see how it might feel that way to the newbies, but most of the forum regulars love to meet, encourage and support new shops. When you interact with other posters by asking questions, sharing insight, expanding on someone’s post or acknowledging a post, you’re participating in the community and that’s a good thing. It won’t be long until you make new friends. I “know” other posters from all of the other sections in the old forums where less-structured conversation could take place. I’ve reached out to help sellers privately when I could. I’ve also purchased from a lot of sellers! Every interaction with the real people behind the avatars is a step toward getting to know other members of the Etsy community.

Just be you. Bring your sense of humor, your unique insight, and a friendly attitude. Oh – and if you have an open mind, that’s probably the best characteristic of all.

I’ve found the forum search to be abysmal, yet posters regularly get blasted for reposting topics that have already been posted. Additionally, if you actually find an old thread and post a relevant question, you might get blasted for resurrecting a ‘zombie’ thread from the dead. It seems to be a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation – how can a seller that’s not in the forums all the time avoid this situation?

Yes, the forum search is tricky – and something has happened to it recently to make it even trickier. I find it really difficult to search for specific things, but for general topics the search works pretty well. It’s not too difficult to search “SEO”, for example, and come up with plenty of posts to read. A general rule-of-thumb might be to search and read up if you suspect a topic might be frequently discussed. If you still have a question, go ahead and start a new thread – and it might be a good thing to mention that you’ve read what you could on the subject and need a little clarification.

The problem with reviving an old thread is that, well, it’s old. Sort of like leftovers in the back of the fridge. Does anybody really want to see those leftovers again? People seeing the old thread for the first time when it’s revived on page 97 have to go back to page 1 to read the original post that was written 42 weeks ago.

Something to consider about the forums is that the landscape and mood can change from day to day depending on what’s going on in Etsy-land. These subtle undercurrents may not be obvious to newbies, but don’t take it personally if you get caught up in the riptide. I know that can be hard.

How can someone manage their forum presence and keep up with threads given limited time in the day?

Personally, I’d recommend not starting a thread if you can’t be around to respond as the thread develops. Some posters do, and some make mention that they’re off to pick up the kids or have a hip replaced or catch a flight to a place that serves drinks with paper umbrellas – which is preferable to simply disappearing.

Why are some posts called out as thinly-veiled promotions (TVPs), but other similar posts aren’t? How does one post a valid question and have it read as such?

Sometimes it depends on who is doing the TVP. Those who are new, or who rarely post and then start a thread not-so-subtly urging others to look at their shop will get called out for being possible TVP’ers. Outrageous post subjects that can only be logically justified as “I’m trying to get your attention cause I really just want you to look at my shop” qualify as TVPs. Some subjects just cannot seriously be taken as anything BUT a TVP.

On the other hand, just because someone shouts “TVP!”, that doesn’t make it so. If it’s an honest question, say so. If it’s really a TVP – well, you’ve been warned.

Getting back to the “strong social underpinning” and the social cliques that develop on Etsy, there are shenanigans at work. Some TVPs aren’t called out as such because they’re actually a bit of a game supported and encouraged by other members of the social shenanigansters. Those TVPs are sort of tongue-in-cheek (jeez I hate that saying). It’s a subtle difference, I know!

Does posting in the fora automatically initiate a shop critique? (I thought this was against the “rules” but it seems like anyone who starts a thread is subjected to a slew of people investigating their shop, sales, feedback, etc). Is this something that people should just expect when posting?

Good question! Posting in the forums will draw shop views and, depending on the subject of the post, people may just poke around in your shop a bit to make sure you’ve dotted your Is and crossed your Ts. There are the people who think they know everything already and are happy to point out all of the areas in which you’re (supposedly) lacking because it makes them feel uber-special and important and smart. Maybe they are – who knows? Look at it this way – maybe someone will suggest something you haven’t thought of, or were previously misinformed about!

It’s frowned upon to issue an unsolicited critique, yet unsolicited critiques happen frequently. We’ve been told that responding to a poster is not an invitation to critique. I’m not sure if this is a punishable offense though.

What are the most positive aspects of the Etsy forums that you find luring you back?

I’ve learned sooooo much about business – internet business specifically, as I’ve had plenty of real-world business experience. It’s also the community of coworkers and the daily interaction about our experiences and struggles to be successful. The sharing of business practices. I love the crazy things that can develop so unexpectedly. I’ve laughed right out loud countless times. I’ve done the head/desk thing. I’ve been shocked and angered and motivated and enlightened. The forums are my break room; it’s all good. I met some women in the forums years ago. We became fast friends, started an off-Etsy forum where we post throughout the day, every day, and we try to meet up once a year in person.

I have a little story to share too. When I first started here on Etsy, there was an amazing Etsy seller who was kind, helpful, and very generous with newbies in the forums. He became ill and died. When his death was announced in the forums, post after post after post mentioned his kindness, helpfulness, and generosity. I was so touched at the outpouring of emotion and appreciation. I believe that one of the best ways to honor a person is to carry on their legacy as best you can. Whenever I can offer help to someone in the forums, I do so in the memory of that nice man who left such a good impression on so many people – his coworkers, his break room companions.

Janet Wieczorek of Felt On The Fly has a serious passion for felt; for well over 10 years she’s researched the history and cultural impact of wool and has collected and compared wool felt from all over the world. Follow her felty foibles on her Felt On The Fly Facebook page.

Does your love of vintage items come from the thrill of the hunt, the history or the collecting?

Oh goodness, it’s hard to choose! I love them all, but I’m most smitten with the history. If all my vintage hunts were thrilling, I’d pick that – but in reality, there’s an awful lot of running around and many days where the pickings are slim. The thrill of the hunt has its moments; I love that feeling of excitement when I’m exploring someone else’s home at an estate sale and wondering why they’ve held on to that certain something for so many years. There are many weekends where I don’t find anything. Although I love helping others add to their collections, I’m not much of a collector myself. The history part is unendingly delicious, though – there’s always another corner of history to discover, untold and forgotten stories, and lovely memories that linger on. That’s definitely the biggest draw.

You mention a stash of items in the “vault” that you have yet to photograph and list. Can we get a sneak peek?

Hmmmm… maybe I could show you just one dress (pictured) – isn’t she a beauty? I have a super-cute 1950’s blue eyelet swimsuit/romper soaking right now – that’ll be in store soon, along with a darling pair of novelty print 1930s feedsacks, more 1950s glamour dresses, and some 1940’s dressing gowns.

Do you have a favorite place to search for items?

I hit estate sales and auctions as often as possible, that’s where most of my inventory comes from. My favorite place to visit is a little town in North Carolina about an hour’s drive from here. I don’t always find something spectacular, but it’s a fun mini road trip for me and my daughter; now that she’s a teenager, there aren’t too many things she still likes doing with mom. She was six the first time we went, and we’ve gone a couple times a year for a decade now. It’s a quaint little town near Pisgah National Forest with beautiful mountain views along the way.

Our first stop is the Humane Society Thrift Shop. The lady who works there is so nice, and my daughter gets to cuddle the little kittens and puppies they have waiting to be adopted. Afterwards, we stop at an old-timey soda shop for ice cream cones, and then we go to Safe Attic, a thrift shop that helps victims of domestic abuse. I’ve found some amazing things in that town, but it’s definitely the experiences that I treasure most. I hope my daughter never outgrows it!

I imagine that after being in the business for so long, you need to go outside your area to find new old things. How far have you traveled to find items?

Actually, this place is pretty big and growing all the time! There’s constantly something “new” to discover. I’ve made friends with some of the people who run estate sales in this area – they give me a heads up if something good is coming up, especially vintage dresses. They know what I love! I haven’t had to travel very far to find things. Although when we do travel, I always come up with an excuse to slip away and shop for a while. Luckily, my hubby is pretty understanding and supportive about my vintage addiction.

Are you a solo explorer or do you have a partner in crime?

Definitely a solo explorer! I’ve tried going to estate sales with friends and family members – I love my friends and family, but I find it too distracting to shop with someone else. I don’t like to be rushed. I’m known for being a bit poky when it comes to estate sales – I’ll contentedly search for what seems like minutes to me but hours to them. It’s best for everyone if I shop alone. The one exception is the occasional mountain town road trip with my daughter, or if we just happen to drive by a thrift store on the way home.

My favorite part of your shop is your dresses. Do you have a particular favorite?

Oh, the dresses are my favorites too! I love something about all of them. This black silk dinner dress is so lovely, much more exquisite in person. It has such an air of elegance, and the construction was especially fascinating. There were lots of hidden underbodice layers and seemingly endless rows of hook and eye closures. Along with the beading and embroidery it must have taken hours to create.

I wish I’d kept this 1940s dress - I mean really, polka dots, a ruffled halter top, a super-full long twirly skirt. Seriously amazing.

Have you considered narrowing your focus?

I can see the business sense in filling a niche, but my love for vintage knows no bounds. It’d get a bit boring if I limited myself to just one sort of thing. Now, it’s like a lovely little adventure – being out and about without having any idea what I’ll find that day. A big part of the fun is the anticipation of all the neat things I have yet to discover. I’d have a lot of unsuccessful shopping trips if I narrowed my focus, which would make the thrill of the hunt far less thrilling!

I could narrow my focus by having multiple shops, offering vintage books in one and housegoods or clothing in another, but that’s not for me; I like to keep it simple! I feel I’m able to offer the best service and shopping experience for my customers, yet still have plenty of time for my family, taking care of my home, and enjoying life in general. That’s why I’m not on Twitter, I refuse to Facebook, and I don’t do much advertising or marketing for my shop. My focus isn’t on making as much money as possible, it’s about sharing what I love and having fun with it. I make enough to feed my family, help out with bills – and of course buy more vintage!! Thus the lovely cycle continues. So no, I don’t feel the need to narrow my focus. I like how it’s working out right now.

Could you choose one item from your shop and tell us the story behind it?

This wedding dress is dear to my heart. It was part of a clothing lot I bought at an estate auction – had it just been offered by itself, I would have passed it up because of the poor condition it was in. It sat neglected in a hot, dirty attic for decades and was this dreary dark shade of grey. It was in such a state of disrepair that I didn’t have much hope for it. I knew if I donated it, it would surely end up in the trash, so I gave it a go. After a lot of time, effort, and Oxyclean, I had the immense satisfaction of seeing it come back to life. I sent it to a lady in New York who wore it for her wedding. How lovely is that?

Another nice thing for me is that I have a photo of the dress’ original owner. She was a school teacher who never married or had any children, so there wasn’t anyone to pass the dress on to. She has a soft, kind look in her eyes; I feel that somewhere she was happy to see her dress a sparking beauty once again.

What has been your biggest challenge selling on Etsy?

The mundane business-keeping. All the receipts and mileage and such to keep up with for my taxes. That was the biggest challenge at first, but I’m used to it now. Also taking great pictures – I’m better than I was, but there’s still room for improvement!

My main challenge in running the shop is staying on task when I’m researching something like this suitcase. Trying to figure out its age led me to the suitcase project on Jon Crispin’s blog; before I knew it, I’d spent more than an hour looking at all those old suitcases and the stories they contained. A lovely diversion, but a diversion nonetheless. Far too often in the course of my research, I end up on Youtube looking at kittens – how does that even happen?! Totally not relevant. I could market my shop more, but to be honest I’m happy with the pace of it now. It’ll be nice to see where this takes me. Most important is that I’m having fun along the way.

Maya’s Etsy shop is a treasure trove of hand-picked historical items, a whirlwind tour of fashion and culture from the 1920s through the 1970s.

I had the best intentions when I bought it; I imagined mastering all the advanced settings and producing sparkling, professional images within days of my purchase. To my credit, I did skim the manual after it arrived. Mostly to learn how to set auto mode. That’s what we have technology for, right? If the camera can’t figure out the best settings, it’s going to be gravely disappointed when I try to direct it on how to take pictures.

I felt a bit guilty. I also started to notice problems in my product shots. The photos of my blue items have a blue tint. I couldn’t get the whites quite white enough. How do you get that neat blurred background effect where only your product is in focus? I started to doubt the wisdom of auto mode.

Cameras aren’t as smart as I thought. Sometimes there are several “correct” configurations of settings and the camera can’t always pick the best one. The camera doesn’t know if you’re using a tripod, what “white” means under different lighting situations, or how you want the shot to look. Manual settings let you instruct the camera on how to take a better picture. Hey camera, I’m using incandescent lighting so take that into account. Psst camera, the item I’m focusing on is way more important than that junk I have in the background – feel free to make that blurry.

I want to explore some photography concepts and try to explain them in clear language. If you’re intimidated by manual settings like me, I hope to give you enough knowledge to start experimenting with your own camera.

Exposure

The shutter on the front of a camera opens and closes when a picture is taken, letting in a certain amount of light to capture the scene. The amount of light collected is called the exposure. Most manual camera settings are focused on getting just the right amount of exposure.

Too much light over-exposes the photo, which makes bright highlights appear washed out. It can be used for artistic effect, but it’s generally bad because detail is permanently lost in the bright areas. Too little light makes the photo appear muddy – the black areas blur together as detail in dark areas is lost.

There are only three settings on a camera that control exposure levels – aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed. It seems like there should be one setting – a big dial that says more light and less light. Three settings makes it more complicated to figure out the right combination, but it also gives you more power over the outcome of the shot.

Aperture/F-Stop

The shutter on the camera doesn’t just open and close, it opens a certain amount. The amount it opens is called the aperture; opening the shutter all the way is full aperture, while smaller aperture settings tell the camera to open the shutter just a little bit.

The aperture setting controls how much light gets into the camera, so it clearly has an effect on exposure. Wide apertures also allow light to enter the camera at greater angles. The light angles are important because it directly relates to focus. Cameras, like our eyes, are able to make adjustments to focus on items at a certain distance.

Try this experiment – hold your finger up close to your face and focus on it with one eye closed. Notice what happens to things in the background – they get blurry. If you focus on something behind your finger, the finger gets blurry. Focusing your eyes or a camera lens involves getting the light to come in at just the right angle so that the object in focus appears sharp. Getting the light angles right for your finger to appear sharp makes it so the angles aren’t quite right for objects closer or further away, which makes them appear blurry.

In the images above, the left image was taken with a wider aperture. The wide aperture increases the light angles, making the plants behind it appear blurrier. The effect works well for a photo focusing on a single item like the flower; for photos where you want the entire scene in focus, like a landscape shot, a smaller aperture will reduce the light angles and make the whole scene sharper.

Photography has a fancy term for this effect called depth of field. To break it down, field refers to things that are acceptably sharp and depth is a measure of distance. So depth of field is talking about how far things can be away from the focal point and still appear sharp. The image on the left has a wide aperture, increasing the light angles and making the depth of field narrower. Shrinking the aperture allows the depth of field to widen, so that the plants in the background of the right image are sharper even though they’re far away.

Aperture is measured with units called f-stops (focal-stops). The units seem confusing at first, since a smaller number indicates a wider aperture; in the photos above, the wider aperture on the left is f/5 and the narrower aperture on the right is f/32. This is due to f-stops being a ratio between the focal length and aperture size. The ratio uses fractional powers of the square root of 2, so I assume you’ll thank me for skipping the details. The important thing to know is that a smaller number in the f-stop setting means a wider aperture, and each step down on the f-stop scale halves the area of the opening.

Shutter speed

Shutter speed controls how long the shutter of the camera is open when taking a photo. Since aperture controls how wide the shutter opens and shutter speed controls how long it’s open, these two settings work in concert to control the amount of light captured.

Long shutter speed will allow more light into the camera, which might be necessary with a narrow aperture or at night when there’s less light in general. It also increases blur when objects in the photo are moving during the exposure. Notice the fancy terms I used in those sentences? Now we’re talking shop like the pros.

Blur isn’t always a bad thing! These photos use a long shutter speed artistically to give the effect of motion. Shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions of a second. The photo on the left has a shutter speed of 30 seconds; that’s more akin to old-fashioned photographs – nobody move for 30 seconds! Standard photos will use a shutter speed more like 1/50th or 1/100th of a second.

ISO speed

Since aperture and shutter speed alone control the amount of light captured in a photo, what’s this ISO speed nonsense? Imagine that you’re taking a photo at a dimly-light concert. Since you want to capture the whole scene clearly, the aperture must be narrow. The band and fans are jumping around, so a long shutter speed would just lead to a mess of blurry people. Setting a narrow aperture and fast shutter speed will surely lead to under-exposure, since there’s not enough light in the room to capture.

ISO speed lets you make do with less light. It’s a measure of sensitivity – higher ISO speed tells the camera to be more sensitive to light. In the concert example, you might be able to get a decent photo with a narrow aperture and fast shutter speed if you kick up the ISO speed. The camera won’t get much light, but it will pay really good attention to the light it does get.

These photos are taken in rather dim settings with high ISO speeds. ISO speed isn’t without caveats. Look closely at the photos above, especially the dark areas – you’ll see speckles of random color called image noise. Noise happens because light isn’t pure. Light reflects a little randomly; the explanation dips into quantum fluctuations and photons, so I’ll wave my hands and skip over that part.

Needless to say, with more light the camera can more confidently say “Yes, this is purple, I’ve sensed 10 purple signals and only 1 of this other color – that must be noise.” With less light and a higher ISO speed, the camera might be forced to say “Well, I’ve gotten 2 purple signals and 2 greenish signals. I’m really not sure what’s noise – how about something in between?”

White balance

Unlike the other settings, white balance doesn’t relate to exposure – it adjusts the color temperature. It sounds a bit silly for color to have temperature, but if you’ve heard the term “white hot” or experienced the harsh glow of fluorescent lights, you know a little something about color temperature.

If you have soft white incandescent bulbs in your house somewhere, walk into the room with a white sheet of paper and look closely at the paper. It doesn’t actually look white – more like a light yellow. Our eyes and mind are remarkably adept at figuring this out. “Hey, everything in here has a yellow hue – I’ll adjust my color expectations accordingly.” Cameras see things more literally.

The images above are the same scene with very different color temperatures. The left image has a warm color temperature while the right is quite cool. The terms warm and cool make intuitive sense – fire is warm and red, ice is cool and blue. In the photos, the top of the building is white, but taken literally it looks either light orange or light blue.

White balance gives the camera a hint as to the ambient color temperature. If your photos have a blue tint, the camera thought the light in the room was warmer than it actually was. Most cameras have white balance presets that let you give the camera a hint about the color temperature. Some cameras have real temperature measurements like 5000K (5,000 degrees Kelvin); others give a bit more sensible guidance with settings like “Incandescent” and “Fluorescent.”

The most accurate way to measure color temperature is with a chroma meter. Since those cost thousands of dollars, I’ll assume you don’t have one handy and suggest the next best thing – a set of white balance cards that cost under $10.

Imagine the simplest way to tell your camera the temperature – point at something white and say “Hey camera, that’s white.” The cards are neutral colors and help the camera understand what’s going on with the lighting. Most DSLRs and other high-end cameras have a manual white balance setting that lets you do exactly that. Point at a white balance card and tap the photo button – the camera will figure out the temperature and use it for the rest of your photos in that session.

Manual settings take some experimentation to use correctly, but knowing how each setting affects the photo will put you on the right track. I’m still working out the kinks in my own photos and exploring the camera. Product shots are the perfect way to try out manual settings – you can set up the shot and retake photos several times with different settings to compare. Stick to auto mode for the candid family shots.

Photos won’t always come out perfectly even with skilled use of manual settings. In an upcoming article, I’ll give an overview of photo editing software that can turn good photos into great photos. Stay tuned!

Tell us about a typical day in the life of Amy Cooper.

I’m still fitting my work hours around my two young kids, so there isn’t much of a typical day. My best work days are in the middle of the week when my daughter is at school and my son is at nursery or with his grandparents. I try to get out of the house as soon as the kids are dispatched so I don’t lose momentum.

Luckily, my work “commute” is simply taking a few steps through the garden to my workshop. It’s only a few feet away, but it feels like a world away from the domestic life. It’s a quiet space where everything has its place. It’s all mine, apart from my cat who owns an ever-increasing corner of my desk. The garage above my workshop is my husband’s domain; since the kids were born, we work together on the ceramics. I often hear him clunking about upstairs, casting work or sanding bisque pieces (fired but not yet glazed).

In the workshop, I usually have moulds to empty from the day before; I like to decorate about 12 pieces at a time while they’re still soft. It’s become a meditative process over the years – my mind wanders as I handle and coax my work into familiar designs. After lunch, I’ll often fettle (trim) dry pieces or glaze bisque work.

I work on new designs on an ideal day. I try to get out and do some drawings in situ for a stencil design if the weather allows, otherwise I work from photos taken on previous drawing trips. I’m lucky to have plenty of inspiration nearby – I live on a tidal river, so the view changes constantly as the tide comes and goes. Birds are always about and sculptural mudflats are revealed at low tide. There are woods all around that I’m particularly absorbed with at the moment.

I try to get some admin done before the kids come home, but I usually find myself working and reading emails with a glass of wine after they’re in bed!

Tell us about your artistic journey, from growing up in rural Cornwall to international exhibitions.

Cornwall is a peninsula; the sea is all around, vital and beautiful and dangerous. It’s impossible to grow up in Cornwall without a respect for the sea and the natural world. I loved the fascination, excitement, and fear the sea provoked. I could never get enough of beach combing for treasures. It’s ironic that I chose Wolverhamptom to study, as it’s one of the most landlocked places in the U.K.

I studied ceramics and sculpture and loved the interplay between the two. Sculpture takes a conceptual point of view while ceramics is all about the material and technique. Ceramics made a deep impression – by the time I graduated, all of my work was in clay.

In the U.K., students participate in a degree show which showcases the work of graduating students. I was fortunate to exhibit at several national shows with my degree work. It opened a lot of opportunities for me. After graduation, I moved to Brighton and joined a studio cooperative – it was a great place to start a creative business, a funky university town and back by the sea again! Brighton’s coastline is quite different from Cornwall and it was fresh inspiration for my work.

In 2004, I was invited by Terra Delft to be a guest artist in their ceramic festival; I still stock them nearly ten years on. I was involved in various exhibiting groups and had lots of fun for a few years. Gradually, I found myself doing a ton of craft shows – 14 in a year was my record – as well as making trade orders. It was great fun, but I knew it wasn’t sustainable. I felt there wasn’t time to feed my creativity; when I got pregnant in 2007, I was ready for a change of pace. We moved out of Brighton to Devon and recently back to Cornwall.

How was The Prince’s Trust involved in supporting your business?

I applied for a grant with The Prince’s Trust after graduation. They were great – they gave me an interest-free loan to buy equipment and a business mentor who I met with every month for the first year to help me learn how to run a business.

How did you arrange your first exhibition? What do you remember about it?

I approached the iO Gallery, a small artist’s cooperative in Brighton that has an exhibition space in their basement. I made a proposal which to my delight they accepted! I was nervous and a bit disorganized, but I sold some work and it was a good experience.

Amy Cooper Ceramics started in 2003 – what prompted you to sell on Etsy after 10 years in business?

I’m always up to try something new. I recently made a Facebook page for my business; I’ve really enjoyed the response to my work and interaction with the public and other makers. Being in a shed in Cornwall can feel a bit isolated at times! Etsy felt like the next logical step. I’m only doing a few shows a year at the moment, so it’s great to be out in the world while still being in my shed.

How much of your ceramics technique was self-taught?

I learnt many techniques in my degree course. The best part of knowing how things should be done is going out and playing with that knowledge – testing the boundaries and coming up with different ways of applying the techniques. None of the processes I use are unusual, but I combine and apply them in my own way. It’s one of the brilliant things about ceramics – clay is an infinitely variable material, so there’s many great and inspiring practitioners.

What’s the process of creating one of your lamps?

All of my pieces are slipcast - I use liquid porcelain (slip) in plaster moulds to create the forms. The moulds are originally made from clay or plaster models. The mould absorbs the water from the clay, creating a thin coating on the inside of the mould. The slip is then emptied out and the piece is allowed to rest overnight.

I have two distinct techniques at the moment – my ‘original’ range of work and my ‘imagery’ range.

The ‘original’ range pieces are removed from the mould while still soft; I manipulate the clay by pushing tools from the inside or making marks on the outside. The clay is allowed to dry before being fettled, sponged and bisque (low) fired. After bisque the pieces are wet-sanded to create a lovely, blemish-free surface. I either glaze them with a crawling glaze that creates a cracked-earth texture, or leave them naked to be diamond-polished after a second (high) firing.

The ‘imagery’ range of work is left to dry and then bisque fired and wet-sanded. I create a paper stencil from one of my drawings and apply it to the piece with glue, then sandblast it. The sandblasting erodes the clay surface except where it’s protected by the stencil. Afterwards, the piece is high fired to create a soft silhouette with the inherent translucency of the porcelain.

How often do you damage or break a lamp in the process of creating your pieces?

It depends on how tired I am! It also depends on the design – some designs are particularly vulnerable to cracking in the firing as tension is created between very thin porcelain and thick glaze. I lose a lot less than I used to.

What designs have you been recently exploring?

I’m enjoying drawing in the woods at the moment. I love the quiet, almost-secret atmosphere of the wood and the changing views throughout the year. The birds are now nearly in full spring mode, which is glorious to hear. I recently came across a granite obelisk, overgrown and mysterious, so I’m working on sketches of it. I’ve also been doing sketches of the local wind farm – another place with a powerful solitary atmosphere.

I hope to have a pendant shade this year and smaller, more accessibly-sized pieces to sandblast.

Thanks Amy for opening up and sharing so much of your life and work. I’m jealous of the workshop in the woods – suddenly my folding table in the living room is looking a bit poky! See more of Amy’s work on her website and Etsy shop, or join her Facebook page to get updates and photos of her latest creations.

To say I’m an avid buyer on Etsy would be an understatement. I’ve made over 2,000 orders in the last year, nearly all of them containing multiple items. Shopping for thousands of items has furnished me with extensive insight into the buyer experience on Etsy.

I frequently see sellers in the Etsy forums offering other sellers well-intentioned advice that is often ineffective or misguided. I may not be the typical buyer, but I want to share my perspective since it seems quite different than most Etsy sellers.

Finding items

I find products to buy on Etsy only by using search. This is very typical – your target audience will mainly use search to find specifically what they want to buy. I never, ever use Browse. I look at many treasuries, but I’ve never bought a single item from a treasury.

The search tendency of most buyers means that tags on your items are ultra important. Yesterday, I typed two words into search and it pulled up over 12,000 items. After adding more specific words there were only 5 items in the search results. The other 11,995 items did not get my business.

It’s common for me to get 250 pages of search results; the only way I can reduce the results is to use more specific words. Items with excellent tags will survive the biggest cut as I refine my search.

Photos are similarly important. I always look through all the pages of search results once I’ve narrowed down the items, because I know there can be really nice items near the end of the results. It doesn’t take much time to flip through all the pages because I filter very quickly with my eyes. If your photo isn’t clear, I get frustrated and move on.

The buying decision

The most important selling point is having a quality product. It sounds like mundane advice, but you’d be surprised how many sellers know their items need improvement and don’t make the push to up their game.

Descriptions are important. I want to know if the price is for a single item or all the items in the photo. I need to know measurements in both metric and imperial. If I don’t find measurements easily, I get frustrated and move on. I’m from the U.K. and many sellers here will only put the metric measurements on their items. I use both; I drink my beer in a pint glass but I fit out my entire kitchen using millimeters!

Since I’m in the U.K., my orders are predominately shipped internationally from U.S. sellers. I’m well versed in the costs to ship internationally, including the recent increase in USPS rates. Many U.S. sellers don’t offer international shipping, or inflate the rates. I’d have easily made quadruple the purchases if this hurdle didn’t stop me in my tracks so often.

Focus on the things that matter to buyers – improve your photos, refine tags and descriptions, and make sure you’re putting out a quality product. Don’t be afraid of international shipping - I’ve received every single parcel safely.

Etsy networking

I participate in the Etsy forums, which is highly unusual for a buyer. In fact, it’s highly unusual for sellers – less than 2% of sellers on Etsy ever frequent the forums. It’s an excellent place for sellers to talk to other sellers, seek advice and trade tips.

I’ve never bought a single item that I found in the Etsy forums. I’m in a different mindset in the forums – I’m looking to participate in discussion. If I’m in a shopping mood, I go directly to search.

I favorite many items. My wife and children put many items into my favorites so I’ll buy them. If a seller contacts me for any reason after I favorite an item in their shop, I promptly remove the item from my favorites. It may seem harsh, but I never buy from a seller that spams me in any way. My inbox is already full of spam.

Circles are another chance for spam. I circle many sellers that I consider to have excellent taste. If you go favorite-crazy and jam my activity feed, it makes it more difficult to see the other sellers in my circle and you’ll quickly find yourself in the dustbin. Don’t abuse the social systems.

It’s important to remember that many views and favorites don’t equate to sales. Experienced sellers can tell you that 100 favorites with no sales is the same as 10 favorites with no sales. New sellers are getting pushed towards the networking aspects on Etsy before they’ve managed to get the basics right. Focus on the basics before you spend too much time with treasuries, favorites and circles.

Other considerations

I always leave feedback on the items I purchase. Less than half of the sellers I’ve purchased from have left me feedback.

None of my purchases have originated from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other web sites or blogs. Younger audiences may be more interested in navigating these social networks, so if your product targets only the young it might be appropriate to spend more time on social networking. Consider again whether you’ve mastered the basics before investing too much time. Keep tabs on your shop stats to see whether significant referrals are coming from these sources.

I’m male, which puts me in the minority when shopping on Etsy, but I don’t believe I shop differently because of it. After all, I learned how to shop from my wife – and she knows how to shop!

I’d like to stress this is only my perspective as a buyer. I can’t speak for other buyers, but many of my habits seem to ring true with what I’ve heard from experienced sellers. Work on the basics and you may see my name in the “Ship to” box soon.

John Major is a dedicated Etsy buyer. Retired after 20 years running his own retail and wholesale businesses, he joins us from the U.K. to share his perspective as a prolific purchaser.

Ireland has seen a strong emergence of design and handmade goods in the last few years, with many artisans and crafters seeking to reinvigorate classic Irish art. Join us as we explore the cities of Ireland and the inspired Etsy shops that call them home.

Limerick, Ireland

Limerick is located next to the river Shannon, at the point where the river meets the estuary to the Atlantic ocean. The ebb and flow of the river sends the salty aroma of the sea floating through the air in the city. The nearby Shannon Airport and University of Limerick fuel the mix of residents that made Limerick Ireland’s first City of Culture.

Kate Ramsey of FeltFieltroFilc is an award-winning feltmaker based in Limerick. She specializes in unique hand-dyed scarves, necklaces and other fashion accessories.

I love Limerick; it has just enough interesting restaurants, cafes and pubs. It’s a splendidly normal life without the price tag of Dublin – I can live in the city center without commuting or cycling around too much!

Kate creates her pieces from the finest quality silk and Merino wool. The scarves all start in white and she dyes them according to her mood.

I don’t like choosing the colours at the beginning of my work; I prefer to work with dyes, mixing colours individually for each new scarf.

A large flock of sheep on her parent’s farm spurred Kate’s interest in wool felt early in life. After buying a felt bag in Barcelona, she couldn’t get felting out of her mind. She scoured the internet and taught herself how to create her beautiful accessories through lots of trial and error. Now she’s self-employed and teaching others!

If you ever drop by Limerick, have a stroll on the river bank and walk on Saturday to the Milk Market in the city center to try local crafts and food (and meet me of course). Pop in to the Canteen, our newest arrival on the food map; they serve honest good food, keenly priced with some gluten-free desserts! Don’t forget to visit the Burren, a range of rare hills with a Lunar-like landscape and Lahinch, a beach in West Clare that’s popular with surfers and locals alike!

If you don’t find Kate wandering the streets of Limerick, add her on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with her latest creations. She also sells her work on her Etsy shop and website.

Corrydavit, Ireland

The tiny townland of Corrydavit sits perched on the west side of Ireland, overlooking the Clew Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Westport, split by the Carrowbeg river and just around the bay from Corrydavit, was rated the best place to live in Ireland by the Irish Times in 2012. Across the bay, Clare Island offers some of the most stunning views in the country. The island was home to the pirate queen Clare O’Malley, who fought against Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century and recently inspired a musical produced by the creators of Riverdance.

Jack Dolan of Jack Dolan Woodcraft draws heavily on the scenic inspiration and his Irish heritage in Corrydavit, creating meticulous wood carvings of Celtic knots, crosses, and illuminated letters inspired by the famous Book of Kells.

Originally from Dublin, I moved here 5 years ago with the intention of setting up my workshop. I’m happy to report it was a very good move indeed. Not least was the warm welcome we got from our new neighbours; you’re never short of a few fresh eggs in the Curra!

Jack’s interest in Celtic art blossomed when a friend introduced him to the work of Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick. Years later, a hobby of woodturning and discovering the Book of Kells led to him to a harmonious blend of woodcraft and Celtic art.

I spend a lot of time studying this great book and occasionally try to reproduce tiny sections of a page to better understand how the original scribes created this masterpiece of the 9th century. The aim of Celtic art is to give the impression of three dimensions with overlapping knotwork; I attempt to give this substance in my work. It also makes for very tactile pieces – I encourage customers to handle and feel the quality of the piece!

Born in Dublin in 1960, Jack worked as a graphic artist, woodturner, web designer and CAD technician before turning his attention to wall hangings created with Irish hardwoods. Find out more about Jack’s work on Facebook, Twitter and his website.

Dublin, Ireland

Established as a viking settlement in the 9th century, the capital of Ireland has a tumultuous history. Home to the national parliament of Ireland, the Oireachtas, Dublin has a number of deeply historical landmarks. The park at city center, Saint Stephen’s Green, fills 22 acres and is adjacent to one of main shopping thoroughfares, Grafton Street. The city is small enough to easily travel on foot; residents can walk nearly everywhere they want to go. Dublin is thriving despite a recession and has a great night life, along with a number of fabulous shops and restaurants.

Dublin is known for its literary giants – you can visit where Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker lived, where James Joyce had coffee everyday, and Trinity College where Jonathan Swift was dean. It’s the birthplace of William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, and home to winners of the nobel prize for literature – Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Dublin is a Unesco World heritage site for literature – you can even go on pub crawls to visit all the watering holes where famous writers divined inspiration.

Alexandra Jefferson of Propeller Prints creates unique, handmade cards and stationary. Originally from Australia, she’s called Dublin home for over 12 years.

My heart will always be attached to Australia but I’m delighted to call Dublin home. I’m trying to instill a love of drawing, crafting and creating in my two small children – it seems to be slowly working. Who knows, perhaps they’re future Etsyians!

Alex has worked as a web and print designer in both Dulin and Sydney. She began designing cards as a way of satisfying her own design whims and it’s taken off from there!

I’m a graphic designer so my illustration work for my cards is an off-shoot of that. I’ve always loved making things with paper and crafting an item from scratch. I can easily spend hours doodling and designing and playing with type and colour – love it!

Visit Alex on her Etsy shop to see more of her elegant stationary designs fresh from the Éire.

Wexford, Ireland

A few hours south along the Irish coast from Dublin lies Wexford. Similar to the capital city, Wexford was founded by vikings – the nearby Wexford Harbour served as a bustling seaport until the 20th century, when larger ships became commonplace and the shifting sands of the harbor proved unfeasible for dredging. Wexford is steeped in culture, including the renowned Wexford Opera House, which hosts the international Opera Festival every October.

Louise O’Dwyer of SWALK Designs lives in the surrounding County Wexford on a small farm with her husband and three young children. Louise creates sterling silver impressions of antique wax letter seals from the 18th and 19th centuries, shaping them into whimsical and historical pendants and charms.

The mottos and images on these stamps are funny, sentimental, inspiring and still relevant today. I’ve been a silversmith now for 8 years and have loved every minute. This shop is a new adventure for me and I am hoping to sell my sterling silver wax seal pieces in brick and mortar stores throughout Ireland.

Born in Dublin, Louise studied at Art college to earn a degree in fine art. She loves to travel and feels privileged to be close to all the major European capitals – though nothing beats being at home on the farm.

I love animals; I have a herd of 16 land-living Hermann’s tortoises. We also have a flock of hens that provide us with fresh eggs, a cranky parrot, cat, dog, geckos and a pair of male budgies who are in love. It’s a mad but very happy household.

Each of Louise’s creations comes with an explanation card describing the imagery and symbolism of the historical stamp, so that the sentiment comes across when given as gifts. See more magnificent SWALK creations on her Etsy shop, Facebook and website.

Kilkenny, Ireland

Kilkenny, a Medieval city in the south-east of Ireland, is a place that anyone visiting Ireland should have on their list. With the famous Kilkenny Arts Festival, the iconic Kilkenny Castle overlooking the river Nore and beautiful narrow streets, it’s one of the most popular and unforgettable tourist destinations in Ireland.

Justyna Mackowska of jmmCards with a twist came to Kilkenny from her native Poland over 10 years ago. A background in teaching and translation made her passionate about Ireland’s culture, language and people – as well as its breathtaking landscape. Justyna uses a unique combination of photography with natural materials to design and handcraft unique greeting cards, calendars and journals.

The cards’ uniqueness sets them apart from the usual run-of-the-mill, mass-printed products on the market. Specially shot photographs adorn the cards and calendars. Carefully chosen warm, earthy tones, a natural twine detail and a tiny, hand-cut recycled cardboard tag give them a rustic twist.

Working from her home studio, Justyna creates papercraft items that appeal to men, women and children of all ages. Her products are available in a number of retail shops in Ireland as well as her Etsy shop. Justyna is constantly adding to her range of products, recently introducing wedding stationary and bespoke wedding prints.

Visit the jmmCards website or follow Justyna on Facebook or Pinterest to see sample cards and learn more about this Irish crafter.

Ireland may look dwarfed next to the immense island of Great Britain, but this small sampling of artisans and crafters in the Etsy community proves that the art and culture of the Emerald Isle are as spirited as the country’s history. Join me next time as we explore another inspirational international community on Etsy.

Supplies Needed:

• 1.5″ clay pots
• Floral foam for wet flowers
• Sheet moss
• Place card holders
• Place cards
• Mini eggs
• Easter chicks
• 20 or 22 gauge silver or floral wire
• 24 or 26 gauge silver or floral wire
• Plastic or thin cardboard 6×6″ sheet
• Wire cutters
• Needle nose pliers
• Round nose pliers
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Glue
• Scissors
• Kitchen knife
• Embellishments: ribbon, flowers, buttons, stickers (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1

Gather your materials.

Step 2

Mark and cut the wire place card holder using wire cutters.

Step 3

Using a hot glue gun, glue the cut place card holder inside the pot – making sure the place card holder stands upright.

Step 4

Cut foam into 1.5″ cubes using a kitchen knife, then shape with the knife to fit in the pots. I used a shot glass to make sure I had the right fit. Once the foam is shaped, cut vertically through the center of the foam making two pieces for each pot.

Step 5

Place foam in pot on both sides of the place card holder.

Step 6

Add sheet moss to the top of the pot, cutting away any excess. Once the shape is correct, press the moss firmly into the foam.

Step 7

Wrap 24 or 26 gauge wire around leg of the chick so that you have equal amounts of wire on both ends. Bring wire together and twist together. Bend the wire at a 90 degree angle with the wire pointing down. Cut off wire in excess of 1″.

Step 8

Cut small circles out of plastic or cardboard. I used the plastic packaging from the place card holders.

Step 9

Glue mini eggs onto the cutout circles using a hot glue gun.

Trim away any excess plastic or cardboard from the eggs.

Step 10

Bend 20 or 22 gauge wire to create a circle. Then bend the circle so that it is perpendicular to wire piece.

Step 11

Glue the wire base to the bottom of the egg platform with a hot glue gun.

Step 12

Insert wire stand for eggs into foam. Insert wire for chick into foam.

Step 13

Embellish place card with a flower and button or sticker (optional). Add a ribbon to the top rim of the pot (optional).

Step 14

Insert the card into the place card to holder and you’re done!

Happy Easter! Feel free to leave a comment on how you would modify this project to make it your own.