The online shopping experience of ETSY keeps me both beguiled and baffled. It seems infinite, like an enormous art and craft fair; at the same time it’s very tricky to navigate to the supplies or handmade items you want to buy.
I set up a shop for my artwork (DeidhreWauchopStudio) well over a year ago, but haven’t sold anything yet. Just recently I opened a second shop (TooManyPies) as an outlet for things I make as I build some technical skills in a whole range of media.
I’ve had two sales through this shop—my Happy Granny knee rugs (below)—with the purchase price donated to charity.
My shop policy is to donate 20% of items sold to goodwill organisations. Any other profit goes to increasing the stash! The whole purchase price (excluding postage) for each blanket I sell is donated to a charity of the customer’s choice.
My favourite thing about the whole ETSY experience is that it provides a vehicle for completing and presenting work and I think that both my design work and my technical skills are continually improving. I’ve been working on simple hats and scarves that I have designed myself and look forward to working on more complex projects.
Colour and fabrication have become very important in each design. Here are a few glimpses of upcoming items yet to be completed for my TooManyPies shop.
In the meantime I spend a great deal of time trawling ETSY suppliers—looking for beads, buttons, yarns, leather, wire, flowers, rabbits, eyes and fish (just to mention a few obsessions of the moment). There are some real gems (no pun intended) to be found in the supplies area of the ETSY market. I try to support the artisans and the Aussies where I can but reckon I’ve only scratched the surface of this treasure trove!
Master crafting 