the grass is always greener!!

No matter what I'm doing, it seems I always want to be doing something else!! I am a firm believer that variety is the spice of life, and the fact that the last three things that I have listed in my store have been felt brooches (and aren't they lovely?), makes me want to start listing more amigirumi crochet. Not that I have any! Right now I'm putting together some whales for my mum to send some friends, and right after that, I'll get back to making some cute things for the shop. I can't believe that I can't just be happy with my new product line - always thinking of the next thing!

Alchemical

One of the most recent changes to the Etsy website is the introduction of Alchemy - an area of Etsy where buyers can request a custom item to be created by sellers who "bid" for the sale of the item. Prior to it being launched, I thought "yeah, that sounds like an interesting feature". And interesting it sure is, but not for the ways that I thought it would be. There are a number of results that I had no idea would happen.

The first is that buyers no longer have to search for an item, and therefore I imagine that browsing/random purchases are down. I know that quite often I think that I want one thing on a website, and then when I actually get there, I get distracted and buy something else entirely. This is the premise behind having shop locations, having categories, having showcased items - all of retail is based upon the browsing mentality. Alchemy effectively loses the browsing, and I don't wonder if sales are actually down. I imagine that site views certainly are. Of course, without clear statistic on Etsy performance, it's hard to say. I have seen zillions of posts for "wanted: banner for my shop" - well, there are zillions of banner creators out there - why not just use one of them? Of course, promoting is an absolute constant in any good store, but this feels like beyond promoting and closer to pimping my store!

Secondly, is the "race to the bottom". Etsy is supposed to be a marketplace that values hand-crafting. However, sellers are underpressure to cut prices and enter lower bids in the Alchemy service. Many of the ideal prices are quite simply frighteningly low. No seller is forced to enter a bid, so I can't possibly comment on the rights and wrongs of it, but I personally know that I don't think that many of the ideal prices are worth effort of creating the item.

Thirdly is the "rip-off" attitude. By this I mean the "can you create this but for a bit cheaper please" that seems to go on. I thoroughly approve of adding pictures that you are inspired by or you sort of want your item to look like. But asking people to copy other's work, or to undercut them is just plain cheeky.

Finally, Alchemy itself is difficult to work. There are no categories to search by and the bid process is confusing.

I was genuinely excited by Alchemy when it first arrived. I've now realised that it's not a service that I plan on using, either for buying or selling. It will be interesting to see how it matures and other Etsy users experiences of it.

moustaches and clouds

Just another quick post to say that these two were listed today as well. I sold a couple of the moustache pins at the fair at the weekend, so I hope they do well on etsy. The cloud keyring came from some random doodles in a business meeting (my notebooks are an embarassment and I have to try and not let all the senior guys see them otherwise they'll just think that I'm more of a girlie nutcase than usual). I am really enjoying making the felt brooches and keyrings at the moment. It's giving me a lovely break from crochet, which I think is giving me RSI. Too much of anything, and I start to crave other things!

More thoughts on the craft fair

I've had loads of comments from the Glasgow Craft Mafia after my post of the fair. The first thing I'd like to say is that I think it's absolutely awesome that so many have thought to provide comments and invite me along to talk about my thoughts. The people in the mafia are really cool and did put a whole lot of hard work into the fair on saturday, and the bad weather, the lack of signage on the day (beyond their control) and the poor footfall on the Byers Road that day all contributed. The people there were really cool, especially lady wurlitzer, stellamystar, asking for trouble, we are the robots, and pumpkinsputnik. Plus, they have such a fantastically high standard of stuff - I wanted to buy buy buy!!! (Nothing until Easter Monday though - the shopping-free lent continues. Much as I would like to go to Mono to chat about it, I am in Edinburgh so probably can't. However, I would definitely do another Glasgow Craft Mafia fair - one event does not an experiment make.

New Designs Posted

Just a quick post to say that these are two of my latest creations. I designed the yellow ninja first, and then loved the shape so much that I thought I would make a badge of it too. I really want to do a whole line of these teeny ninjas - I think they are soo cool!! I just posted them tonight - my first new products for March. Making brooches is a current obsession for me - I have lots of ideas I want to bring to life, and they are really restful to do. Plus, they don't take up heaps of space, so my boyfriend likes it as well. Space is at a complete premium in our flat. I'm really excited to see new things in - my shop was even starting to bore me!!

My first craft fair and getting back to the real world

I've been completing neglecting my blog for the last week, on account of the freakish amount of crafting I have done to try and build up a heap of stock for the craft fair I was at yesterday. It was the Glasgow Craft Mafia market, and my first ever fair. More thoughts on that further down the post.

Firstly, one week's intense crafting (and we're talking still going to work every day), with the extreme support of a very understanding boyfriend produced:

• 3 crocheted ninjas
• 2 felt ninjas
• 2 crocheted whales
• 2 crocheted elephants
• 10 felt badges
• 2 plush bunnies
• 1 crocheted octopus
• 2 plush monsters

Quite a haul, don't you think? I definitely don't want to leave everything to the last minute again, but it was great to see how productive I can be if I really put my mind to it? And I did still enjoy doing it, but like anytime I feel that I'm crafting to order, I did feel a bit constrained, and right now I have a heap of new designs in my head that I want to try out, so I'll work on that for the next week or so. I have another fair in about six weeks, so I'll try and be more organised in thinking about my stock.

So, how did the fair go? Well, it was my first fair, so I'm not sure how much I can really measure it, but I have to admit to feeling a bit disappointed. I just about made back by entry fee, and by watching the other people there, I wasn't doing any worse or any better than anyone else. It was held upstairs in a library, and there were very few signs outside to let people know that it was going on. There was a fantastic banner made by the craft mafia, but unfortunately they weren't allowed to hang it up downstairs. The Byers Road in Glasgow is the perfect place for the fair to be, but the lack of signs on the day really meant that the footfall wasn't fantastic. When people did come in, then it was great, but at most parts of the day, the number of sellers in the room outnumbered the buyers. A real shame, and I don't know if it was just a once-off for that event, or an ongoing issue. I did get a chance to meet some really cool people and see some fantastic stuff, so that was really good. If possible, I would like to try it again to see if it was just a once-0ff.

I haven't listed a single thing of Etsy for all of March, so I will be spending the next ten days or so listing something new every day, so it'll be interesting to see if that is good for sales there.

crazy times!!

Right now I am perched on one corner of the sofa, knees against my chest, typing in a fairly uncomfortable position. The reason for this is that I have my very first craft fair next Saturday, and I have woefully little stock for it, and am now mad crafting like a maniac to make up for it. On top of that, I have been in Israel for a few days vacation visiting my boyfriend's family, and I thought I would be able to get loads done there - nope, not a chance!!! The floor of my tiny flat is covered with felt scraps, there is wool everywhere, the kitchen table has cut out bits of felt all over it, and there are enough pins and needles lying around to ensure that I'll definitely do myself a serious injury!! Now, my boyfriend is a total neat freak (when he runs out of things to say, he says "tidy up!" because he knows it's relevant!), so luckily he isn't home until tomorrow, otherwise he'd be having a heart attack and breaking out into cold sweats. I am literally counting the crafting hours I have between now and Saturday to see how much I can make. And with the fab new job, well, taking a sickie is just plain out of the question. I can see a week of very little sleep, and bribing my boyf to be extremely understanding!