Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year! Today marks the start of the Year of the Dragon. As one of the legend goes, the Jade Emperor invited all the animals to participate in a big race. The Zodiac would be determined by the first twelve animals to cross the finish line. The ox, worried that he would be too slow, started to run in the middle of the night. The rat, spying the ox, decided to jump on his back (unbeknownst to him) and, in fact, as dawn broke and the ox approached the finish line, the rat jumped off his back and crossed the finish line first! It is also said that the only reason the Dragon did not finish first in the race is because he overslept - something I can definitely relate to, and which I've illustrated here.

Crafting Numbers: Is Etsy worth it?

In the spring, I wrote about the psychology of selling on Etsy. (In a nutshell: it's not as easy as it looks.) After I wrote that post, I sat back and started wondering, is Etsy worth it for me? You see, I usually have one sale on Etsy every few months. I had been, for a while, mindlessly renewing everything once it expired and waiting around for sales. (Not just waiting. I did carefully craft emails to bloggers - of blogs that I had read for months and even years on end - but nothing came of it.) However, each time you renew or list a new item, it costs 20 cents. If you have a lot of items in your shop, it adds up. And it adds up especially if you're not making a lot of sales on Etsy to cover these costs.

So I decided to run an experiment. I would track my sales and the costs of running an Etsy shop to determine if it was worth it to keep my shop open. If I wasn't making a profit, I would close the shop, I decided.

However, one strategy that I did change in implementing this experiment was my listing strategy. Rather than relisting everything as I did in the past, I only strategically listed items that I knew had sold or had potential to sell.

My results? Well, it's only the third quarter, but here are the figures:

Sales: $76.75 (after Paypal fees)

Costs: $22.77

So, I'm making an approximate profit of about $50 for the first 9 months of this year. Conclusion: I'm keeping the shop open. I will, however, continue my method of strategically selecting which cards to list in the shop, as it saves me money. (Side thought: Thank god Etsy is not my main source of income!)

More from the ideas lab

Here are some more cards I've been working on this week:



These wedding lovebirds were actually inspired by a sketch my mom made. This past winter, I recruited her to help me come up with some designs for wedding, baby, and Father's Day cards (the Father's Day card below is also inspired by her).



The idea behind this card is that of a "city baby." When I was living in New York, I constantly saw people carrying strollers down their stoops, up their stoops, up the subway stairs, down the subway stairs. Steps are definitely something you take more into account when you have a baby in the city! Unfortunately, my mother and boyfriend's first reaction upon seeing the card was, "I feel scared for the baby." Hopefully other people won't feel the same way!

The First Step: 'E' is not for Easy, or, the psychology of selling on Etsy

It seems pretty easy to be a craftsperson these days. Rather than applying for craft fairs, or trying to get your work into stores or galleries, anyone can just sign up for an account with Etsy and start selling there. You've eliminated the middleman, as well as the need for permission to make your work available to customers! And we've all read the success stories on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal: so-and-so sets up a shop on Etsy, gets overwhelmed with online orders, quits his or her full-time job to pursue their hobby full-time. It must be pretty easy then, right?

Well, yes and no. The easy part: setting up a shop on Etsy. Not easy: getting the sales.

You see, in order to be successful on Etsy, you have to be "discovered" - by Etsy admin, by hordes of Etsy shoppers, or by bloggers (who normally draw the hordes of Etsy shoppers to your shop). And in order to be "discovered", you have to drive traffic to your shop. You can't just list things and expect people to snatch them up without any work on your part. There are approximately 300,000 sellers on Etsy. It'll be pretty hard for people to find you unless you put the work into marketing yourself.

I'm still trying to figure out a successful online marketing plan, and I haven't really put the work into marketing myself online, so I don't have all the answers. But I do know that it can be discouraging to see things sit in your shop for months on end, to watch other peoples' sales grow while yours stagnate. One of my friends told me that she just wanted to close her Etsy shop and stop making stationery because she was getting so few sales. Recently, I spoke to a stationery store owner whose friend had stopped selling on Etsy because it was just too much trouble to keep listing and relisting without anything coming from it.

I know a thing or two about dealing with these feelings, too.

1. Remember why you started making your art. You didn't do it because you wanted to sell it. You did it because you liked it, it was fun, and you enjoyed the process of creation. Don't stop making cards, or totebags, or soap, or scarves just because it isn't selling on Etsy. You didn't start making them so you could sell them, don't stop making them because you can't sell them.
2. Do not depend on Etsy as your sole customer. You should be pursuing other sources - craft fairs, brick and mortar stores) that can bring in more income for your business. My cards have sold far better at craft fairs and in stores than on Etsy, and the latter especially has provided me with a steadier source of income than Etsy. (I'll discuss how to sell at craft fairs and stores in a later column.) However, I still keep my Etsy shop open to reach the one or two customers every couple of months - although, I will be re-evaluating this approach as well.
3. Instead of making excuses for why you don't have time to make Etsy or your hobby/business a priority, start finding excuses for why you should. I've heard so many people lament their slow sales on Etsy and then add, "well, I don't have time anyway because of my job/kid/school, so of course I don't have a lot of sales on Etsy." However, I think it's commendable that someone would pursue a hobby/business on the side *in spite of* their current commitments. And if you look at it that way, you can and will find the time to grow your business!
4. Lastly, for those who are thinking about setting up a shop on Etsy, don't expect to get a sale, or steady sales immediately. I've been on Etsy for four years and I still don't get steady sales! It's hard, as is everything nowadays. But if you remember all these points, they should keep you going through your darkest days! Good luck!

Birthday Fireworks

Seriously, I have the hardest time trying to think of ideas for birthday cards. I have no idea why. But I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out!

Sketching

A few nights ago, I thought it would be a great idea to make an Alice in Wonderland themed Easter card, namely around the encounter with the White Rabbit. The idea behind the card would be to wish the recipient an Easter filled with delightful surprises.

I sketched out a few possibilities:



As you can see, there is a reason why I work in collage. The parallelograms below Alice's feet are actually a sketch of my stand-out graduate card from a previous page - I'd cut out the bottom of the page earlier although I don't remember what for now.



(Yes, I use a regular notebook to sketch my ideas.)

And this is what I came up with:

To a Stand-out Graduate

I finished this card last night. The hardest part, conceptually, for me was trying to figure out how to write "Congratulations." I didn't want to just write it in script with a drawing pen. My boyfriend suggested I use something related to school, like writing "congratulations" on lined paper, which then led me to the idea of using a banner. Of course, the final idea was not even to make a banner with the greeting, but to cut out the words, and string them across the card as the banner itself. And there you have it!

More spring cards

I spent the night before the MPRE making this (after studying of course). It's addressed to a graduate who "stands out from the crowd." The hat is actually modeled off the design I made for my own college graduation hat, not that I'm trying to flatter myself by implying I'm a standout in any way. Actually, a lot of people in my department decorated their hats: my friend, who sat beside me, put a little bear on her hat, one guy dressed up as a pirate, and apparently there was another guy who decorated his hat in a similar way to mine. My friends, who had been trying to find me, told me about him. "That guy was really big and macho," they said, "and we thought, 'no, that can't be Michelle.'"

Anyway, the card isn't finished yet - I still need to write a "Congratulations." But just wanted to preview it here.

However, after the MPRE yesterday, I was able to finish these cards below:



The Easter Egg nest



The Russian Easter cake (kulich), which is taken to the church the night before Easter to be blessed.



The Octopus graduate, complete with a graduation cap, tassel, and lei (but no diploma! It will be mailed to him later.)

A Russian Easter

Easter egg bashing is a game Russian children play on Easter. One child stands still and holds a hardboiled egg while the other child takes another egg and smashes it against the still egg, the goal being to see which egg survives with the fewest cracks. The winner gets the opponent's egg. The children call out, "Christ is risen!" ("Khristos voskres!") when bashing the eggs together.

I've tried to illustrate this tradition in the card above, although it still strikes me as unfinished somehow. Maybe a "Happy Easter" in the white space between the children would do the trick?

33 variations

Easter eggs inspired by the matryoshka nesting dolls. The eggs in the top card were cut from a Russian language newspaper and painted in watercolor by me.

I called this post 33 variations because once this idea came into my head, I couldn't stop thinking about all the variations on the matryoshka Easter egg theme I could do. The 33 variations refers to Beethoven's variations of Diabelli's waltz - which he sent to all the great composers of the time and challenged them to compose a variation of it. Beethoven composed 33 variations. While sources vary on his motives, there is no doubt in my mind that his obsessive personality played a role.

The wedding cake

This is my latest card - the wedding cake.

It's hard to do wedding cards without resorting to all the stereotypical images - the cake, the dress, tux, etc. I tried my best to create a unique and different look using one of these traditional images. The 'congratulations' was handscripted (backwards!) and handcut on the same floral pattern as the flowers, which were also individually cut from the pattern. And yes, it resulted in a severely cramped left hand but it was worth it!

The Octopus family

I just uploaded these Octopus family cards to the shop. I was feeling blocked for most of January and having a difficult time coming up with new ideas, but it looks like a weekend in the mountains cured me!

New Valentine's Cards

Girl + Boy = Love

I call this one "Crossroads of Love."

And Finally, I Bring to you

I'm finally done with my exams. I thought the day would never come! It's kind of hard to believe that I won't have any reading or writing assignments nagging at me in the back of my head for the next three weeks.

So with that, I would like to announce that my boyfriend has started an Etsy shop for his photography, which you can visit here: Guimon

Currently only postcards are available, but prints are also available on request.

Here's a preview of some of his work! (The olives picture is his work too.) You can see more on the Etsy site or on his flickr.

Italian Roundup

I've made a decision: I am going to live on take-out for the next two weeks until my exams are over. I've tried to cook these past few days, but each attempt has been a disaster and keep in mind that these are dishes that I have cooked successfully in the past! What's causing me to screw up? I have to chalk it up to stress over finals. The eggplant parmigiana I made tonight was...not my best attempt. The eggplant was still hard even after I'd baked it in the oven for over 30 minutes. So, no more cooking until after the 21st.

Actually, my failed dish is a nice way to segueway into my Italian round-up. So here goes:


Little Italy by Jennifer Altman - Altman spent a summer in Italy and fell in love with the country. This book is a collection of her polaroid snapshots of her country and her travel narratives. As some of you know, I spent part of last summer in Italy and though I didn't exactly fall in love with the country, it was definitely a memorable experience. While it was not my first time there, it was the first time that I was abroad for a significant length of time (meaning more than 2 weeks) and it was the first time that I was traveling abroad alone. So of course, this book is on my Christmas wishlist.



Notte Sento - I saw this short film, along with a series of short films on love, with my boyfriend a few months ago. This was the only one in the series that I really liked.

And lastly, this is my latest card for the holidays! It is based off the Italian Christmas tradition, Feast of the Seven Fishes. I haven't decided if I'm going to put it up on Etsy yet since it's so late, but it's been one of my most overworked designs - I started sketching a year ago and even made a prototype but was never really happy with what I came up with. I am happy to say now that it's done! I think.... to be continued :)

Dreidel Tug of War

These two octopi are engaged in a friendly tug-of-war over who gets to spin the dreidel!

A Kangaroo Mother's Day

Before making this card, I'd had in my mind the cartoon image of the kangaroo with a visible patch-like pouch. When, I looked at kangaroo photos, though, I was in for a surprise:

Image from this page. (I love how the joey--baby kangaroo--is looking at you out of the corner of his eye!)

And here is my version, based off sketches of various photographs, which, by the way, is not a copyright violation because it falls under fair use. The AP may have wanted to investigate this more before going public with their copyright infringement allegations.

Doe, a deer, a female deer

My mother has loved deer (as animals, not food) for about as long as I remember, but I didn't quite appreciate them until a trip to Washington about 10 years ago. We were driving around Mt. Rainier National Park, and we found a fawn that had wandered into the parking lot. My mom stopped the car, and my sister and I got out to feed her. I remember how pretty her eyes were. She ate out of my hand, but she would not let me pet her (she drew back every time I tried). In the pictures, you can see just how scared - and hungry - she is. Her head and neck are almost in a straight line with her back. It was like there was an invisible line that she wasn't allowed to cross.

I don't have the pictures with me, but I did some browsing recently and found some adorable deer-themed items on Etsy and DaWanda:



Forest Fawn Lapel Pin from Figs and Ginger (9 euros)






"I Love You My Dear" Valentine's card from Sarah Jane Studios



"I Do Not Know Where We Are Going, But At Least We Are Together" papercut print, by mon petit fantome

And how could I forget Anna Carin-Dahl's lovely Woody vases? I discovered her while I was in Copenhagen this summer. This vase is sitting on my shelf right now. Found at Stillebenshop, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

According to The New York Times, there's a recent study challenging the cathartic value of crying. While crying may have a cathartic value for some, others use crying as a way to block resolution of complicated emotional questions. After reading this article, I have to say that I fall into the latter category (the protest criers).

On a lighter note, after I read this article, I poked around Etsy and Dawanda and found a few relevant items:

Clockwise starting from the top left:

Rainy Days by TskTsk
Heart handmade little bear by moumou
Crocodile Tears by Danitashop
Sleepy Cry by Ambrosebird
Feeling a little blue heart felt pin by StictcherScribbler
Little Pierrot bookmark by Ma Petite Papeterie

Bon Mardi Gras!

I made this card last year, after Mardi Gras. I didn't put it up on Etsy because it was after the fact, and also because I was unhappy with the way I'd calligraphed the greeting on the card. This year, though, after some work, I'm now happy with the script.

Mardi Gras falls on February 24, 2009.

The colors of Mardi Gras are, in fact, purple, gold, and green, which I didn't know when I made the card. I guess I got lucky!