Featured Etsy Bloggers Artist: Storybeader

Featured Etsy Bloggers Artist: Storybeader

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell? My shop is called storybeader and I sell one-of-a-kind jewelry and other fun beaded items

2. What is your shop URL? http://storybeader.etsy.com/

3. What is your blog URL? http://storybeader.blogspot.com/

4. When did you start selling on Etsy? in Feb 2008

5. What is your favorite thing about Etsy? it's the community of Etsybloggers I've met. They're the best! Etsybloggers Rock!

6. What is your favorite thing about what you sell? are you talking about the jewelry as a whole? I enjoy working with beads and colors. I also like to be able to write stories to go with the necklaces.

7. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why? I don't have one favorite item - sure you hear that a lot! It's more like a favorite technique: my treasure necklaces. They can tell such a sweet story and the colors and textures - you can go wild!

8. What teams do you belong to? My most active team is the Etsybloggers. I also joined the OKESTYs when I first came to selling on Etsy (I live in Oklahoma.) Recently I joined the BBEST (Boomers team), but there aren't enough hours in a day to be active everywhere. And I love my bloggers!

9. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop? Write and direct people to my blog!

10. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy? I'm always on the lookout for turtles - can't list all of them. I found a great olive tray, by lurearts. I love ceramics. But my favorite favorites is the Storyteller, by wildeyedesign (I wrote about it on an early blog.) One day I'll buy it!

11. What do you do in your spare time? What spare time? LOL I love to read, and if I'm not working or taking care of my business (storybeader), I'm either spending time with DH, reading, or exercising. Not much cleaning going on in this girl's house!

12. What blogs do you follow? I follow all my fella etsybloggers, and try to comment on their blogs. And BlogTalkRadio is something new to me. I've been dropping cards through Entrecard, and follow some blogs through that.


13. Do you have anything else you would like to share? One thing I've found about starting your own business is to keep focused. Everyone knows that it is so easy to get sidetracked online. And don't forget your family - it's easy to do, especially if you don't have children.

Featured Etsy Shop: bethsingleton

Featured Etsy Shop: Beth Singleton Designs

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell? bethsingleton (Beth Singleton Designs). I sell handmade glass lampwork beads.

2. What is your shop URL? http://www.bethsingleton.etsy.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5136421

3. When did you start selling on Etsy? I joined in April 2007 but didn't list anything until October 2007 when I listed a few items. I made the complete switch from eBay in December 2007 and haven't looked back.

4. What is your favorite thing about Etsy? I love the idea of having a shop instead of having auctions I have to watch. It is the perfect place for me. Etsy attracts the right customers for my product. It's also nice to be able to work from home. I'm still able to manage my household and family responsibilities and bring in an extra income. Life is Good!

5. What is your favorite thing about what you sell? I love making glass lampwork beads. My beads tend to be bright, fun and funky. I just love wearing my beads on my Pandora bracelet. It's fun to mix and match them.
6. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why? My most popular items are my large hole bracelet beads. I think people like to collect them, mix them up, change them out to go with different outfits. For me collecting Artisan Pandora and Troll style bracelet beads in like wearing little pieces of art around you wrist. I also have on customer that uses my large hole beads for braided kangaroo leather leads that she makes.

7. What teams do you belong to? None. I don't have time for all of that.

8. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop? I don't know if there is any one thing that works better for me. I do have a custom bumper sticker with my URL and a picture of my beads that I have on my car. I promote on Craigslist, Myspace, Indiepublic, Flickr, Nifty, and even Classmates.com.

9. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy? My favorites have been dog related items. I bought a stamped "King of Farts" dog tag from this seller: http://www.sudlow.etsy.com/. My yellow lab is actually featured in her picture for this item (he's the one at the bottom left corner) I also bought 3 beautiful dog prints that look just like my 3 dogs from this seller: http://www.dogartstudio.etsy.com/. The 3 prints brighten my studio!

10. What do you do in your spare time? Spare Time? What is that? I don't seem to have much of that these days. I do squeeze in some volunteer work every now and then. We love attending my son's JV Football games. We have about 65 acres of land and when I have time (not lately) I enjoy morning walks with my dogs on the trails. There's plenty of wildlife to be enjoyed on the walks...deer, geese, ducks, and an occasional snake and even a coyote once. I also help out with my mother-in-law that has cancer and dementia which can be very frustrating at times. On bad days I can retreat to my studio, light up my torch and get away from it all.

Featured Etsy Shop: Raid My Stash

Featured Etsy Shops: Raid My Stash & ClawTreeDesign

This blog features another wonderful Etsy West Michigan artist who has two shops. Check out her shops and don't forget to search "etsywmi team" for more great Michigan finds!

1 and 2 - I have two Etsy shops. The first is RaidMyStash.etsy.com
- a little supply shop where I sell small quantities of beads for those who want to try something new without a large investment. My other store is ClawTreeDesign.Etsy.com. Here I sell handmade jewelry in different styles as well as fiber art scarves and handbags.
3 - I started selling on Etsy this summer, and am actually still stocking the ClawTreeDesign store and plan to "launch" it this fall.
I'm still figuring out how to do that.
4 - My favorite thing about Etsy is the creativity of the community.
I can just browse for hours, amazed at the work that I see.
5 - I love that I sell items that are actually used and worn and enjoyed by people. I love to hear someone tell me how much they still like a piece of jewelry years after they bought it.
6. - Currently the favorite item in my shop would be either the shell bracelet with seed beads and pearls "I found Another Shell" or the highly textured nuno felted handbag " Look At Me Now". Both were so much fun to make, both are unique and beautiful in their own way.
7. – I belong to the West Michigan Etsy team. I am new to Etsy and therefore new to this team, but I have enjoyed meeting members of the team and am impressed by how congenial and supportive they are.
8. – I haven't yet promoted my shop, but I will do so this fall. I appreciate suggestions… I did participate in Etsy day at the Fulton Street Artisans Market, and that was fun.
9. I have a list of favorite items that grows daily. I lately have been looking at nature photography, ceramics, and some copper metal
work jewelry. All things that I do not make, but love to have…
10. My art is my spare time lately. I love to read, to hang out at the lake with the kids. I enjoy knitting and crochet, I like to walk and in the winter I ski when I can.
11. The only other thing I could share is the inspiration for the name of my shop – Claw Tree Design. A claw tree – as I call it - is a tree that for some reason has roots exposed that appear to be reaching for or clinging to the ground. I see these trees as a metaphor. They all started out as seedlings in a place that should have given them the nutrients to grow, but for some reason the ground underneath them changed, shifted, eroded, went away. Some trees then just die, but the claw tree extends its roots as far as they need to go in order to hang on to what it needs to stay alive and growing.

Life can be like this. We start out with certain expectations and
plans. Sometimes, our plans don't work, our hopes are not fulfilled, things change, shift, erode, disappoint. We can then be like the claw tree and reach out to cling to what we need and what we know is good.

My avatar is a sketch I made years ago when learning how to draw. A claw tree was a difficult subject given my lack of experience but it turned out well. That was the first time I thought that I may just be able to create. It gave me the encouragement to continue drawing and eventually to pursue my creative urges into different mediums. Creating beautiful things is one of my roots.