I just checked back on my little blog, and I see that I finally have some followers. Welcome! I hope you will stick with me for a while :-)
Behind the Scenes of...... Etsy
Etsy is supposed to be THE "global handmade and vintage marketplace". A large group of jewelry artists have opended their shop there.. And I am one of them... The majority of the little sales I have is through Etsy. But now I feel, that Etsy has turned it's back on me, the individual artist..
The Etsy policy states, that the website is for people, who sell handmade items, vintage and supplies. But how do they inforce that policy? Especially in the handmade category?? I guess the term "handmade" has a different meaning for the individual.. Mine is.. you spin your yarn and hand-knit a pair of gloves. The other option (which I see a lot on Etsy, lately)... you make a charm necklace by stringing a bunch of charms you bought from China... I think anybody could do that... Don't get me wrong... There are some really talented artists in the Etsy crowd.. I just feel that they go under and go unnoticed amongst the rest.. " The more you make, the more you matter". And let's face it.. If you are truly making your items by hand, it takes a while for you to finish one (depending on the items you offer) and you can not make as many as somebody with tons of charm necklaces and bracelets..
When Etsy started in 2005, it was the place to go to for people, seeking and appreciating handmade items.
They added the suppliers and vintage re-sellers.. (?) Then, in 2011, the Etsy blog’s “Featured Seller” was a woman claiming to sell handmade furniture constructed out of salvaged wood, which would be great if she were actually making all the pieces herself. She had over 200 items in her shop.. How could she do so many on her own... by hand??? They then found out that she was just designing the furniture and a company in Bali was making it for her.. Do you consider this handmade??? This shop totally violates the site's policies.. I guess that's why they changed them by redefining the term "handmade".
Eli Goodman (Etsy Admin) states: “In looking at the sellers that really embodied the spirit of what we want Etsy to be, there was no one production process that unified them – some made everything from scratch, some had help in their shops, and some used outside production assistance. Thus, we settled on a definition of handmade (based) more around the values these sellers embodied, as opposed to the methods of production that they used. We chose not to change to some other term because we called Etsy a marketplace for handmade things, and the sellers who have formed our community identify themselves as handmade sellers. ”
The problem is, the community, who identifies themselves as handmade sellers, don't really identify with Etsy's new handmade definition.. That means, anybody can sell here, now.. The new definition encourages outsourcing and mass production.. And that has nothing to do with the care and attention to detail, a truly handmade item brings to the customer..
Bottom line is... When I signed up on Etsy, I truly believed, that I finally found a place, where the individual artist was valued more then big profit. Etsy's motto states so... but their new policy?? ... not really.. How can a customer see the difference between the truly handmade and the mass-produced?? It is not that easy... So when you browse Etsy looking for handmade items, beware... Not everything on Etsy is handmade.
BTW... Below is a picture of a 100% handmade cuff by me.. It takes me an average of 6-8 hrs. to make one of those, because it is completely hand wrapped. Every piece in my shop is made with a lot of attention to detail.
Just as an example, that I can not have a ton of jewelry in my Etsy shop, because of the amount of time it consumes to make one...
To see more visit my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/2wired
P.S.: Feel free to post your thoughts and opinions on that subject.. <3
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