Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard
Etsy.com sounds like a small corner of the Internet, but there's a whole world of cool crafts - everything from personalized stationary to hand-stitched flannel nursing pads to "manly" faux wood coffee cozies - to discover on the Web site, which is like eBay for crafters, only without the auctions or the everything-must-go liquidation sales.
"I like the fact that it's just for independent artists or designers," says Megan Juenemann, 33, a mother of two who runs a virtual Etsy shop specializing in vintage-inspired children's clothes out of her Eugene home. "It's not a place that you can go and sell overstock online. It's more specifically for individuals."
Sort of an ever-expanding online craft fair, Etsy is home to dozens of Eugene artists and crafters such as Juenemann who are discovering the site, not only as a place to buy and sell crafts, but also as a venue for connecting with other artists.
"I like the community that's on Etsy, and I also like the format," says Teague Cohen, 25, a Eugene glass artist who has been selling beads, cellphone charms, rings, cufflinks and other items on the site since August 2006.
"It's really easy to list (items), and the shops are all really nice looking."
Cohen says part of the clean appearance of Etsy's shops is an outgrowth of the site's easy-to-use infrastructure. Sellers aren't allowed fancy Web graphics, just digital photos and a few bits of information about themselves and the crafts they make.
While Cohen earns her living through her art - part of it through her Etsy shop TeaguesBeads - others earn just enough to support their crafting habit.
Tracy Terrall, 29, a knitter who runs TJTDesign and doesn't have any plans to quit her day job substitute teaching, says Etsy allows her to continue doing what she loves.
"Knitting isn't one of those things that you go into expecting to make a lot of money (off) of," she says. "I knit because I want to, and I sell almost out of necessity because I have too many pieces. It's either give them all away or see what it would be like to sell them."
For Juenemann, an artist with limited time on her hands, Etsy represents an opportunity to begin building a business that could eventually grow into something bigger down the road.
"I have two kids who aren't in school and another part-time job," she explains. "I want to keep (my store) alive until I have the time and energy I need to build it and develop it."
Juenemann's business may be expanding in spite of her best efforts to contain it. She's been approached by a Portland boutique that wanted to sell her clothing (she turned them down because she didn't like the idea of having to sew full size runs), and she was recently contacted by a publication that wanted to feature her products.
Although Etsy is worldwide phenomenon, it is possible to shop locally using a function on the Web site that allows users to search by city. Juenemann belongs to a local group of sellers, dubbed the Eugene Etsy Street Team, that meets every couple of weeks to discuss ways to better market their works and help promote Etsy.
Local sellers aren't required to reveal their location, so a complete list of Lane County sellers is difficult to compile, but a search for Eugene reveals dozens of crafters selling everything from screen prints on wood paneling to letterpress cards to braided horse hair jewelry.
Painter John Holdway started selling block prints on Etsy a few months ago. He's still figuring out what the market will bear. So far, he's finding that prints of ravens are in demand, while prints of skulls are not.
"I think it's really cool stuff they put on (Etsy)," Holdway says. "Some of it is real edgy and interesting. It's not the kind of stuff you find in other places, in other shops."
Holdway's prints sell for $20 to $30. Terrall sells scarves, ponchos and shawls for $35 to $145, and Juenemann's hats go for $25 to $35.
Cohen, who is not averse to selling on eBay, offers her glass creations for $12 to $275. She makes more money on eBay, but sells more beads on Etsy.
Still, it is possible to make a living on Etsy. According to the site's administrators, at least 50 of Etsy's 70,000-plus sellers made more than $50,000 last year. Five sellers made more than $100,000. And while eBay takes an 8.75 percent cut of sales on items below $25, Etsy charges only 3.5 percent for any item sold.
"Ebay is just too inundated with huge companies selling stereo equipment," says Matthew Stinchcomb, Etsy's vice president of communications. "I think Etsy is about people working with their hands and making things."
Etsy is also about communication. Users can exchange e-mails, or "conversations" as they're called on the site, with other buyers or sellers in much the same way users of social networking sites such as www.MySpace.com communicate.
"You're sharing your creations as much as you're selling them," Stinchcomb says. "It's a way to express yourself."
Headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., Etsy was founded in 2005 with a mission to help people make a living being creative. Its founder, Rob Kalin, has been tight lipped about the meaning of the title Etsy. All Stinchcomb will say is that it was apparently a nonsensical word from the 1963 Federico Fellini movie "8A1/2," which seems appropriately arty.
Etsy's administrative staff is composed mostly of artists, and the fact that Etsy administrators keep a close eye on the goods being posted to the site only adds to the art school atmosphere.
For sellers, part of the Etsy experience is about marketing. Sellers confer with one another about how to shoot photographs and how to present items on their site.
"It's this whole community that has evolved for people who aren't trained to mass market their skills," Juenemann says. "I have these skills and this drive to create and to use these things that I know how to do. Before (Etsy), I would just sit around my house and (wonder) `Well, what (should) I do with that?'?"
Even though Etsy has grown fast - it took the company two years to sell a million products and three months to sell a million more, and is now active in 127 countries - it maintains a sort of coziness.
"It's not just the United States, it's not just Eugene, Oregon, but it feels like it's just Eugene," says Terrall, the Etsy knitter. "I can just go on the Web site and if I have a quick question about a sale that's coming up or a buyer contacts me and asks me something, I can go right into the forums and two seconds later there's an answer."
Because Etsy limits the items it sells to mostly handmade goods, it's less likely you'll see, say a seller with hundreds of cheap plastic items to unload. The exceptions to the rule are that sellers are allowed to peddle commercial art supplies and vintage items. Both are the subject of some controversy on the site among crafters who question the validity of shops that serve as re-sellers.
Stinchcomb says both groups have been on Etsy since the beginning and are a part of the fabric of the community. Etsy has plans to segregate vintage and commercial sellers from arts and crafts sites and give them their own marketplace, but has no intention of removing them.
"Art can mean a lot of things," Stinchcomb explains. "There are a lot of people who are doing letterpress (printing) and screen printing, arts that are a little bit easier to (reproduce)."
There have been sellers on Etsy accused of being, essentially, art factories. Users are encouraged to report such violations. Juenemann was bilked by another Etsy seller who never shipped the items she paid for. She says the seller was banned, and she doesn't anticipate getting her money back.
But such cases appear to be the exception to the rule, and Etsy seems poised to continue growing. The site is positioned at the intersection of several trends. One of them is the embrace of traditional crafts such as knitting or sewing by nontraditional practitioners. Creative twenty- and thirty-somethings who might have, in the past, been more inclined to, say, start a punk rock band, are now gravitating toward the fiber arts.
The movement has been attributed to everything from post-Sept. 11 nesting behavior to a desire among the i-generation to escape their laptops, MP3 players and smartphones and make something tangible.
"We all work at computers all day, and you kind of lose that tactile sensation," Stinchcomb says. "There's an innate desire in people to create something."
You can see that desire in Craft, a magazine that features projects such as how to make a cardboard chair for your child or fasten an iPod cozy out of duct tape. It's evident at West Coast Crafty (http://westcoastcrafty.wordpress.com), a blog run by a vintage dressmaker and multi-media artist who splits her time between Portland and Los Angeles. And it's hard to miss at the Crafty Wonderland, a monthly expo for hipster craft artists at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland.
Another force driving the popularity of Etsy is a backlash against cheap, imported goods. Stinchcomb sees Etsy as yet another instance of Americans wanting to know where their products are coming from. He points to the trend toward local, seasonal ingredients in restaurants, and the backlash against Chinese imports in the wake of scandals involving lead-tainted toys, poisonous pet food and toxic toothpaste.
Terrall, the Eugene knitter, says saving money is less of a priority for Etsy shoppers and artists.
"It's about people saying forget buying it for $5," she explains. "I'd rather make it for $40 and wear it with pride."
Of course, Etsy doesn't have to be political. For many crafters, it's simply a fun way to earn some extra cash doing something they enjoy.
"I like that I can choose my own hours," Juenemann says. "I like that I can list stuff and have a beer in front of the computer and nobody's watching what I'm doing. I dont' have to get ready and go to my storefront every day."
On video
To see a video of local artists whose works are selling on Etsy, go to rgweb.registerguard.com/etsyeugene
