Greenwich Time, CT
Local artisans find the Internet is one of their best tools
By Christina Hennessy
Before she began making artwork and selling it online, Katie D’Angelo was a big fan of buying handmade goods and supporting the artists who made them.
“It’s such a one-on-one experience,” she says. “You can really connect with the artist.”
These days, the 29-year-old Greenwich resident is experiencing what it is like to see a hobby blossom into a fledging business. About six months ago, she opened an online shop, Duskblue Arts, on Etsy, a Web site for buyers and sellers of handmade products, crafting supplies and vintage items. It is not the only such online marketplace, but it is one of the largest, having steadily grown since it was launched in 2005.
The site has more than 1.75 million members and 3 million items for sale. Since it was launched, sales have increased from $166,000 to an estimated $87 million last year, according to the company. Overall, the fine crafts market is estimated to be a $13.8 billion industry, according to a recent survey.
“One of our missions, one of our goals is to change commerce,” says Adam Brown, an Etsy spokesman. “Our goal is to create a great handmade marketplace experience.”
That experience goes beyond the actual “commerce.” The company, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., provides services to help members become even more active in the craft community, such as forums, links to tools and resources, online workshops, classes and teams.
It is this aspect of community that adds a relatively new element to the art of crafting. Just as the larger society has turned toward social networking services, blogs and other online and technological resources to develop and foster new friendships, solve everyday problems and find ways to sell and swap goods and services, so too has the craft industry.
For Jennifer Rice, that sense of community is an important element of her Etsy experience. She has been selling handmade toys at her online shop, PennyCraft, since March. She crafts creatures, such as bunnies and birds, often using material mined from unwanted clothes.
“I get a strong sense of community from everyone involved with Etsy, and I’m really excited to be a part of it,” she writes in a recent e-mail. “You’ll see people mention other shops on their shop pages. Everyone is really complimentary toward each other (and) there’s a feeling of building everyone up, rather than being in competition.”
A Stamford resident for the past 11 years, Rice hasn’t yet traded her day job as a professional costumer, designer and teacher, to create and sell crafts full time. In fact, it is still quite a homegrown business, with most of the work taking place at the kitchen table. She has had two sales since opening her shop in March.
But
A collage created by Katie D’Angelo. (Kathleen O’Rourke/Staff photo.)
this lifelong seamstress says the site allows her to further explore her creativity.
“For me, it’s the fun of having my own boutique without the very big risk and commitment of a brick-and-mortar shop. I can make what I want, when I want, without the pressure of needing to make a sale in order to make a living.”
Lauren Donnelly, a 26-year-old Stamford resident, primarily sells origami jewelry at her online shop, Paperelle, which opened in September. She says it is relatively easy to set it up.
Sellers are required to provide a credit card number, but registration is free. It costs 20 cents to list each item for four months. Etsy charges a transaction fee of 3.5 percent for each sale, not including the shipping cost.
About a year ago, Donnelly signed up as a buyer, but soon her handmade origami jewelry and stationery were taking up more and more space in her small apartment.
“I have a very crowded coffee table,” she says. “It is a miracle you can put a coffee cup there.”
Encouraged by others to set up shop, she says she took the plunge in the fall. Like others, she intends to keep her day job, as a science educator in New York City. However, she is finding joy in creating and becoming part of the larger community. She has joined two teams coordinated through Etsy, has started a blog and has joined the indiepublic.com community, a site for independent artists, designers, buyers and fans of homemade products.
These online marketplaces and communities are broadening the horizons for crafters, says Victor Domine, spokesman for the Craft and Hobby Association, which is based in Elmwood Park, N.J.
“Internet really has been driving a lot of the innovation,” he says. “The reality is that the indiecrafter helped to push the agenda from the beginning and the industry is listening.”
In the past, crafters and other artists may have brought their wares to craft shows, consignment shops, exchanges or flea markets. Or original and handmade works might be jumbled in with thousands of other items on online auction or swap sites.
The indiecrafters, seen as the “irreverent, punk-rock progeny of traditional crafters,” says Domine, are particularly focused on encouraging people to shop locally, purchase handmade items and find ways to reuse materials and “upcycle” wherever possible.
Tom Tamborello has seen the changes over the years while developing the crafts project segments and serving as the in-house crafter for Martha Stewart’s television shows. In December, the 46-year-old launched a shop on Etsy, nearly a year after Etsy’s founder Rob Kalin, 28, appeared on Stewart’s show.
Tamborello had been waiting for the right product; they turned out to be handmade beeswax candle busts of President Bush, which he says have proved popular.
“It really is a great way to test out ideas,” he says, noting that more traditional venues, such as crafts shows, often require a crafter to build up an inventory that may not be sold off at the show. “You can just make one of something and see where it goes.”
D’Angelo, the artist from Greenwich, who “by day” is a cello instructor, says she has no grand designs other than to enjoy what she is doing. So far, she has had two sales, which basically helped pay for her supplies and advertising.
Beyond all the technology, though, she says a simple truth remains. People are always likely to appreciate handmade goods because they often represent skills passed on from generation to generation.
She recalls a recent visit to the Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Town Center in Stamford to see Kate Jacobs, author of “The Friday Night Knitting Club.”
“She was talking about knitting,” D’Angelo says, “and, I remember she was saying that when she takes a stitch, it is generational. It is the same stitch that her mother made and her grandmother made.”
– Staff Writer Christina Hennessy can be reached at 964-2241 or christina.hen
nessy@scni.com
The idea that the Internet can be a boon for crafters and artists is not entirely new. In 2001, Genevi ve Crabe, a Canadian-based crafter, published “Crafters’ Internet Handbook.” She is working on a second edition, as well as keeping up with her crafts, which include decorative painting, beading, polymer clay and crochet. “I think that crafters have always loved sharing their skills (and) creating group projects,” she writes in a recent e-mail. “The Internet has facilitated this process and allowed these informal communities to grow in size. It also allows people from all over the world to participate in these communities.” The Internet, through such sites as www.etsy.com, increasingly is serving as a gathering place for crafters to share their ideas, sell and buy their wares, create communities, organize craft shows and provide tips and resources for novices and professionals. A quick search of Yahoo groups reveals a number of online communities in Connecticut that focus on activities such as scrapbooking, crocheting, sewing and handmade gifts. The New Jersey-based Craft and Hobby Association provides resources at www.craftplace.org. There also is www.getcrafty.com, www.indiepublic.com and www.threadbanger.com, as well as craftster.org, a blog started by Leah Kramer in 2003, for offbeat and hip do-it-yourself projects, particularly those made by reusing objects and materials, according to the site. Faythe Levine, a Milwaukee-based author, documented the rise of the do-it-yourself movement and growing art community in the 2008 book, “Handmade Nation,” and with a documentary, “Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design,” that is expected to be released this year. Visit handmadenation movie.com. The resurgence in offbeat and edgy crafts also has spurred the creation of craft “mafias,” according to Victor Domine of the Craft and Hobby Association. The groups create online communities, blogs and occasionally organize craft shows in sometimes offbeat places. Craft publications have responded by creating blogs and opportunities for networking on their sites, such as Craft magazine at craft zine.com. Crabe suggests a few sites as well, including www.ravelry.com, a community for knitters and crocheters; www.wetcanvas.com, for artists and crafters; and a more general site, mycraftiv ity.com. — Christina Hennessy