Question: I heard a few months ago about a website where people can sell original arts and crafts like pottery and things you see at the Woodland Art Fair. It sounded something like Ebay without the auction. Can you tell me the Web address for the site?

Answer: The article describing this site ran in the Herald-Leader on March 22, 2008:

Sometimes a step back is really a step forward. That’s how devotees look at Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy (www.etsy.com) is where old-style commerce meets today’s technology. It harks back to a time when people bought their goods directly from the artisans who made them hats from a milliner, furniture from a carpenter, bread from a baker. But in this marketplace, buyer and seller can be separated by thousands of miles, and their transaction can happen with a few computer keystrokes.
Etsy is a medium for buying and selling paintings, jewelry, clothing, furniture, even tutorials for rituals designed to bring love or prosperity. Anything that’s made by an individual is fair game even computer code and home musical recordings, said Matthew Stinchcomb, Etsy’s vice president of communications.
The site grew out of what Stinchcomb sees as a renewed appreciation for the creativity and integrity of things made by hand, especially when the safety of some mass-produced imports is being called into question. “It’s about wanting to know where your products come from and how they’re made,” he said.
The unique nature of handmade is a draw, too, Stinchcomb said. Many buyers aren’t inspired by the thought of purchasing a shirt they can find in any Gap store in the world, he said. They want something no one else has.
And then there was the eBay backlash. As artisans and shoppers discovered that eBay’s breadth could be overwhelming, the need arose for a more focused site, he said.
Community site
For Akron potter Jennifer Nesbitt, Etsy provided a way to turn her passion into a job that gives her the flexibility to be at home with her son, Dylan, 9.
Nesbitt has been making pottery since 2001, but until she joined Etsy about two years ago, she was limited to selling at craft shows. She has sold more than 450 pieces via her Etsy shop, JMN Pottery, and said Etsy accounts for about 80 percent of her business.
She said she appreciates the way Etsy supports its vendors with workshops and other resources and likes the connections it fosters with her buyers and with other sellers. Nesbitt belongs to two sellers’ groups, the Cleveland Etsy Team and the Etsy Mud Team, a group of potters.
“It’s a community, really,” she said of the site.
In Kentucky, Etsy sellers include Nicholasville artist Anna Cox, who also sells her handmade jewelry at Street Scene on Regency Road in Lexington, and Brian and Sara Turner’s Cricket Press, a Lexington print company known for its original designs on concert posters and tees.
Unlike Nesbitt, Akron’s Devona Brazier is more of an Etsy dabbler. She saw it as a way to sell the Asian-style baby carriers called meitais that she sews, but when she got bored with those, she started making other products.
A longtime sewer who once wanted to be a fashion designer, Brazier specializes in children’s clothing and often transforms thrift-store buys. “It’s like an outlet for my creativity,” she said.
She sold 18 items last year through her Etsy shop, LuvLugs & More, but she’s fine with a slow pace. She wouldn’t be able to keep up if she got a lot of orders at once, she said.
Etsy was the brainchild of Rob Kalin, a painter, carpenter and photographer who designed and created the site in 2005 with Chris Maguire and Haim Scoppik. Stinchcomb likes to think of even Etsy as handmade; the creators did everything from writing computer codes to splicing cables, he said.
The origin of the site’s name “is an enigma” Stinchcomb said. “Only Rob knows for sure.
The site started slowly, but word apparently is getting around. Etsy took two years to sell its first million items but just three months to sell the second million, Stinchcomb said. It now has 700,000 members, and the number is growing by about 3,000 a day.
Etsy operates somewhat like eBay, except its sellers offer their goods at fixed prices rather than putting them up for auction. Vendors set up virtual stores where they can post photos and information about their items, and they deal directly with buyers on sales and shipments.
Etsy charges 20 cents to list an item for four months and gets a 3.5 percent commission on each sale.
Although 900,000 items are for sale on the site, search options let buyers narrow their searches to local vendors, product categories and even colors. There are also fun ways to sample what’s on the site, such as “Showcase,” a place for sellers to display their best work, and “Pounce,” which lets shoppers visit shops that haven’t yet made a sale, or shops with the most recent activity.
Stinchcomb said Etsy’s mission is to help people make a living by making creative things. So it not only provides the means for sales, but it also educates its vendors on such issues as health insurance.
But he said the site sees a responsibility toward its buyers, too.
“We want to encourage people to be conscientious consumers,” he said.

Linda Niemi

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