Help Spread the WordToday by FearlessFibers

http://fearlessfibers.etsy.com

I want to talk about something a bit different than my usual knitting and yarn content. I want to talk to you about Etsy and to ask for your help with something.

As many of you probably already know, Etsy is a selling venue for items that are handcrafted. Most of you know Etsy for the hand dyed and handspun yarn, but Etsy is full of amazing shops that sell everything from art to pottery to purses to clothing to jewelry to paper goods to . . . well, you get the idea! The list could go on and on. If a mind can conceive it and a person can create it, you’ll likely find it somewhere on Etsy.

Etsy’s tagline is “Your place to buy & sell all things handmade” but the vision behind Etsy goes beyond that. When Etsy drafted their “Do’s and Don’ts” for buying and selling on Etsy, the original draft included a preamble that talked about the vision of creating a marketplace where there is a connection between buyer and seller. It referenced days past when the items people purchased were often purchased directly from the hands that made them. This vision appeals to me enormously. Although there is certainly a vital place in our world today for mass-produced goods, the idea of purchasing some of our goods directly from the maker is wonderful.

I’ve been selling on Etsy now for over a year and I can personally attest to the satisfaction and joy that this relationship between buyer and seller has brought to me. My customers are more than customers to me. They are very real people, infinitely human, full of kindness and spirit, sharing a common passion for yarn and fiber arts. The day to day interaction we have is a wonderful and unexpected gift that has added something meaningful to my life. I am extraordinarily grateful to the mad geniuses behind Etsy for bringing the venue to life.

Etsy is still a very new venture, but it is thriving and growing and I want to see that continue. This got me to thinking about what more I can do to help with that, not for my shop specifically but for Etsy as a whole. I want to do my part to give back to the Etsy creators, owners and staff, as well as to the amazing community of artisans with shops on Etsy. That’s where this post comes in. And that’s where you come in.

Today, I would like to ask that any of you who have blogs consider posting a little something about Etsy. This is not a request that you talk about my shop, but simply that you join me in shouting to the online world that Etsy exists and is all about a good thing. It’s a venue that is providing an amazing opportunity for artisans to reach the world and share their work. It’s a venue that allows buyers a connection and interaction with the talented people making the goods sold there. It’s a place of innovation and enlightenment, forward thinking, care and concern about the environment, and appreciation of the value of human ingenuity and the creative process.

If you have a blog, this post is my request to you that you take a moment and tell your readers about Etsy and perhaps also ask that your readers join in and spread the word as well. Feel free to use any of what I’ve posted here or a link to this post if you find it worth repeating. If some of you choose to do this and some of your blog readers take up the cry as well, a chain can begin and we can do a great deal to spread the word in a short space of time.

Perhaps this is not something you’re interested in doing. I entirely understand that! But if you have found that the Etsy venue and the connections you’ve made with some of us who sell there have brought some small but positive addition to your life, I ask that you consider helping to spread the word. I know that many of you regularly mention Etsy sellers in your blogs, but this is a bit different. This is a more generalized shout to the world that Etsy is a place worth visiting and it is a specific request that others help spread the word. If you don’t have a blog, but would like to help spread the word, perhaps you could make a point of telling a few folks about Etsy who may not already know.