Five Questions for ... TheRetroDiva

This time we have a return visit from our previous interviewee, mamaslittlemonkeys, with her five questions for another team member, TheRetroDiva. Okay, make that six questions!

Q.  How did you get started crafting? Did anyone in particular influence you or get you started?

A.  Crafting is a lifelong love of mine. My mother was an artist and had plenty of art supplies to fuel our creativity. My Sister (@amandazilla) and Cousin (@TwinkieChan) have been major sources of inspiration and encouragement as well. Both are insanely crafty and have businesses of their own.

Q.  What are your favourite items to make? Why? What are the most challenging to make?

A.  I have loved making all of my items! Each item I make is unique and never duplicated. The bigger the piece is the more challenging it can be to make. I work with several mediums as well, which adds to the experience.

I would say that hand placing individual beads on compacts has been the most challenging, and rewarding at the same time.

Q.  What is your favorite part of having a shop on Etsy? Why?

A.  Etsy is a user-friendly site that makes it easy to sell your crafts. If I have any questions the forums are always helpful along with all the other resources that have been made available.

Q.  What are you doing when you are not crafting during the day?

A.  I am a full time mom to a 1 1/2 year old lil guy and 4 big dogs. My days are always adventure packed.

Q.  What have been your most effective methods to promote yourself on Etsy? What tips do you have for new sellers?

A.  Being new to this myself, I have become involved with several forums that are either craft of pinup/ rockabilly related. I am trying to talk to as many people as I can to let them know about what I do and look for sources of inspiration.

Q.  What's your favorite food?

A.  I like a good burger and fries myself. Only the burger should be protein style (wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun ) - like at In-N-Out!!

Next time, TheRetroDiva will have five questions for another Etsy Chatters Team member.

Five Questions for ... mamaslittlemonkeys

Our last interviewee, BabyBundleBoutique has returned, with five questions for Team member mamaslittlemonkeys. Read on for her answers!

Q.  How did you get started crafting? Did anyone in particular influence you or get you started?
A.  Actually my children inspired me! I first started learning to sew about 2 years ago because my son was in cloth diapers and I thought...hmm how hard can it be to make cute cloth wipes? Hah! Famous last words!! I couldn't stop myself once I started! All the cute fabric, cute patterns, ideas...oh...I couldn't stop myself!

Q.  What are your favourite items to make? Why? What are the most challenging to make, and why?

A.  Favorite items: my stuffed rocket ships! They are just so fun and I started making them after being inspired by a similar item I saw online. I made one for my son and then kept going with other prints. He wants to keep every one I make!

Most challenging? CLOTHING! I HATE to sew clothing!! I just despise trying to get it all to fit just so...ugh! I'd rather sew a fun toy any day!

Q.  What is your favourite part of having a shop on Etsy? Why?

A.  Meeting new people! I have met some fabulous people through Etsy and the online handmade world. It even caused me to create Handmade Louisiana, a group for artisans in and around LA. www.handmadelouisiana.com is our website. I've made some pretty awesome "in real life" friends through Etsy and I am grateful for that!

Q.  What are you doing when you are not crafting during the day?

A.  For 10 months out of the year I work in the social services field with a local non profit. I'm also a mommy to two boys, one with Autism, so my days are quite full! :)

Q.  What have been your most effective methods to promote yourself on Etsy? What tips do you have for new sellers?

A.  I think I've tried it all, and really it's different for everyone. I completely realize that there is probably nothing I make that someone else couldn't, or doesn't already make. So I don't worry about that...I worry about just making my items the best I can and having FUN. If they sell, fabulous. If not, I want to ENJOY doing them. I will not make things I hate to do. If there is something in my shop that there is only one of, or I sell it and never relist is...chances are I HATED creating it and I drew no source of FUN from it!!

For new sellers, just do what you love. You cannot realistically 'quit your day job' from selling on Etsy. Very few sellers really can do that. Etsy is just like any other small biz, there are legal headaches, responsibilities, taxes, etc and it can get to be quite a lot. Do what you can yourself, turn over other things to professionals and don't be afraid to take a break when need be. 

I recently put my soap shop on vacation but it was just too much. Soap is a huge competition and it was no longer FUN to make soap. I hope taking the summer off and coming back with my Saints soaps will be enough to make me happy in the fall, soapy wise :)

Never be afraid to fail and get criticism. I've made items that I thought would be AWESOME---and then BOMBED. NO ONE bought. So I learned a valuable lesson...not everyone thinks what I think is awesome! :)

Chat Team Treasury by heartsabustin

Team members are the stars in this new Treasury West from heartsabustin. As she says in its title, this team totally ROCKS! Go visit the Treasury any time through Sunday afternoon to click and leave your comments.

Thank you for featuring the team, heartsabustin!

Front Page News #5 - mooshoopork

The last in this series of questions for Team members whose items regularly grace the Etsy Front Page is mooshoopork! Here's what she had to say for herself about life on the FP.

Q.  What does having your items on the Front Page mean to your shop?

A.  Having an item for me on the FP = views, hearts and occasionally some requests or else random  and oddly creative fan mail to me or my dolls :)

JS notes: Just as I finished posting this, there were mooshoopork's pretty blue eggs, on the Front Page!

Q.  Why do you think your items are selected for the FP so often?

A.  The only reason I think is possibly my photos are clean and simple and I have different colored things as well and so they can fit into a lot of different collections well.

Q.  Any advice for sellers who'd like to increase their chances of being on the Front Page?

A.  I think the main thing is photos. People want to see clean crisp photos. That or try sleeping with Etsy Admin. (although I haven't had such an opportunity ;) hehe

Previous Front Page interviews: 

• PonderandStitch

• somavenus

• clearcutcrafts2007 

• TheExtentofSilence