Made for Cache
Local Etsy sellers team up to swap ideas, market their handmade items online
By Manette Newbold
features writer
When Jen Giddens of Logan began sewing bags three years ago, she had no idea she would end up shipping them all over the world to online customers.
Giddens sells her bags and patterns on etsy.com , a four-year-old online hub where artists can sell handmade crafts and art supplies ranging from jewelry and quilts to clothes and woodworked items. For a 20 cent listing fee on every item and a 3.5 percent commission charge on everything sold, anyone can start their own Etsy shop, and more than 350,000 people have.
Giddens, a student at Utah State University, is one of at least 60 local sellers on Etsy and one of 11 who are part of the local Esty team, Made for Cache. She says the team was created in the summer as a way to share marketing strategies with other sellers since one of the most difficult aspects of selling on Esty is getting attention to individual shops.
Made for Cache began this summer when Blaire Nelson of Logan decided she wanted to form a local Etsy team that could discuss ideas and projects with each other. So, she did a search on Etsy for local artisans and contacted everyone she could. From there, the group formed and created a blog, madeforcache. com. Ages on the team vary from early 20s to late 50s, Nelson says, and they all bring something unique to the group. The items they sell vary from custom-made cards by graphic designer Hilary Frisby to crocheted scarves, hats, baby clothes and bags made by Taralee Duffin of North Logan. Nelson says she makes clothes and hooded towels and wash mitts shaped like bunnies, ducks and frogs.
Nelson says the group picks a theme each month and everyone is assigned to make and bring an item related to that theme, the latest one being Christmas ornaments, which they attempted to sell on their blog to earn money for the Cache Community Food Pantry.
Nelson says members of the team rotate hosting each meeting and discuss specific ideas to help each person market their Etsy shop. Jenny Johnson, who sells fabric on Etsy and earned a degree in photography at Utah State University, says she talked to the team about using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote products. In another meeting Johnson discussed how to take photos of their items. Bonnie Merck said photography is a very important aspect of selling crafts on Etsy; if the items don’t look good in the pictures, no one is going to buy them.
Giddens says she had a friend who is a photographer take her pictures and she tries to make everything look as professional as possible. Through the Made for Cache Etsy group, she met Frisby who designed her logo. Duffin says trading skills as Giddens and Frisby have is another nice aspect of being a member of the Etsy team.
Over the last two years Giddens says she’s made nearly 250 sales on the site and has sent items to several states and countries. She’s also taken on the venture of designing her own patterns for bags and purses and currently has six of them available for purchase in her Etsy shop.
“I have patterns available in PDF format and the PDF format is really easy to send to people anywhere. So I’ve had people in Brazil, New Zealand, Austrailia, Germany, all over,” Giddens said. “I’ve sent bags all over too. I sent bags to Paris, Peru, all of these crazy places. It’s really exciting. I’m like, ‘You want to pay for something I made?’ That’s flattering!’”
Duffin says she would like to try making patterns for her crocheted crafts like Giddens because then she wouldn’t have to spend as much time making individual items over and over. She currently crochets at least an hour a day.
Merck says Made for Cache team members inform each other about upcoming craft shows and have shared booths at the Cache County Fair and the Box Elder County Fair. That cuts the cost of the booth and team members can take turns managing it throughout the day or weekend.
Merck, of Logan, began selling vintage cards on Etsy about a year ago. All of the photos she uses are of relatives and she finds quotes for the inside of the cards from books. More recently she has began selling jewelry with her friend Carole Whitcome on another separate Esty site. Though Merck doesn’t make a ton of money selling her items, like several other members of Made for Cache, she still feels successful.
“I can’t support my family on it, but I can support my habit,” she says, “All of the things that I do, I get a certain amount of satisfaction and joy in doing them. I sell them so I can continue to do them.”
