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Local 'Etsian' crafters share tips on gaining a global reach from their kitchen tables

 
Dory Rosenthal, 17, of Tampa teaches crafters how to make origami bows at the Paper Seahorse booth at the Etsy Craft Party at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg.
Dory Rosenthal, 17, of Tampa teaches crafters how to make origami bows at the Paper Seahorse booth at the Etsy Craft Party at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg.
Published July 15, 2015

Some artisans who sell their creations on Etsy.com can support themselves, even a family, while others barely break even after paying for materials. They try their hand at entrepreneurship with a variety of financial goals and an even wider array of products.

For Coryn Enfinger and her husband, Adam, selling on Etsy is a full-time job. Since 2009, the Tampa couple has sold more than 100,000 T-shirts for about $20 each, most with Adam Enfinger's whimsical drawings of animals on bikes.

After investing in wax and glass canisters, Natalie Battaglia of Seminole is just starting to break even on the Harry Potter butter beer candles she makes and sells for $18 and up. She works full-time in customer service at Publix.

Michelle Hill, a special-needs teacher at PARC, earns enough to pay for her son's summer camps by selling the intricately detailed cosmetic cases, change purses, dolls and stuffed animals she makes from hand-printed and vintage fabrics.

Izzie Brown, a rising junior at Land O'Lakes High School, has already saved more than $5,000 from selling T-shirts printed with her custom sketches of music icons. She draws with written words, song titles to be exact, instead of lines. Bob Marley's dreadlocks, for example, are shaped by Redemption Song or One Love. The proceeds from her so called "word tangle portraits" will help pay for college.

After being laid off from a Holiday car dealership, Cari Norton has managed to support herself selling hand-painted signs that say "Garden" or "Beach." She buys damaged wood at a discount, then builds, distresses and paints the signs.

"It's a lot better than the car business. I will never sell another car," the former manager said at a recent Etsy Craft Party at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. An estimated 1,500 shoppers attended the event that brought 60 local "Etsians" together to sell in person instead of online.

While products and income vary, the common thread of Etsy sellers is they like what they do.

"It started as a hobby for me," said Battaglia, who learned how to make candles by watching tutorials online. "Now it's a hobby that makes money."

"I think shoppers are drawn to buying something with a story behind it that someone has made by hand instead of something that is mass produced," said Amy Marshall, owner of Strands of Sunshine at 8 Sixth St. N. She sold her jewelry on Etsy for five years then gained enough success to open a small brick and mortar store.

The Amazon for handmade goods

Worldwide there are 1.4 million vendors selling on Etsy to 20.8 million buyers, according to financial statements. The company that started in a Brooklyn apartment in 2005 went public in April.

Etsy makes money by charging 20 cents per listing on its site and collecting 3.5 percent of each sale. The website sold $532 million worth of merchandise in its first quarter ending May 19, up 28 percent from the year before. Those sales translated to $58 million in revenue, up 44 percent from the same quarter last year. While sales are steadily increasing, however, it's still posting a net loss from expenses.

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There seems to be no definite answer to the question everybody asks. What does Etsy stand for?

Only the founders know and they aren't saying. There are guesses on the Internet such as to "everything that shoppers yearn" and the pronunciation of etc.

A line of about 300 people wrapped around the Coliseum waiting for entrance to the recent Craft Party. Impressive for a gift show that's nowhere near the holiday season.

"I like being able to talk to the person who actually made what I'm buying," said Alexandra Fox, 18, a frequent Etsy shopper. Customers can email artists before making purchases if they have questions about size, materials or colors. Many Etsy items are custom orders from monogrammed tote bags to a bracelet depicting favorite book titles. The ability for customers to have a say in what they are buying is one of the main edges Etsy has over traditional retailing.

Making it or breaking it on Etsy

A marketplace with millions of different products is great for shoppers but tough for sellers. It's hard to stand out in the crowd.

About half of vendors, or "Etsy shops" make it, according to Julia Richarme, who heads up the local Tampa Bay Etsy Crew. You have to allow yourself time to build a following, she said.

Caroline Tacker is one of those who didn't make it. She set up an Etsy shop to sell Florida-grown cotton yarn. She spins it herself from the cotton she grows in her Northeast St. Petersburg yard.

"I didn't get any sales," she said, blaming her inability to "tag" her listings with enough exciting or specific words to make her yarn rise to the top when the website was searched.

"When you type in 'yarn' thousands of things come up," Tacker said. "What else can you say about yarn?"

Selling a niche product is a key to success, according to Coryn Enfinger, who sells the T-shirts on Dark Cycle Clothing.

"We first listed in March 2009 and as soon as it got close to the holidays we were selling 25 to 30 shirts a day, then 50 a day," she recalled. "Then after the holidays our sales didn't really drop off."

The shirts feature a giraffe, shark, bumblebee or other creature riding a bike. They also sell shirts with phrases from cult classics Batman & Robin and Doctor Who.

Etsy is a haven for fans of TV, movies, books and music who want to find an ode to their favorites. It's also known for art and gifts that pay homage to states or cities.

Kelly Trinka-Stone of Land O'Lakes creates custom key chains, jewelry and belt buckles with pictures of southern states. Her art is her full-time job so she makes sure her products will stand the test of time.

"I force friends to wear them and use them so I can see how they hold up," she said. One cracked belt buckle or broken earring can result in a bad review and great loss of new or repeat business.

A successful Etsy artist has to be a business person, too, if they want their shop to be more than just a hobby, Trinka-Stone added.

"You have to be able to step back from your art, your passion and say 'This isn't working' when something isn't selling," she said.

The St. Petersburg Greenhouse, a collaboration between the city and chamber of commerce for small businesses, offers a five-week Etsy Entrepreneurship course for artists wanting to sell on Etsy. It was one of the first agencies in the country to do so when Etsy created the program about a year ago, said Sean Kennedy, Greenhouse manager.

About 50 people have been through three different courses. Another will be offered in the fall. It fills up quickly.

"It's to present them with a new venue for getting their work out and finding new customers," Kennedy said. "There's a finite pool of customers that live in St. Petersburg. If they can expand to a global reach, there are a heck of a lot more options."

Contact Katherine Snow Smith at kssmith@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8785. Follow @snowsmith.