Comfortable Shoes Studio

I feel like I'm breaking up, but I've got somone new on the side...

Well, I’ve made a big decision. Maybe it’s not huge but it’s a big choice for me to make. I’m going to move my work over to Artfire. I’ll leave the items up on Etsy for now but as they run out of time I won’t be relisting them. Mainly I’m unhappy with Etsy’s decision to put their name and branding over that of their sellers and thereby terribly hurting the sellers chances of making sales through Google searches. While the economy is down and sales are lower part of this could, frankly, be biting the hand that feeds. But who is doing the biting; the angry sellers or Etsy itself? By hurting its sellers Etsy hurts itself and lowers its bottom line.

I’m not one of the Etsy sellers that made crazy sales; I don’t think I ever will be. I’ve got several hundred sales under my belt and 100% positive feedback over the course of 4 years. I’ve done well. I’ve been happy for the most part. I love buying stuff on Etsy and showing my support of handmade. I’m glad they’ve gone the nontraditional route and done as well as they have. Here’s the BUT; their choice to put themselves before me in the Google search is short sighted and fool hardy. Again, when it comes to bottom line dollars, putting the cart before the horse makes no sense. Branding is important but so is pushing sales. Sales are what make Etsy work, and keep the sellers happy. Make your sellers unhappy and you’ve got an uprising. Similar to eBay a few years back when they raised their fees to make themselves useless to smaller sellers. (I have a rant on here somewhere about the fee structure) If you head to the forums it’s full of vitriol and anger. I didn’t spend much time in the forums until recently and all it did was confirm my nagging worries.

AS a long time online seller I understand how searches work. The higher my listing appear in the searches the more likely I am to make a sale. Make the internal searches hard and you frustrate and loose buyers. This isn’t 1999, when the wild west was eBay and Google wasn’t a thought, it’s 2009 and searches are sophisticated and SEO is hugely important. Not only am I frustrated with the SEO management, I’m frustrated with the miss-tagging of items. Etsy writes in it TOU that they don’t tolerate misuse of tagging but yet when items are reported it takes weeks for the item to be fixed. More often than not, it never is. Items that are tagged improperly frustrate buyers. Ever tried to search for a ‘zine on Etsy, go ahead try it. Search for chainmail. Search for Leather Cuff. You’ll get a long list of items miss-tagged and have to go 3 or 4 pages back JUST to find something relevant to your search. Frustrate your buyers and lose them. It’s piss poor customer service to make the search hard to use. I’m a seller but I’m also a buyer. I AM really frustrated witht eh search. I can’t find anything when I search. I have to make multiple searches. It’s poor customer service but it’s also a loss of sales and bad for my bottom line and bad for Etsy’s too.

I like Etsy, and I’ll keep my shop open for quite some time I just won’t be as active about updating it with new products, but you can expect to see some new and exciting things on my Artfire shop. I’ll be doing more experimental work with my recycled goods. I’ve wanted to do some fold up paper books, do-si-do books and an assortment of other things too; similar to my square cardstock books with retro computer paper in the middle. You’ll see more specials, 10% off, 20% off and lowered shipping costs; because Artfire makes that easy for me to do. More than anything else I want to have fun making books again. I want to make more of the one offs like I used to, funky bindings and unique one of a kind items and of course upcycled as well as my usual mix of funky new material items.

I’m not giving up on Etsy, yet. I’ll give them some time to figure out how they are going to fix this mess they’ve made for themselves. My 2 cents: Honor your sellers and move the meta tags to the end of the listing title and make the search function work. When you do that I’ll be back in full force, because Etsy, I love you but I can’t be with you right now, I hope you’ll understand, and this doesn’t hurt too much. You see I've got this new chick, ArtFire.

Etsy Update

I'm having a fast paced weekend here at the Comfortable Shoes homestead. I had an old friend and artist come over for dinner last night, we spent the evening eating good food, catching up and chatting about an art project she has in mind. It's always good to talk to other people of an artistic persuasion and get a different perspective, I find it inspiring.

We're due to get more snow and I'm pretty much ready for spring. I've been planning my garden for weeks now and this latest addition of snow is unwelcome. I want to put my rain barrels out and dig the rest of my garden.

I've loaded up some fresh new jotters to etsy and you can find them here. I've got a variety of interior papers-, put white, gray, 24lb 25% cotton, and some nice 1984 dot matrix paper.. The covers are a variety of colors and images. Something for everyone.

Studio News

Okay so I've had a few whirlwind weeks. Mostly good. Some exciting new:

I finally bought a paper shear. Yes the tool I have wanted for years, about 5, and eluded me on price until now is in my possession. I can't believe I held out on it for so long. It amazes me how much faster I can make books when I'm using this fantastic piece of equipment. Some technical notes:

I bought a 12inch shear, meaning its largest cut is 12 inches. I'm regretting not going for the 17inch model, but 12 inches is very good. I can cut entire reams of regular paper with it! It cuts through 250 sheets like it's nothing. Amazing! I'm able to trim my hedgehogs, jotters and matchbook notebooks with ease and multiples at a time. I'm so happy.

Second exciting news, related tot eh shear. Years ago I bought a box of 80's computer paper at a salvage store, the old green and white variety. I'm able to chop it and use it now. How exciting is that? 1984 called and it wants it's radical paper back.

The best news for last. I'm working with GoodKarma another etsy seller who makes fine handmade things. She is making super sweet cases for my jotter notebooks, they fit perfectly some in great color combinations and are very well made. I've been using mine for a few weeks now and everyone who see's it asks me where I got it and comments on how great it is. I'll get some pictures of it in action and post them up. But I'm super excited about the collaboration. You can find her great work here and all my jotter notebooks fit her covers! Awesome.

I've listed a whole load of jotters up on etsy this past week and over the course of the next few weeks i"ll be changing the prices to reflect my new pricing structure. I have a vast color selection of covers available, dont' see something you like? Send me an email and I'll let you know if I have something that might strike your fancy.

Back on track

The weather here is miserable and has been on and off since the middle of December. As a non-essential member of staff I am often able to work my schedule around the weather and today is one of those days. Thank god, the idea of driving anywhere in this garbage is pretty bad.

My father has been hard at work on the sewing cradles on the farm in Maine. He has a bunch finished and you can find them in the supply section of my shop. Each fits perfectly into a USPS Priority Mail Shoes box. They now fit a 12inch high sheet of paper and he has rounded the bottom edge for a smoother look. He's kept the basic design and simplicity of the item. They still come in a simple linseed oil finish, rubbed on. The linseed oil finish is used instead of a slick hard finish so that paper will not slide around on the wood but he natural grain and texture of the wood will hold signatures in place while they are being punched.

I've also made a ton of matchbook notebooks. They are 99% recycled, all the paper and covers are recycled but the staples are a virgin material. (Many staples are made of recycled steel but I am not sure about the heavy duty staples I'm using.) I've switched to a 6 pack for $5.99 and will give discounts for bulk purchases. You can find them in the recycled section of my shop. Say I love you AND the environment by getting someone special some recycled journal for valentines day!

Finished a big Order, and some errors

Yahooo. The giant 90 jotter order is done and shipped. I took a few pictures of what 90 jotters look like in a ziploc baggie all together. But it's a giant ziploc baggie, something like a 2 or 3 gallon baggie, don't think it's a small baggie.

Al together it weighs in at about 3 or 4 pounds. I admit, because it's priority mail I didn't weight it.

However I'm pretty happy to say the order is DONE!

I had a lot of sewing machine issues with this one. I made enough blanks for about 150 books. Only 90 of the 150 made the cut. That means I've got about 60 books with various errors. In some cases, the machine skipped a stitch, or the tension is too loose, or the stitches were too close. It made me very angry... But I've got 60 jotters I need to get rid of. I'm offering 6 low cost mass packs (10 jotters each) on my etsy shop. This is the lowest cost you'll ever see on my jotters.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

If you're interested in them, head on over to my etsy shop.

good news good news good news

Good News Good News Good News!
#1. I'm feeling so much better. I'm able to sit up for extended periods of time and I'm down to a single nap a day. Yay!
#2. Sewing cradles are BACK! I've recruited my Dad to make them instead of my brother. Dad is a little older and a lot more responsible than my brother so you can expect that they will ship within a day or 2 of your order.  They will be shipped from Jonesboro, ME via priority mail. Very exciting. You can get them here!

So the really great news is that I'm back to making books, I have energy and I'm not wiped out anymore. Who knew the flu was so bad? I haven't been so sick since I was a little kid. I've been in a frenzy of making jotters the last few days. I scored a ton of great posters from work right before I was sick and I chopped them all down to jotter size, so I've got a ton of covers. I had listed something like 9 sets of books before I was sick and I just finished another 9 sets, this time with graph paper and sketchbook paper filling them up. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I'll be listing them across this coming week.

Fresh New Jotters on etsy

I made a stack of jotters this past weekend and have listed several packages on etsy. You can find them here.

I scored a really large stack of posters from work about a week ago, there were a lot of fun colors and photos. Instead of pairing them with off white or cream thread I used olive colored thread.

 

eBay to Lower Fees

Well, my art selling reader, or art buying readers, eBay has announced that effective Feb 1, 2008 they will reduce some of their fees. This is an exciting thing. They are lowering their listing fees, offering gallery free as well as a few other positive lowered prices. They pick the money they are loosing on that through raising their final value fees. Here's the break down:

Listing Fees:

$0.01 - $0.99	$0.20	$0.15 Lower fee!
$1.00 - $9.99	$0.40	$0.35      Lower fee!
$10.00 - $24.99	$0.60	$0.55      Lower fee!
$25.00 - $49.99	$1.20	$1.00      Lower fee!
$50.00 - $199.99	$2.40	$2.00      Lower fee!
$200.00 - $499.99	$3.60	$3.00      Lower fee!
$500.00 or more	$4.80	$4.00      Lower fee!

That's really not bad when you think about it, for those people who are selling items under $10 it's a good deal and for those selling above $25 it's even better.

Gallery Fees:

Starting or Reserve Price	Current Gallery Fee	Gallery Fee (effective 02/20/2008)
Auction-style Listings	$0.35	FREE
Fixed Price Listings	$0.35	FREE
Store Inventory Listings	$0.01	FREE
Classified Ads	Variable	FREE

That's an even better deal for anyone who used gallery.

Here's where things get interesting:

Closing Price	Final Value Fee	Final Value Fee (effective 02/20/2008)
Item not sold	No fee	No change
$0.01-$25.00	5.25% of the closing value	8.75% of the closing value
$25.01 - $1,000.00	5.25% of the initial $25.00, plus 3.25% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00)	8.75% of the initial $25.00, plus 3.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00)
Over $1,000.01	5.25% of the initial $25.00, plus 3.25% of the initial $25.00 - $1,000.00 plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value)	8.75% of the initial $25.00, plus 3.50% of the initial $25.00 - $1,000.00 plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value)

The difference don't seem too drastic but let's do the math on a $19.99 item, pre changes and post changes and see what the changes really are.

$19.99 Item listed @ $0.99
Old:
listing fee:$0.20
Gallery Fee $0.35
Buy it Now:$0.10
Final Value fee:$1.63
Total: $1.85= 9.25%

New:
listing fee:$0.15
Gallery Fee $0.00
Buy it Now:$0.10
Final Value fee:$1.75
Total: $2.00= 10.00%

A book sells for $54.50, I started the bidding at $9.99 used gallery and had buy it now. Here's the fees and how it all compares old to new.
Old:
listing fee:$0.40
Gallery Fee $0.35
Buy it Now:$0.20
Final Value fee:$2.28
Total: $3.23= 5.87%

New:
listing fee:$0.35
Gallery Fee $0.00
Buy it Now:$0.10
Final Value fee:$3.24
Total: $3.69= 6.71%

SO When you do the math, add it all up and figure out the percentages- eBay is actually charging you more than they did before, but only if your item sells. Also keep in mind that this doesn't include PayPal's fee structure- add an additional 3+% onto your final fees for them.  Again eBay screws the lower priced sellers. When I read the CNN article about eBay lowering their fees I was stoked but doing the math  leaves me cold.

The real question is this: Did eBay really think that they could effectively raise their prices for sellers, market it as a decrease in fees and that no one would notice?  This has got to be some sort of false advertisement.

On Etsy

I forgot to point out that the painting "There is Love Inside" is for sale on Etsy. You can find it here.

I plan on putting up some better pictures of it soon, these are far too bright.

Wrap and Roll Pencil or Art Supply Case

My mom kicks butt. She's who I get a lot of my crafting ability from. Growing up she was always crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, or quilting. When she and my Dad came to visit this past holiday season, I suggested she use her crafting abilities to create a colored pencil wrap with 12 pockets for pencils and a pocket for up to a 5x7 inch notebook. She picked some awesome fabrics and made the pockets extra roomy. Here are some pictures:

Heres a little video of one: