I'm still rolling this over

This post on etsy as a business incubator. I've meant to blog about this for a long time, but now I think I might take a stab at it. I wanted to say something about how I'm not seeing etsy as a little incubator for lots of little businesses, and then some businesses break out of their eggs into the bright sky of success. Instead, I see it as a growing part of the way that instead of passively watching tv in our free time, we actively seek out community- crafting, selling, and passing advice back and forth.

Maybe we won't get big. Maybe our ideal is to stay small, a hobby, to craft and sleep and eat and work all in balance. But every minute we spent crafting to a higher standard since we want to sell it or reading about how to run a business so we can keep crafting, the world improves just a little.

I also suck as a radical homemaker

OK, I'm not a homemaker, radical or otherwise I'm just a childless slacker. I attempt to get by with a minimum of expenses, but I just realized that I don't know how to cook purple hull peas. Or anything in fact. Right now I'm paring down- trying to give away, sell or reluctantly- trash everything I don't want. This will take forever, as I unearth layers of my life- old photo albums with pictures of teenage pals with flowers in their hair, a whole notebook full of professional materials, old comics I haven't read in years.

Of course, as I try to pare down, I find twenty new things I want. I went into a bookstore to buy a gift for a relative, and found four or five new things for my wishlist.

Paring down will probably take me months, and that brings me to my point. Simplicity is hard work. A lot of this stuff requires you to be full of energy, and knowledge, and a community of people who can give you zucchini from their garden when yours fails to grow anything.[the only real success I've had with my garden is basil.

I think we can all be a little kinder to each other when our experiments fail. When we take a road, and look at the road not taken, and wonder. Because what comes around goes around.

Viz looks for Interns

Viz has slashed its workforce and is now looking for interns. I have to wonder if the value of the internship has lessened. After these folks are done working for free, will they really be able to parlay this into anything paid? Even the success story is a freelancer- no security! If say, 10 people work as interns, and only one gets to be a freelance editor, would they have spent their time better if they had waited tables and gained money to pay off their giant student loan debt?

At least these internships aren't full time- unpaid full time internships are problematic since they make paid work all but impossible to do for the majority of people.

The Kin is Dead

I can see why the Kin is being discontinued. I love social networking, but 'a phone to manage your social life'? Really? What people want with a phone is versatility- we play games, go on twitter, take phone calls and text messages... what we don't want is something that seems like a gimmick when there are perfectly fine phones that do what the Kin was promising better

Is this model sustainable?

The race to the bottom for the cheapest wages, massive unemployment, and a lack of concern for the environment? We spend a lot of cash throwing it at big rich companies and people and hoping that they'll throw some of that largess back down at us. Maybe instead of trickle down, we can trickle out- share goods and services more. This system here is breaking down for many people.

Even in China, where the high educational investment[there's no mention of debt, but in the US, huge educational debts are a growing problem] and low wage model combine, there are worries about social unrest as the people thrown out by that system fight back.

Small Business and Being a Good Neighbor

A lot of folks try to run on championing small businesses, but I want to know what sort of small businesses we are touting as the backbone of America? Are we touting the sort who exploit undocumented workers? The sort who will ask the worker to 'hold' their check while late fees pile up on their bills? The sort who pay so little their workers need to apply for public benefits? I'm all for small business, but with the priviledge of running a business comes responsibility.

I don't think a small business can thrive without paying attention to the larger community they serve. People say we should give huge tax breaks, and loosen regulations, but if the community then has decaying infrastructure, schools without any books, and poisonous waste everywhere, I don't really think that's a gain at all.

Rural Farms, Urban farms

Are big city markets draining small local markets? I don't know. In Memphis, we have about five farmer's markets in the area, and sometimes I find that it's cheaper to go to the farmer's market than it is to the supermarket.

Lately, I've been attempting to garden- my veggie death toll is about 3[2 rosemary plants and an oregano] and my black krim tomato is on its last legs. Gardening is hard work! It's all well and good for my city bound self[the post picture is from a day I spent in the country. I was really bored] to talk about getting back to the land, and fresh veggies and suchlike, but people's priorities aren't shaped by pure bloody mindedness- there are reasons, and when we learn about them, we can help push farmer's markets more in the country.

I Wish I Was a Cheapskate

I wish I was a cheapskate! One of the issues keeping me from being a cheapskate is that I have a great difficulty resisting sales. Give me a coupon for 40% off, slash the price of remainder books to 3.99 or 50 cents...and I'll buy and buy. Another issue is that I have a lot of consumption heavy hobbies. Manga, video games, reading... For manga, I try to use coupons and the used market to reduce the price, and video games I rely on casual gaming[such as big fish games' 6.99 games] and the used market to reduce the price, but I do spend a lot of money on entertainment. Netflix eases the bite of movie watching by replacing $10 movies with $18 subscription, but that's still a lot of consumption.

And of course, there's the elephant in the room- jewelry making! I try to reduce by recycling components from older designs, but this week, I had a custom order, so I sprinted to Michaels[coupons in hand], and bought a few extra supplies to fill it. Of course, there's always something that catches your eye, so I got at least 3 unnecessary items.

I think there are a few traits a cheapskate needs to have: patience, lack of novelty seeking, and delayed gratification. Delayed gratification goes without saying, and patience is part of that- patience to cook up a meal when all you want is some filling and tasty takeout. Lack of novelty seeking would really help for people who consume to gain experiences. My theory is that some people consume for utility[the cheapskates], some for status, and others for experiences- and the latter is where I fall.

Oh American Apparel!

Warning: All links have American Appeal style photos on them.

Gawker has a humorous list of their grooming standards. Also notice that the female example photos are mostly from the porno aesthetic and the male ones are not porno style.

Oh yea, and your advancement in he company is determined by how you look! I wonder if that's even legal.

American Apparel acts like it isn't trashy, and is somehow worried about getting trashy black girls[wut?] but I see you, American Apparel, with your website that had me looking at a lady's naked bum just so I can see a pair of socks!

And I agree with the commenters who bet they would be shocked if they saw some actually nappy natural hair as opposed to 'curly'. *admits that I don't have 'curly' hair- I have nappy hair, which I keep natural*

Blogging Consumption

Inspired by the book Obsessive Consumption, a sweet little volume full of adorably rendered pictures of products, which delighted me both with its banality and the fact that she has fun hipster taste, I think sometimes I'll blog my consumption too. My mind is taking a detour, so stay with me. With the book Obsessive Consumption, I had a hard time deciding whether to file it as a comic or as a prose book. It has very few words, and almost all pictures, so that's one check for the comic side, but on the other hand, my comics are all narrative... I stuck it in the comics, and of course, with any decision you make, your mind automatically starts justifying it, and now I think the chronological nature of the drawings creates a sort of narrative.

Back on the topic, the item I wanted to blog today is a black ruled moleskine notebook. I bought it because I had a 40% off coupon at Borders. I had intended to buy Pandora Hearts 2, but after overindulging at the library[you would have overindulged too! Thousands of books! $3 at the most! I filled up a box.], I decided to go practical.

The boygirlparty notebook that I have been using for months is filling up. I needed a new notebook, so I got a black moleskine- the black cover seems professional, and so it is well suited to pretending to take notes. I had a hard choice between ruled and squared, but even though I adore squared- a good compromise between the freedom of blank and the control of ruled, I thought ruled looked more like I really was intended to write notes, and not in fact doodle.

So I'm happy to have a new notebook. I wish it a long life!

The Worth of Work

The culture of cheap is discussed in volume. I think part of the issue is that a lot of the 'cheap' stuff is folks getting their 10,000 hours of practice in publicly. So their amateur work is priced much lower than professional work. My work has increased in price through the years as well. Of course, there's always going to be a huge supply of amateurs, and the problem with craft pricing is simple supply and demand.

There's a huge supply of crafters at all levels, and not that much demand for craft work- much of this stuff is for a niche audience- mass market work has mass market prices, and only a small percentage of people really care about whether we spent 20 hours handbeading that belt.

Let me tell an anecdote- I was at a gallery crawl and a man that was on it too saw a great belt- it was handmade with skulls woven into the leather and just an amazing piece of work- but it was $75. The guy really wanted the belt, but he thought '$75 for a belt?' I noted the great design, but really, that belt wasn't worth $75 to him.

And that's the point. It doesn't matter whether you deserve however much- it's how much the item is worth to the customer. We focus a lot on how much our time and services are worth, but when companies are paying people with college degrees $10 an hour, there's only going to be so much stretch in people's perception of worth.

It's Time For Squee and Expensive Handbag Squee Harshing

Arcade Fire!!! is offering their new album preordered for 7.99. Bravely, they are releasing the digital with an option to have just plain MP3s. I prefer plain MP3s- the use of them is a big reason I use emusic, I wonder if they are worried about piracy, especially among young people who aren't used to actually paying for entertainment.

I think they are hoping enough people pay for extras like the vinyl to make up for folks who don't think humping your behind to make an album deserves the less than $10 it costs to actually pay for it. At least Arcade Fire is big enough to have licensing deals for commercials to make up the revenue as well

[Here's a perspective on this for the manga market] I admit to being part of the manga after market, as I like used books to catch up to older out of print series, but I realize that I'm not entitled to free manga. Manga is actually extremely labor intensive- story boarding, writing, drawing, translation, the creation of the design of the book. It's amazing that manga is so cheap, when American comics are selling $4 for 30 pages, I'm seeing 8.99 for 200.


--

I look with suspicion on $1000 bags, especially from large companies. If I'm getting the same cheap labor and cheap materials, but with a flashier name, why shouldn't I just go to a thrift store and get a perfectly fine bag for way cheaper? Heck, if I'm desperate for new, I could just go to etsy and pick up a bag.

Is Louis Vuitton handmade? Well, designer companies are certainly using sweatshops, even in Italy. People blame the Chinese workers, but many are sold a bill of goods- you'll pay off your debt quick! You'll be back and successful before long! The subcontractors all the way down model helps big companies have plausible denialbilty for ripping off labor.

HeyMichelle Speaks

Words in bold are hers:

HeyMichelle
Etsy Admin
HeyMichelle says:
Hmmm, this is a question I've been pondering over all day. I think it's a definition that we will have to hone to be right for the Etsy market. There are many precedents set by other companies though as to how to handle mature content - ebay, google, and flickr come to mind.

My impression- I feel that there should be a way for the average person to browse Etsy freely with their child on their lap, and for the average conservative or middle of the road person to easily avoid content they don't want to see. Yes, there are always extremes on either side, but I'm thinking about the middle, say, 80-90% of people or so.

For example, if Etsy is featured on a show like Good Morning America (as we were recently), will there be a good number of new visitors who might not leave and not come back if the content is displayed prominently?

The Dos and Don'ts uses the term "general audiences" as well:

Etsy aims to maintain a marketplace appropriate for general audiences, therefore the use of mature content must comply with the following policies. Mature content is defined as: visual depiction of male or female genitalia, sexual activity or content, profane language or graphic violence. Mature content listings will remain in all Etsy searches by default; users can restrict results by using the exclusionary search term "NOT mature" ("opt-out" search status).

* Item listings containing mature content must be tagged with "mature" and include the word "mature" in the item title.
* Mature content and/or profane language or images are not allowed in your username, Public Profile, item titles, tags, avatar, banner, Shop Announcement and/or shop section titles.
* The first thumbnail image in your item listing should be kept appropriate for general audiences; additional images in the listing may show the item in its entirety. Mature content and/or profane language or images are only allowed in the second, third, fourth and fifth photos of an item listing and the description text of a listing.
* Pornography is prohibited on Etsy.

Is etsy shifting audiences with its popularity? Although this does not *personally* affect me[despite the depictions of plant genitalia in my jewelry, they are all work safe], I'm still thinking about what to think on this issue.

Mature Treasuries on Etsy

There's apparently a huge furor about mature items in Treasury East, apparently the listings will be filtered out or something and there are petitions on the internet about this.

BTW: admin announcement post.

My brain is fogging up, and so I haven't really taken a position. I'm not sure etsy really makes it clear to people that it's an adult site. On the other hand, treasuries are 'beneath the fold' so to speak, and aren't in people's personal log in areas...

ETA:Etsybitch takes a side. A pet peeve I have is people saying I'm not a prude, but... We're all prudes to someone, and saying I'm not a prude isn't going to convince anyway. I'm a prude, and proud of it. I find things are more exciting when there's something that can shock you.

The upshot of this thread is...

run your shop as a business. Even if you're doing it just for fun, with the recession on, it's important not to lose money on each sale. The web of small business is such that with our sales we buy other things and move money around. If you lose money on each sale, you can't move any money, can you?

And BTW: it seems that school trips are fraught with peril. That said, we all have different beliefs, and yes, all beliefs come with a risk of not being business friendly. I curse a lot, and of course, most people wouldn't want to expose their kids to my blue streak, and many people want to tell their children about their own beliefs and not have some beliefs seemingly endorsed by the school, and others ignored.

It's Happy Black Girl Day

but I'm exhausted. So I link you to this black love tumblr., and a headband I wish I had from etsy. Oh yea, and the award winning game Portal is now avaliable for free! I have a cool new toy, and you will see the amazing results soon. *wiggles eyebrow mysteriously*

One more "soup nazi" comparison & I'll scream. Yes, we're small & limited on what we can do. No, I don't think this makes us "nazis" :(less than a minute ago via webMuddy's Bake Shop
muddysbakeshop

Don't call hard working local bakers cupcake nazis. Of course, there's the issue that unless they are making cupcakes with swaztikas on them, or burning crosses or something, I don't want to hear about who is a 'nazi'. Their shop has gotten very popular because of how delicious the cupcakes are, but it really is a small shop. It's smaller than your average Starbucks,and they have to bake all of their items themselves so of course they aren't going to be able to keep up with demand. I'm not sure if they'll be able to expand or not. Real estate in Memphis is cheap, but there's a terrible recession on. I don't go up to Sanderlin as often I want as it is.

On The Advertising Mix

I find it hard to really have much of an advertising mix as I must rely on free or very low cost advertising. I use twitter, facebook, etsy forums[renewing was costing a lot for little return], online classified ads, livejournal postings, etc.

Also, there's much controversy over a new etsy feature. Folks are getting tired of new geegaws to show us popular shops. I myself have already seen most of these shops and I'd like to see new shops. In my suggested shops, I have shops that I already have faved and bought from, which is not any help to me at all.

Happy Mother's Day

to all who support us, to all who teach us, to all who do the under recognized work that keeps the world spinning, regardless of whether they are our biological mothers, our adoptive mothers, our friends, our teachers, or anyone else who mothers.

Should Work Hours Be Reduced to Increase Employment?

An interesting idea. The problem that many part timers have today is a lack of insurance, ability to pay housing and food costs, etc. Shorter work weeks would be better for our health and probably our environment, but there's also the cultural issue that Americans tend to equate having time off with being a horrible person, and of course, if the government got involved, people would be howling that someone spent an extra penny on food they didn't approve of or didn't look downtrodden enough or something.

I think the part time revolution has already come. Full time employment is getting harder to find. A lot of people are scraping by. You can downsize consumerism, but you can't downsize the need to live indoors.

The Grow Memphis Plant Sale

It's been extended!


The photo above is a squash plant that I bought from the plant sale on Sunday, and which is growing quite well. On Sunday, they had helpful service, explaining to me what say..an Anaheim pepper is. [Don't laugh! I'm a novice!] They had some good varieties there, including some green zebra tomatoes, which they were selling for a $1 each.

There's nothing like a garden- no gatekeepers, all you need is a plant, a trowel, and some water. If you get stumped, there's the public library! I'm hoping for some good fruits this year, and the answer to the mystery of what is eating the basil!

A Lack of Oversight Kills Small Businesses...

BP didn't plan properly, and now their oversight is killing fisheries in America. People don't ask people to say...actually use the equipment needed to drill oil at that depth safely just to be mean. We do it since we're all connected. The men who died when the rig exploded, the fishermen who will suffer from the oil spill, and even the wildlife that will suffer are connected. It's not just grab all the cash you can without regard for everything else. We need to find ways of living that are sustainable for everyone.

I learn that all photographers nowadays are fake.

Thanks to this enlightening flickr thread! I agree with the people who say it's just a bigger pool of talent to pull from. I don't have much talent with a camera, but I do like that digital cameras allow me to snap my little photos of everyday life-decaying stores,nondescript greenery, frowning babies, and also allow me to take photos of my items easily. It takes me sometimes thirty or forty shots before I get the five I want to present to the world. With film, that would be expensive, but with digital, I can do it in an afternoon and get back to crafting. That's what technology is for- to make it easier for us to do our vocations.

Marketing Research

Etsy sellers- middle aged middle class women dominate online shopping. Just in case you didn't know.

Blog Potpourri

Dennis Anderson's ginger lemon massage bar smells like sparkling ginger ale. The massage bar part rubbed off quickly, but this bar has good lather and both good in and out of shower smell. A solid bar of soap- what I've come to expect from Dennis Anderson.

Also, Magic Hand's Salt Bar really feels pure, like something you'd use to wash a baby. The salt gives it a nice texture, and it was nice and hard until the end when the last tiny piece crumbled away. Gives the skin a very soapy smell.


Etsy says everyone's views are just fine. Many disagree.

Religious messages in stores and pamphlets? There's a huge difference from merely wishing me a blessed day[slightly annoying, but acceptable] and putting a tract about how everyone who slept in one day and didn't go to church is going straight to hell in my package.

It's Earth Day

and so salon publishes a piece on folks who concern troll everyone about how cheap organic lentils are.

Of course, there's a certain tension in business about being green. Sure, a lot of green ways do save money- recycling beads from older necklaces rather than buying new ones, recycling clean packing materials, saving old items from thrift stores to make new items, but at the heart of the green movement is the idea that we all have plenty of stuff, and need to use less resources on our stuff. Less consumerism means less buying, which of course isn't good for business. I think we can find a balance, of course.

In other news, will walmart save the family farm?

Design Works: The Sixth Try is The Charm

It took me about five or six tries to create this necklace. My first try involved many swarovski crystals, and some sodalite rounds. It was a good try, but I didn't have enough beads. That's a huge problem with necklaces- they take a lot of beads, and if you have too many different kinds, they can look messy and sort of bead soupy. That was the issue with my second try. I tried to extend it with some sea green czech glass beads and some olive jade, that I rescued from this design:



but I didn't have enough, and it started to look bead soup like. On my third try, I tried to use some Greek ceramic tube beads, which had really vivid blue and green colors, at the ends of the necklace, but I didn't like that effect.



The fourth try involved this basic concept[evolved after a trip to the bead store- after seeing the sodalite teeth, I decided to match more precisely to the color of the pendant, which was the centerpiece for the whole idea of the necklace]- tigers eye, sodalite 'teeth', but no spacers, so that was too short. The fifth try involved glass spacers, but they were black, so it seemed visually too heavy. The sixth try finally got it right with the white bone spacers, and so we have the final product. Of course, actually, it was right on the seventh or eighth try. I had to redo once because of a bead counting error- I wanted the necklace perfectly symmetrical, and another time because of a bead spill.

So there you have it. I'm pretty satisfied with this necklace incarnation.

Farmer's Market Frenzy

As spring comes, the farmer's market boom hits Memphis hard. Yes, some folks bring non local produce to the market, but there's still a variety of local items to be found. Local baked goods, local hummus[really!], local crafts[I used to sell at the Agricenter on Saturdays but it was too slow for me].

The Thousand True Fans

I'm late on the thousand true fans boat, but I'd still like to discuss it. Even though it sounds like the premise of an anime- gain a thousand true friends...I mean...fans...and you'll become a real girl...I mean business... but it may have some validity to us crafters. Many people knew of the etsy famous Black Apple who even though most have never heard of her is doing alright with her fanbase.

Of course, as they say, different things are different. It's a bit easier for soapers as people consume soap and will often buy from the same soaper month to month. I like a lot of variety in my soap buying, but I will return to the same 'favorites' as well. Jewelry isn't consumable and you can only have so many earrings, but your true fans act as evangelists to the more casual types. They are the ones who retweet your tweets, advise others to go to your shop, etc. I think that more than the mere 1000 people a year giving you $100 once aspect that that is the true value of true fans.

People fall out of love with things, they move on, but before that happens, they can show your work to people who really are turned on by your art. Different methods work for different people. You don't see a lot of very very personal stuff on this blog as I am really shy, but other people display their daily life. But getting people to engage with your work, standing out from the crowd- that's something we can all relate to.

Rethink Your Rapper Dreams

Artist compensation in a handy infographic. Of course, this has always been true, but this just puts it in stark relief. Better print out tons of t shirts, bands!

Ning's Bubble Bursts

Ning, home of such networks as WeLoveEtsy, is closing off free networks and laying off workers. Even on the rapidly growing internet, you need a way to monetize your product. Grow slow and steady. If you expand too fast, you might just be a bubble...

BTW: perhaps we should focus on companies that actually make things again. Stop giving 120 million to random dot com boom type companies and give 1 million each to 120 companies that actually do things, make things, etc, and I bet the effect on the economy would be a whole lot better for more people.

On journals

MAKE magazine asks about how your notebook is organized. First, I pick a journal.

Sometimes I buy a nice journal. This boygirlparty journal is my current one, although it's all pink now because I spilled juice in my bag:



but usually I use a simple moleskine :



The journal must have at least some lines, because I like the structure of a lined page. With blank pages, my writing goes all over the place. I may doodle or draw a graph, but since I can't draw, I don't mind the lines. I find graph paper really satisfying sometimes. I like to make little charts using the squares, and of course, that can also serve as lines to direct my writing.

When I actually start to write in my journal, I always date and then start writing. Mostly it's complaining or an extensive list of everything I have accomplished that day. When I was in school, I'd write observations on the lecture that I did not need to memorize for the test, such as how Adlerian therapy could be used in various ways, or to write down books mentioned by the professor. I'll write down story ideas and to do lists. I'll write down quotes, although I do have a special journal for quotes. It's a ringdex- a bunch of index cards connected with a metal ring.

When I'm in the library, I write down the Dewey decimal numbers of the books I am trying to find in my journal. I heard that young folks don't know how to do this, and therefore can't find books in the library.

Anyway, to me, a journal is essential to life. The only problem is what to do with a filled journal. I keep them, but I have so many that space is an issue. I love the tactile feeling of writing on paper, so I'll probably journal forever.

Really, I don't care

I think Hobby Lobby's customer service should have not gone with the we know Christ is the only way to Heaven approach. Why? Because people often go through a great deal of searching and work to find their religious beliefs for themselves. So when you say, Christ is the only way, you seem to be looking down on their religious beliefs, and that feels like an insult to many people.

I understand it can be difficult for those reared in places where religion is a public matter to understand this world view. However, often we must be sensitive to other world views in our customers. Some people see being given a discount as an insult. This is not my world view, but it's an understandable vision of the world that does not in fact harm me. To many, religion is very personal, and telling people what religion they should be is as bad as telling them what sort of underwear they should wear.

Happy Black Girl Day!

It's nice to see a Happy Black Girl contest that is for handmade items! Today, I will praise the creativity of our girls. Our girls are out there creating fashion anew. Folks will say it's too loud, too gaudy, too ghetto, too trashy, unless it is seen on other, paler bodies, then it is fresh, new, a revolution. To that, I say no. It is a fresh revolution on our bodies. Our creativity creates the fashion, creates the dances, creates the recipes, creates the writing, creates the art. Others may be inspired, and their works garner more praise than ours. But I say no. The ones who originate are the creators, the creatives. To them, I light a candle.

Best Forum Trainwreck Ever

Really folks, don't tell us what to do. If I think etsy should fix their technical issues,I'm going to say it, so there.

Handmade Video Ads

I love this Oyin ad. Keep it handmade!

The Happy Black Girl

I love our girls. The ones who wave their hands in the air- squealing "Me! Me! I know the answer!" I love the quiet ones, and the loud ones. I love the ones who want so much to be grown. I beg you all not to label them 'fast' and withdraw your protection from them. Outside our protection, there are hungry wolves looking to feed on their bodies and souls, who are focused on that booty in those jeans, not the thoughts and feelings in their heads.

I love the ones who pass notes in class, and those who take notes in class. I love the ones perfecting their dance moves, their poses for their facebook photos, and the ones who are daydreaming of sports glory. I love them all, and their dreams of the women they long to be.

Inspired by L'Elephant Rose.

Beautiful Copyright Infringement

Man, this is what I'm talking about. These game figurines are beautiful! This sort of thing is why I can't really take a strict line on intellectual property. Yes, it's not all her own design, it's inspired by games, but look at the beauty and detail of that art. She has some fanart on her flickr as well.

I just can't think of where the balance needs to fall, so that artists like this can flourish, yet Hot Topic can't go in and grab someone's art without any credit...

What I Think About The Postal Service

People say that private services are better, but give me the post office! Why? The post office is cheaper for many items. People may complain about $2 jewelry shipping[it costs me $1.50 to pay the postage, and .50 cents is added since packaging isn't free], but if they paid fed ex or ups prices[$5 and up!], they'd be screaming for my blood! USPS also has media mail, which means I can ship books and DVDs for cheap, even if it takes a little bit more time. And the mail service helps me with the fact that I'm old school and prefer my netflix through the mail. People complain about the OMG GOVT running a postal service, but many private businesses rely on its reliability and cheap cost. The postal service is an important public good, and I'm all for it.

The End of An Era

Beadbabe is closing. I wish Bill well in his struggle against cancer.

Shame on Hot Topic.

They're using Kawaii Not's artwork without her permission. Buy from her, not those vampires! I'm of two minds about artist protection. On one hand, I'm all for fan art and fanfic. But on the other hand, I don't want people making cash not crediting, not sharing the profit, just acting like they came up with the idea all by themselves and getting rich off of other people.

A Peeve

This shirt peeves me. The rest of the designs are about actual grammatical or word use errors, but this is just bagging on people's accents.

I love soap

I was a bit nervous buying soap from a seller I hadn't bought from before, but I really enjoyed this cinnabun soap. It took a little time to receive, but I received a bar that is huge[it barely fits in my hand], and was packaged very nicely. Very good in shower scent, and it leaves sort of a 'dark' musky aftersmell. I like it, as it's very unisex, even though it has a hint of sugar, it's still quite masculine. The lather is good, not excessive, and the bar itself has a nice graininess to it that is very appealing to the skin. I am also softer, which I also prize in a soap. Top marks to the maker. I think this bar will last a long time too!

Day Old Bread

Apparently, where people need day old bread, they can't get it. That reminds me that today on freecycle, I saw a strange offer. UNOPENED Walmart Cake. If you had a car, and a computer, you could get a whole free cake. I think we'll probably regress to more of this. Baby showers where instead of new boxes and bags, there will be bags of hand me downs, more potlucks, more people eating bread made with homemade zucchini. Live small.

For you who feel alone

I'd like to say something. For all of you who feel alone, remember, the other half you have been searching for was in you all alone. Even if you eat your chocolate alone, for you to eat that chocolate, hundreds have labored in the fields for the sugar, for the cacao beans, in the diary farms for the milk. To make the chocolate, there was a factory or a kitchen, with people working hard to form the chocolate into a shape, to put the raw ingredients together with the help of machines or by hand. Thousands of truck drivers drove thousands of miles to put it on the shelf. There are stockers, and cashiers to help too. Even the simple act of eating chocolate is a connection to many other beings, from cow to cashier.

Every day, you're connected to the rest of the earth, and to the rest of the people. I hope my words reach you, and comfort you.

Love Your Body

This probably has been linked before, but I'll link it again- The BMI project. Love your body. You live in it. It is what you walk with, what you sing with, what you cook with, what you hug with. Love it! You can't hate yourself for your own good. Love yourself.

It's Time for Radical Self Love!

It's time for us to love ourselves. To stop putting our hopes and dreams and good feelings on the back burner until we find 'the one' or until 'the kids are a bit older' or until 'we lose five pounds', and start loving ourselves now, without waiting for society or other people to put a stamp on us that says 'worthy'.

Yes, that's much harder done than said. The picture is boygirlparty's journal. It has blank, lined and graph papered pages! While I usually don't recommend buying things to make you feel better, having a new journal has given me a little lift.

Love LikeThat

My dad made a bookcase for my manga. It was truly a labor of love. With handmade things, you can see the energy that went into it. I jokingly tell my dad that when he retires he should become a bookcase seller. I didn't know this before, but almost all of the bookshelves in our house are ones that he built.

There's something wonderful in a useful craft- canning food, building things, working on cars... It's nice to connect to the physicality of the world- and have something you can enjoy for years to come.

Employees, Consumers Deplore Waste

Bookstores toss resources, bad books out of the door. Yes, tearing off the covers and dumping is an old industry practice, but with the dwindling amount of natural resources, some carefulness is warranted.

I read this book, Affluenza, and it was a really flawed look at American excess. - They say you don't need a computer! But they forget many jobs don't take paper applications, and that with all the school work your child is doing using computers nowadays, you'll need to drive your OMG WASTEFUL car to the library so they can have access. And of course, the cure for American excess is to conspiciously consume 'green' items, and to be an edgy Adbusters lover. They of course also lack a real class or racial analysis of the issue, and are the sorts who complain about our kids playing violent video games, when common sense would tell you that children should play kids games like Cooking Mama or Mario and only adults should play violent video games.

I think a lot of our excess can be pared down by sharing and recycling. I just gave a woman tons of old manga from the 90s. I gained more space, and the woman gained some enjoyment for her child. Win-win.

Why You Won't See Haiti Listing In My Shop

It's actually pretty simple. If you spent $25 in my shop, and I gave $15 to Haiti, truly, it's just not very efficient. You could have just gone to amazon and gave a whole $25 to the Mercy Corps or gone to the Red Cross and given your entire $25 to them. Having me as the middle man weakens your contribution. Not to mention, I would personally give to established charities- even Wyclef Jean's Yele has come under scrutiny for personal enrichment off charity, and random etsy sellers are actually much less transparent than that. I think a recurring gift might be best, because months and months on, charities will still be helping people recover from the quake.

I don't believe in the awareness model. People don't care if we're 'aware', they care if we're actually helping them.

I don't care about all natural

People can say anything is 'natural' and just because it might be doesn't make it better. In a soap, I'm looking for hardness[is it hard? does it get all goopy in the shower?], shower fragrance[does it smell good in shower?], out of shower fragrance[does it smell good on skin?], and moisturizing and skin feel[does it make my skin feel soft? does it have ripples that feel good on skin?] I tend to gravitate away from flower scents, and towards unisex.

Note that no where on this list- which is quite extensive for a layperson, is 'naturalness'

We're Wasting Supplies

H&M; Walmart waste clothing. We also have so much old clothing in the US that we've destroyed some African clothing markets because we dump our stuff there. I think soon we will have to learn to reuse things, and maybe stores could tighten inventory. Just dumping useable cloth is not the way to go.

Tiny Niblets

How Twitter Works by Patrick Neilson Hayden

The Boxing Day Disaster. I try to use gift bags to try to cut down on the waste, but it can still get pretty bad. My brother packaged some gifts in old appliance boxes, which was good.

dear the entire internet

Seems like etsy is going through some restructuring.

I need to put my pedal to the metal because January is coming. For some reason, people enjoy buying jewelry after Christmas.

Man, I Wish We Had a Craft Business Nightmares...

I love Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. People with a lack of business sense try to open restaurants[i.e. they have dog poop in the kitchen, frozen food on the menu,etc] and Ramsay comes in and says WTF? IT SHOULDN'T TAKE 30 MINUTES TO PUT SOME ICEBERG LETTUCE INTO A BOWL! Since getting into the crafts business is so much easier than the restaurant business[I bet you could get in with an initial $100 investment] I bet even more egregious messups are being covered up by folks saying that their detractors are just jealous...

Bacteria in Lotion

...don't use lotion from people who are worried about naturalness more than health.

Angry Nerds Cause Bad Publicity

Nerds who put many hours of work into rules summaries, unique cards and the like for their board games have their work deleted. 

More geek rage.

Personally, that's short sighted. The problem with board game fandom is that we're a little...intense...about our games. Hose one person's files, and all his or her board gaming buddies will hear and hear and hear about it. And new games are coming out all the time it seems- if one company pisses off the fans, there are tons of others hungry for the business...

Hey, I don't like this poll design!

You have to basically answer 'etsy sucks', unless you want to be some sort of jerk who says that everyone with an issue with etsy , no matter whether it's the folks who pick the front page's obsession with white women being attacked by clothing to too many resellers is a whiner.

And saying bad things about other sellers is just bad business. Not only are sellers buyers, and you just called them all lazy whiners who suck at life, it just smacks of hypocrisy. If whining is what people who don't focus on business do, and you're whining about that...hmm...

I need to advertise my free shipping sale more, but I have more than one tab open. I can blog and advertise at the same time.

Etsy is finally responsible!

Instead of RAH RAH POSTIVITY EVERYONE WHO HAS A LOGICAL QUESTION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS PLAN IS JUST JEALOUS! etsy has produced an actual sensible business related article that even has profit mentioned!

This sort of thing is why I am a hobbyist. People in business can't just run off and spend all their earnings on beads- they have to grow their business, working to cultivate new markets, and making new product lines. You can't just take a day off to play video games!

Black Folks Love Twitter

I thought a lot of trending topics were amenable to my interests!  The net is for everyone!

I made two items yesterday, but I need to do some photo editing before I can post pictures on the web.

Dear etsy

Really, we don't want people who already get extra promotion to get more off the backs of our shops. When I promote me, I promote me. I'm not promoting who is hip on the etsy scene today. I might personally like their stuff, or think their stuff is horrid, but those folks can promote themselves on their own.

Artfire Drama

Man, folks are being threatened and there's wackiness! I also hear about 20 folks were muted over the kerfuffle, and that even more allegations will surface soon. Also, part of the forums has disappeared too.

I'm sort of bummed. It's as if my jewelry making ability isn't very creative lately. I just need more beads, I think

Guerrila Advertising

This photo amused me.

Allegations are flying!

Will Lime Crime answer them? I hear the field of mineral makeup is difficult, with people worrying about resalers all the time. Sadly, in the field of jewelry, I'm just here waiting for my beads to arrive. I guess the lesson from the kerfuffle about this is maybe you guys should do some in the studio shots to show how unique you are, and worth the price? But the truth about me is that I make all my products in my room from beads I find on the internet.

Hey, it's the eye makeup liberation front!

It's nearly Christmas!

Hahaha. Yes, I've totally skipped Halloween- one of the best holidays ever! People in other countries, American Halloween is an all out extravagantsa involving costumes for adults, kids, and sometimes small animals! Kids eat so much candy they get sick! Pumpkins decorate the area for weeks on end![No, we don't know why the pumpkins. Someone blamed it on the Irish. And uh..turnips]. Women wear revealing 'costumes'. Men dress in drag! Much alcohol is drunk and costume contests blanket the land. HALLOWEEN FREAKING ROCKS!

But oh yea...I was going to talk about working on your brand steadily throughout the year, building your inventory and product line, and then getting a big climax at Christmas and the post Christmas season, instead of just hoping Christmas will shore up your failing business, but I haven't been doing much this year.

I was almost going to close down, but then I realized that I needed to sell things to buy more beads to make things and then I would be in the same 'I have too much jewelry' place where I started.

Oh flickr!

The tag person in your photo thing doesn't seem to fit. It seems to me that flickr is full of photographers, faux photographers, crafters and faux photojournalists. Tag the peron looks like the sort of thing you'd have on a site whose picture capability is more focused towards- 'so here's me at a party.' "here's me and the SO at the beach Hey honey!' 'here's my baby' sort of thing. It just doesn't seem to go.

I'm glad my thoughts don't control the universe

I forget the origin of this quote- 'my thoughts do not control the universe'. But I am glad that it is true that my thoughts do not control the universe.  I'm a small petty person who could not create even a Wii. Sometimes my thoughts get distorted like everyone's do. If my thoughts created the universe, there would be no hope for that. No evidence beyond my mind to marshall to explain how things will be alright. And it seems like a small blasphemy to say something as large and magnicent as the universe bends to the whims of mere humans. Most humans have difficulty truly picturing a trillion items, but the universe has trillions of stars. The operations of a single cell of our bodies is amazing beyond most people's imagining. So, let's not just focus on me, me, me- making the universe and any possible divine mysteries inside them turn on materialistic desires, but let's drive to find out how amazing everything is now.

A First for Cassowary Jewelry

I was on the front page of etsy! And I got a blog feature! 
Folks say the front page is no big deal, but I got 3 orders in my main shop today. This in a shop that used to average four sales a month.

Hipsters Rejoice!

Polaroids are coming back into production! In other news, I'm planning a bead buy, so you may see more new designs soon.

Spike Wants a Comic Funded

Spike, creator of Templar Arizona, which is its own micro business, wants to collaborate on a book on how to live poor and well.

I learn we're all doomed.

I'm 25 with a masters, but do I have a job? No. At least other people are having a terrible time too. But the upside is maybe we'll commit to a less materialistic more lo fi lifestyle. I went shopping with my mother today, and she wanted me to trade way up on cell phones, clothing, etc, and I tried to keep the expense down, although I did not succeed. Maybe we'll innovate in other ways- maybe not in ways that will give a lot of money, but give a lot of great things to everyone.

Powerful Words on Positive Thinking

Revealed! If I said that my jewelry business would lead to riches, I'd be in denial, but if I thought that beads are awesome, I'd be being realistic.

Only folks with enough money and time can start random businesses online. I had the time, energy and money, so I could risk it doing my best, and giving it my all. But it's important to understand that others aren't so blessed, and it's wrong to judge others by my own abilities.

Oh, and that corporate part is important. If we're supposed to always smile, we can't be 'negative' and question why we're paying more and getting less. We also lose responsibility and connection to each other. People long to connect to others, but it's so difficult to do so.

I learn why I'll never be on the front page

I tried to make my pictures etsy appropriate, but instead they end up pretty bland. I'm getting my hand back in, though.

Snark Blog Cat Fight

Craftostrophe vs Regretsy! Who will win?!

Design Reworks

A reworked design.

Weekend deals are sucking sellers dry. BTW: you will probably get recycled packaging. You know why? Metals and gemstones and plastic are bad enough for the environment. No need to waste good paper on top of it. I try to reuse things for jewelry as well- 'junk' jewelry, older designs that I want to rework. Waste not, want not.

Reading this article, I thought of what a doctor once said 'people don't clean their neti pots enough'. So clean them after use to avoid grossing me out,ok?

BTW: no swine flu parties. That's a dumb idea.

I don't get many sales from artfire because I don't put as much effort as I should into it.

I don't like how this guy randomly makes a connection between women's unhappiness and social networking. I think women are unhappy because of the work disparity- a woman's role is considered to be doing work- being pretty, doing childcare, etc. A man's role is considered to have fun-watch some football, play video games, do a few tasks around the house.

I think women use social networking to connect to others in their lifestages- look at the dresses of brides, show others pictures of children, and talk about the crafts and hobbies they do in between the double and triple shifts they are doing. We also give each other much support.

The tales of myspace's demise are greatly exaggerated, due to race and class bias. Younger members tend to use myspace, which is important for us who want to capture the youth market. What does this mean for you? I don't know, but probably I should send out a myspace bulletin or two, and change my profile. I have about ten times more myspace friends than I do facebook fans, while I'm thinking about it. Then again, I have nearly 500 contacts on flickr, which is often not profiled as social networking, but it can be. I have no data on flickr, but I would assume a great amount of the people there are artists and photographers.

Ah, snuggie testing. On a similar topic, be careful with soaplane's soap. It was nice at the beginning, but since I didn't store it in a draining soap dish, it got sort of goopy at the end. The green tea scent was quite masculine, so I enjoyed that part.

Daisycakes' soap is still hard probably because cold process holds up better. I smell a bit like tea, but also a nice masculine scent. Not too fruity, not too girly.

I will edit my pictures tomorrow, I think. No sales from the JET sale. Some think that etsy should have featured our group more prominently in the storque.

I'm reading an article about HR now. Being a one person company has its perks, I think.

Hey, I'm in a virtual craft show. I wasn't able to participate in the million festivals of September, so I'm glad to do things online.

This post is just an excuse to show off this design. Even though it's been difficult getting back into the groove of picture taking, I'm sure you can at least tell what it looks like.

I guess I should start gearing up for that Jet Sale on the 25th. Finally, I got some sunshine, so I got some photos done. I've been derailed this whole year, since I was extremely focused on my internship, and then on the grind of job hunting, but I'm going to commit to carve out some time for jewelry making and promoting. I get too focused and need to have a wider horizon.

Communities organize against food deserts. And of course, creating the market is a good way to promote community.

Of course, just providing health food isn't enough- the time and effort spent cooking it is also a problem as this post illustrates. And knowing how to make things from your new healthy food stash, and not putting hamhocks in your purplehull peas is also an effort, which will probably be a burden on women especially.

Pussdaddy continues to troll on the nets. It continues to rain, so pictures of new items are not forthcoming.

Philadelphia libraries close. I just finished reading the book Free which I borrowed from the library. Borrowing the book seemed free to me, but it is paid for by taxes, corporate donations,fines, fees[if you borrow a DVD, it's $2], and the fact that the library serves as a book recycling center- give them your old books, and they will sell them to others for prices from 25 cents to maybe a dollar.

The library returns a lot of value to the community- people can access the internet, do research for school or pleasure, children can gain reading skills through storytime and the fact they can have as many books as they can carry for 3 weeks, and there are also small business talks given as well, and tax help for the elderly.

Etsy Weddings talks about African weddings. While committing the common 'africa' as one sin, and not talking much about specific cultures, the taste found in this collection is very good.

So in tribute to the attempt, I will show a fun and interesting wedding tradition. Jumping the broom. Slaves weren't allowed to be formally married, but often jumped over brooms in ceremonies that made them husband and wife in the eyes of the community. Thus today, we have wedding brooms

People are worried about proana etsians. BTW: If you take random unregulated herbs from people on the internet, you risk injury.

Waste not, want not. Maybe using our yards for gardens, native plants, etc, will become more popular than unsustainable lawns. Or then again maybe not. The tomatoes are still delicious.

Pop Tunes, a Memphis business icon, is remembered fondly by its fans.

Memphis coffee shop closes amid the recession. Another problem with small business is that they can't afford to be everywhere. I won't lie; I would go to Starbucks because while I enjoy coffee flavored milkshakes, I'm not going to drive 30 minutes for one. I'm glad that high point will continue to sell it's beans online, as that was a major part of its business.

The Saga of the Manga Bin

I accumulate manga. As one series can go into 20 books, storage is a big problem of course. My bookshelves were crowded, so I went to the manga bin. How it looked at first:


Mostly, I threw manga I had read into this plastic tub. It kept the manga mostly corralled, but some pages were folded and it was hard to find the exact volume I wanted.



It took me 30 minutes to clean out the manga bin to create the above neater manga bin. It has less storage, but it is easier to view the titles.

I was listening to Here and Now and listened to the author of How the Mighty Fall. The upshot of his interview is that slow and steady attention to the core of the business keeps a business strong, and that getting greedy and losing sight of the cold hard facts are a recipe for business failure. The losing sight of cold hard facts is of course a big problem in artisan business, since artists tend to be slightly less than down to earth.

The whole interview reminded me of Deluxe. In the pursuit of growth, they forgot the importance of quality. I'm not going to be inspired to buy a $300 dress when I know they use the same poorly paid labor as the makers of a $30 dress are using.

So today's business lesson is to keep it simple. I'm trying to get my photo skills back up to pair. In my haitus, I lost my beading thread, but I think I have spotted it.

I like twitter much better than facebook. On facebook, you get to see pictures of babies, and parties you are not invited to. On twitter, you get to post 'this is not the salad of my people' and people will chime in with jokes. People who you don't know irl, so you can joke easily and chat. You can read other people's thoughts on the earth. I'm not saying I don't like being able to see pictures of people from high school's babies, or being able to freak out my brother, but I also like being able to be my true self and talk about things I like too. ^_^;

Natural herbs and vitamins can be harmful. This is common sense for most people, knowing the dangers of burning poison ivy, although this has been overridden by vast marketing about the wonders of all natural sprite or how all our health problems can be cured by eating organic pizza. [pro tip: that won't work. greasy pizza made from organic cheese and organic pork may be yummy, but it's still greasy pizza]

The whole 'we have real sugar in our food' marketing going on is an example of this. Sugar is sugar, whether it's made from corn or beets. You can be healthier by eating less sugar,yes, but beet sugar is still sugar.

A lot of the natural trend is just hype, not hope.

Note that the language used in the article that caused people to boycott whole foods was not our traditional anglo saxon loanwords, but stuff about how people who get sick can just eat gluten free organic cake.

I very much disagree with this post on black entrepreneurship. I live in Memphis, where we have black owned restaurants, black owned hair shops, black owned banks. I also hang out on etsy, where we have etsy artists of color, many of whom are black. I don't think our work ethic is worse than the work ethic of other racial groups.

I come from entrepreneurs. My dad is a landlord. My granddad sold produce on the side of the road. My dad's grandma also used to do that, although she didn't grow all the produce herself. It's not true that there's no history. We've been doing for ourselves since reconstruction.

Personally, I think it's important to support small business because it makes the biodiversity of the business landscape stronger. Since we're small, we don't have stock holders trying to make us water down our product so we can have profit increases every 3 months. We can innovate.

Also, supporting small business supports families and the community. When you buy soap from a mom, you could be making it possible for her to stay at home where she wants to be. You could be supporting a student in their education. I know I don't stack my earnings up in a secret swiss account. I'm out buying from other businesses and pumping up the economy.

etsians have drama I don't understand. I was going to make a whole new fall collection because I was so inspired by the construction of the Hermes handbags in Deluxe, but I guess I should do my last work for school rather than getting all excited over new patterns, designs and influences.

Man plants flowers in unused newspaper boxes- gives beauty to the urban landscape. I'm planning on doing sidewalk chalk graffiti if it doesn't rain. I'm hoping to draw some squid on the sidewalk. If someone doesn't like chalk graffiti, they can just wash it off.

Bayousalvage is awesome, btw.

Notice the stats here- 43% of people under 20 are ethnic minorities. It's a big world out there too- I find that I sell internationally. The last package I sent went to Germany.