When I was at the age when I had a lot of time to do crafty things, crafty things were not cool. The epitome of crafty things then, in fact, could be summed up in the Christmas present my best friend Kristi received our sophomore year of high school – a vest made by her grandma out of the butt of some worn-out jeans. From then on, arts and crafts were pretty much synonymous with butt-on-the-chest for me, and only in the past few years have I stopped feeling mild shame when lingering in the aisles of Hobby Lobby.
Obviously, things have changed. The craft craze at this point is hotter than a glue gun, so hot in fact that it lured a giant crowd of choppy-haired, vintage-clad types out to the Travis County Fairgrounds last weekend for nothing resembling live music. Instead, it was the Maker Faire, Make Magazine’s ode to all things DIY, which you can read more about here. I missed most of the artsy stuff because I invited my NASA friend along (he does some kind of work involving the Space Station’s “arm”), and he lingered so long in the robot area that I never even got a glimpse of the sewing-machine ladies and silk-screen T-shirt makers and other beautiful people of my dreams. Which means, tragically, that I missed the people from Etsy.com.
Let me just say it again: Etsy.com! I discovered this website last summer when I was trying to find a birthday gift for a friend and only had in mind the vague stipulation that it be cool-looking and not something anyone else already owned – which led me to craft-hub PlainMabel, which, though sadly deceased, at least still exists as a page with links to 50 or so vendors of handmade clothing, jewelry, handbags, and all that good stuff. And while trolling around on those vendors’ sites, I found Etsy, my most exciting discovery since the early days of the Austin Craft Mafia, which first introduced me to vinyl handbags and the word “wristlet.”
Etsy is special primarily because of one thing: quantity. No more skipping from website to website to maybe find a randomly cool-looking tea cozy made by someone in Montana. This site has 700,000 one-of-a-kind handmade items on it, which makes it your one-stop-shop for all things felty, stitched, embroidered, or what-have-you. It’s also beautifully designed and maintained, with a new group of handpicked items featured on the front page every day and myriad ways of searching the database beyond just by item. You can search by color, if you’re just in the mood to buy something purple today, for instance, or you can shop by sellers’ top picks, by featured sellers, by recently posted items, etc. Plus, much of what you find on the site is beautiful and inspiring.
I just received in the mail this week my first Etsy purchase – a “Sometimes I Worry About Zombies” T-shirt made by Tina of www.ilikeseamonsters.com. Technically, even though I found the T-shirt at her Etsy store, I didn’t really buy it through the site, because I contacted Tina to see if she’d put her print on a T-shirt I’d bought myself (I’m picky about how things fit). She said yes, I sent her the shirt, and just in time for Halloween (not planned), I happen to have a T-shirt with a zombie on it. But it was Etsy that led me to this glorious, custom-made purchase, and I imagine I’ll be making more this Christmas.
While I’m on the subject of holidays, I should mention that Etsy is putting on a costume-making contest right now, which you should check out (the deadline is Oct. 26). You can also buy costumes at Etsy, although most are more like elements of costumes (masks, capes, caps, and such – plus kids outfits). But the costume-contest entries are also available for purchase on the site, including this kick-ass Edward Scissorhands outfit.
This article appears in October 19 • 2007.