Handmade Day

Today, more than four and a half thousand Etsy shops will close their doors for a day to protest against the deterioration of Etsy as a market place for handmade goods.

It has been called a strike, but of course, it isn't. A strike is done by employees to force the employer to hear their claims. Etsy is not our employer, but a provider of services. And this action is done as a sign to Etsy that we are desatisfied with the quality of their services. Stronger even, we feel that Etsy has failed to comply with the contract that has with us.

In our five years on Etsy, we have been disappointed in almost every contact we had with the Etsy administration. Responses to our complains were always erratic and seemed only aimed to be left in peace. Many jokes have been made on the forums and elsewhere about the Etsy admin being permanently engaged in the consuming of herbal tea and carrot cake, so we know better now than approach Admin with our concerns. Care for the community has given way for apathy in many members.

'Etsy works for me and I don't care about the rest' is a phrase that we have read in forums a lot lately. Well, Etsy has worked very well for us too, but we do care. There are lots of small indie artists out there who need a platform for their wares. They all deserve a chance to make a living out of their craft.

And those artists are going to be overlooked in the new huge Etsy who allows resellers, small factories and worst of all, importers.

But what really hurts, is the hypocrisy, the arbitrariness and favoritism.
We thought that we were associated in a community of indie sellers, but we are simply clients of a big company that poses as something else.

In the last couple of weeks, many shops have been closed as being resellers.That maybe true or not, but it is only to show that what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander after all. We are not equals in Etsy's eyes and this is hurtful.

We don't expect any improvement as a result of this day. We, personaly, see it as a kind of announcement to Etsy that we are ready to look elsewhere for a provider of services to indie sellers. Would our leaving hurt Etsy? Of course not, but a point shall come when Etsy will be a second Ebay and it will be obvious to sellers and buyers alike.

It is time to slowly (or not) wean ourselves off Etsy, I'm afraid.

Monday Moodboard

1. EvgeniyaMaslakova  2. anapina 3. Silvia66
4. mammamiaeme 5. ShebboDesign 6. zdrop
7. katinytis 8. andrea0503 9. skrynka

Our hands are clean but most often wounded.
We work with fire, needles and tools, but most importantly we work from the heart.
These pieces are all made by hand like many other pieces on Etsy, but unfortunatly slowly on, many resellers and mass producers are claiming our place.
When we are sad and broken hearted we can not create!

Protect Handmade, Protest with us on 10th of May, we will be silent and we won't use ugly words, we will be closing our shop for 24 hours, our words are not heard, so maybe our silence will be.

Join the thousands of shops here on Protesty, together we can make a difference!

Real Handmade

Most people on Etsy are by now aware of the huge blunder Etsy made with a Featured (re)seller on Etsy. Many people noticed that she had manicured hands although she was claiming to make furniture, if you are not aware yet why thousands of Etsy sellers are protesting you can find two good reports on Regretsy here and here.

So here we are after almost 5 years on Etsy working our bumms off, and me having a neck hernia on the age of 28 from endless hours spent at the workbench and the computer, and nowhere close to manicured hands while resellers are selling like crazy without getting their hands dirty, living in Malibu and making the big bucks on a so called handmade site :(