Etsy.com gives hobbyists a venue for their art

By Katie Leslie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There’s no easy way to say it: Becky Striepe hated her job. Unfulfilled at an Atlanta broadcasting company, Striepe would return to her Edgewood home and work out her frustrations by doing something she loved: crafting.

Using scraps of recycled or organic fabrics, she’d fashion lunch kits, drink wrappers and aprons -- items she'd then sell on Etsy.com , a virtual marketplace for hand-made and vintage goods.

“I didn’t make very many sales at first, but it was a neat way to promote myself," said Striepe, who makes products such as napkins and totes with the intention of helping people reduce household waste.

Striepe is among more than 250,000 artists who have turned to Etsy as a means of selling their creations. Begun in 2005, Etsy has more than 4 million members and has grown from $166,000 in gross merchandise sales its first year to more than $180 million in 2009, according to its sales statistics. It costs sellers 20 cents to post each item to be sold through their individual virtual boutiques.

For some, it's a hobby -- a way to make some money while exploring their artsy side. But Web sites like Etsy also are opening new opportunities for those who want to pursue their crafts full-time.

In 2008, Striepe and her husband outlined a savings plan "so that even if no one bought anything from me for a year, we'd have the money we need." And last Halloween, the 30-year-old gave notice at her former company.

“It’s still scary, not having that regular income every two weeks," said Striepe, who sells through her Etsy shop Glue & Glitter. "But it's also been kind of awesome."

Mableton-based Angie Traunig hopes to emulate Striepe's path. The art teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in College Park said she loves her job. But with an infant son and hopes for another, she wants to be a stay-at-home mom eventually. Before she opened her Ferntree Studio shop with Etsy last year, she wasn't sure that would be possible.

"It's surprising how fast [my Etsy store] has taken off," said Traunig, 31. In the seven months since she joined, she's sold more than 200 prints of her quirky illustrations, child-friendly prints that are a hit with young mothers.

“If it weren’t for Etsy, I wouldn’t be doing this at all," she said. "I’d have a whole closet full of etches and drawings going nowhere.”

Christy Petterson, co-founder of the Indie Craft Experience, a bi-annual craft market in Atlanta, said Etsy has capitalized on a growing interest in craft-making that she believes began in 2000 and 2001. The co-editor of GetCrafty.com, and herself a jewelry and stationery designer who sells on Etsy, said the Web site quickly became a major player in bringing the handmade movement to the masses.

"Etsy definitely took it to a whole new level when it launched in 2005," she said. "Pretty much everyone sells on Etsy, unless they have invested their time and money into their own Web site. It's so easy to use and it doesn't cost much."

But Petterson does have one complaint: it's grown so popular that it can be difficult for buyers to find your work. For that reason, Etsy developed marketing tools through which artists can pay them to advertise their wares.

For most users, the site provides a unique audience of buyers from around the world looking for handmade or unusual items. And here is where Jessica Pierce, a 33-year-old baker, has found her niche.

With a virtual shop called SpiderCamp, Pierce sells stickers, baking tutorials and whimsical stuffed animals with unexpected terms such as "PMS" and "OMG" stitched across their chest. Since joining in 2005, the Smyrna woman has nearly 3,000 sales to her name. Last year, nearly half of her annual income came from online sales, she said.

“There’s something about a stupid, stupid rabbit with a word on it that people love. It’s a gimmick, but it pays the bills,” said Pierce, who also has a part-time job baking. “Before, I was making the bunnies for friends and family, but this is the most profitable way for me to do it.”

Artist Sarah Kirby said sites like Etsy have helped usher in the "cottage artist" movement. With a master's degree in  museum studies, the Marietta-based woman specializes in whimsical paintings of historical female figures such as Marie Antoinette and Jane Austen. She sells both prints and originals through her online shop, called Kirby.

"I've been to a lot of galleries, but I never felt my art quite fit in," said Kirby, 26. “I think Etsy has opened up a lot of doors for people like me."

Though some dream of taking Etsy to a full-time level, others like  Nicole Wimber are content to keep their online habit for after-hours.

The Loganville woman works as a product manager for a software company by day but sews laptop cases and totes at night for her shop, Coon & Cole.

“My husband travels for work and I wanted to be crafty when he was gone," said Wimber, 37. “It’s kind of a hobby, but it makes a few bucks and it’s fun.”