Limerick Meeting With Etsy Rep

(l-r) Ruth, Rebecca, Bernadette, Helen, Nicola, Orla

On Sunday just gone a few of us team members met up with the lovely Bernadette from the New York office of Etsy. It was kind of a late notice thing, so I contacted as many Limerick based sellers as I could and we met up at the Sunday craft Milk Market in Limerick.

Let me first say how lovely and down to earth Bernadette is, she told us all about her office and the work that they do in the customer care team that she works in. She is part of the 'support' team in Etsy, some of you may have emailed them with questions or reporting abuse etc.

Some of you may have heard the news in the Sunday Business post that Etsy are setting up an office in Ireland, which was part of the reason for her trip here; to scout out the situation. At present they are deciding between Dublin, Galway and Limerick, and are meeting with recruitment agencies and business folk in each of these cities. They will be setting up another customer support team here to deal with all the queries that come through at night in the US. Ireland is a very desirable venue to set up an office because of the tax breaks, because we speak English, and we have a highly skilled workforce. As yet they have not decided on what city they will be based in but Bernadette assured us that she would keep us all informed! She said that they prefer to hire Etsy users/sellers as they have a good knowledge of the site, so that's good news for any of you that are job hunting out there. She estimated that it would take approx. 6 months for this venture to get rolling, but it's still very exciting news.

We went on to discuss some of the new changes in Etsy, most notably the currency conversion and how it's affected us. All in all we were very relieved with being able to list in euro, and Bernadette said at Etsy they were delighted to be able to offer it at long last, saying that 30% of sales are from outside the US. We also chatted about the new 'copy' function for listing items, which has made managing a larger shop so much easier (you'll see this if you click on any of your items, after 'renew'). There was also talk of the new teams section and the discussion threads that are there. I did ask that a group convo tool be granted to team leaders as this can made team co-ordination so much easier and less time consuming; telling her of the days when I was sending 100 individual convos to team members.

There was general other meanderings into topics of the snow, surfing, Irish tourism etc, and it was lovely just to have an aul' natter! Here are some pieces from all the members who were at the meeting. (l-r)

The Letter Box Press,

Nice Day Designs,

Lucky Rainbow Designs,

Stained Glass Fayre,

Farapinalia

Also Bernadette gave us all one of these beautiful letterpress Etsy calenders, it's already hanging on the wall in my studio!

Introducing: Farapinalia

Hi, my name is Orla, from Farapinalia, and I live in Limerick in a house from the 1940s that seemed too large for myself and my long-suffering husband when we moved in 3 years ago. Now, however, it is about to explode due to the amount of fabric, wool, beads and trimmings that I am constantly cramming into it! I work from home. Oh dear!
I originally moved to Limerick for University where I studied Law, History and German. Quite early in the proceedings and much to the dismay of my parents and sensible acquaintances it became apparent that the reality of a law practice would not really suit me for some strange reason! For far more years than I care to remember I have been a Tour-Guide, travelling Ireland on mainly historical tours with coach-loads of German tourists! Well “two out of three aint bad”- and yes, I am old enough to remember the song.Around three years ago a friend and former colleague, Ruth from Nice Day Designs, began selling her fab customised clothes in a Sunday Market in the centre of Limerick . That got me thinking. Since I very rarely work on tours for 4-5 months every winter and spend much of that time baking and sewing, why not try doing it for a living? Actually make money from what has been my enduring passion since childhood- making pretty things for people and feeding them!! I figured that, since I was already making and customising wedding dresses for friends it wouldn’t be too hard! Famous last words! Still, with much encouragement I stuck with it and although it was slow to get going, it has been a challenge and a blast so far! When I am at home I go to markets in the area with my clothes and accessories and my Gluten and Wheat-free goodies. When I am touring I bring wool and crochet hooks with me! I even brought my sewing machine and fabric for a memorable month last year! My suitcase died! I now have a portable machine, perfect for holidays in Barcelona ! I did say long-suffering husband at the beginning!
I make clothes, bags and accessories from any material that I fall in love with at the time and I’m afraid that I must be a very fickle girl! At the moment I am making mainly crocheted hats, silk and chiffon skirts and dresses and brocade, velvet and p.v.c. coats! I love experimenting with different shapes and styles for my hats, trying different yarns and wools to get unusual effects and adding flowers, buttons and beads. I also adore embroidered and embellished silk for the luxurious feel and drape of it I have a terrible tendency to be unable to resist buying any that I really love when it is on sale and taking a year to work my way through all of it! Hence the house bursting at the seams! I started making rain macs from p.v.c. and vinyl 3 years ago and am constantly looking for funkier patterns and better-wearing material.

I also make fun and pretty costume jewellery from beads and findings, mostly sourced in Barcelona where we keep returning every year-my home away from home! Maybe when I am rich and famous! Ha ha!
Of late I have been custom designing and making bags, phone cases, briefcases and wallets which has been an enjoyable new challenge. I went on line in February after much nagging- sorry encouragement! Despite not knowing how to turn on a computer a year ago I love it and am really enjoying doing custom work for new people as far away as Australia ! I will be back doing coach tours again very shortly and have already got a new (sturdy) bag for my faithful sewing-machine companion!

How-to-Tuesday: Photography

As always people are talking a lot lately about photography and how to get good product shots. Now I don't claim to be an expert but I may have a few handy tips that might help you out along the way. There also tonnes of really good resourses onthe Etsy forums, just do a search of the titles.
One good place to start is to research your area on Etsy, see what other sellers are doing in your catagory, so what works and what doesn't and try to avoid the mistakes that others have made. This can be a good way of figuring out the style and feel of the photographs that you want. I think people often don't know what they want until they see what they don't like. Some questions to ask. Do I want to use a model? Do I want a plain background? Do I want the pictures to be fun/bright or moody?
Any of the Irish sellers I've been talking to recently have said that they've struggled with light in the gloomy Winter months. I've now made a rule that I don't photograph after 2pm, it may look bright but for a camera there just isn't enough light this time of year to take good shots. The number on rule is NEVER use your flash, ever ever! It will destroy the colours of your item and make it look flat and mawkish.

You don't have to have an amazing camera to take crisp pictures. I used to have a beautiful super duper posh camera until we were burgled and now I'm working with a basic point and click Canon IXUS, it set me back 200 euro and it does exactly what I need it to do. Obviously it makes life a lot easier with a good camera, and you will get phtotos that look that little bit better, but it's not the huge hindrance people think it is.

The products I'm usually taking pictures of are small so I always have the macro setting on (that's the button of the little flower your camera has). All camera have this setting, some lenses are better than others, play around with yours and see what your camera is capable of. When you are taking close up shots it's essential that you have this setting clicked, or your photos won't be crisp and in focus. I also have my ISO set at 200, and usually I have the shooting mode set to vivid to try to combat the grey daylight. I never use extra lighting as it adds a yellow cast to the colour of your photos. You can buy white bulbs in photography shops, but as yet I've never needed one.

Remember to take you time when taking the shops, if you are using a cheap camera make sure you are very stable when shooting the image or you will get camera shake. I tend to place my elbows on the table. Or small table top tripods can be very handy for this. I also try to keep in mind that the image will have to be cropped to a square for the thumbnail on Etsy. At the start I was very frustrated at having to crop nicely composed photos, now I automatically gear the images to this format. I usually take 6 shots of each item. A couple of arty interesting shots for the listing, and then others that show the basics of the object, like the back/clasp/underside. Here is where all that research comes in for the arty shots. It will help you decide what you want to do for your 'magazine' photo. Lately I've started doing playful things with the background, when I was phtographing a friends jewellery I placed them on a mirror so it looked extra luxurious.
After taking the pictures your next stop is photoshop, which is your best friend if your camera isn't too good. I try to take my pictures on a background that is a very different colour from my object, it makes this stage far easier. Here are a few steps that i put every picture through:

Go to Image>Adjustments>Replace Colour : then high light the background colour, adjuest the fussiness level until you have most of the background but not your object, and increase the brightness. Try not to bleach out your shadows, and don't make it look too unreal.

Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast : I push the brightness up a little bit if the image is a little grey, the contrast helps here too. If the vivid setting on the camera has over saturated the colours I can take down the contrast a little here

Lastly use the crop tool (the tool on the left 5th from the top that looks like 2 set squares put together). In the grey bar at the top I type in my measurements of 25cm x 25cm with 72 dpi, and that means that all my images will be a uniform shape. It's very important that you do this step last after all of your changes as you are decreasing the image size/quality so much it makes it difficult to work with afterwards.
There are lots of other things you can do with a stubbourn image like using the clone too to get rid on marks or dust. Or using colour adjustment to get rid of a yellow cast, but i rarely have to do this. As I said this isn't the complete guide to phtography just a few things that have helped me get a better piture over the past while. I've included some before and after shots of images from my own shop and from friends whose photograghy I did. The jewellery is from DBDesigns and the scarves from Farapinalia, and obviously the buttons ar mine from Nice Day Supplies

Ps:sorry if there are a tonne of spelling mistakes, I'll check it later, I've to run to work...agh late!