etsy captains summit

​YO!

A couple of weeks ago I was selected along with Toby one of my Brighton Etsy Team leaders to go to the UK Etsy Captains' Summit. If you have read my blog before, you may know that this was my fifth summit to date!

Our #btnetsy necklace and George hanging out! (This is the photo that won me a notebook!)

We traveled down to Bristol and met up with other experienced team captains and leaders that we had met at previous summits for dinner and discussed our plans for 2015, how last years pop ups and markets went and what we were looking forward to that weekend!

Saturday morning started with an ice breaking scavenger hunt on board the SS Great Britain, oh I didn't mention our venue was a boat right?! We had to find a monkey, somebody giving birth and somebody being sick amongst other things and in our group we had the two Bristol captains, Laurence and Grace and the the two French admins including Sophie (my new found sole/soul sister)

Sophie dressed as a Victorian!

The day continued with presentations workshops and talks about the upcoming Etsy Made Local event (keep your eyes and ears open for EML Brighton this Christmas!) as well as hints and tips for Captains and some mini presentations about last years Pop Up success stories!

The days at the Summit are long and intense but worth every minute. I did have mini tantrum as I couldn't log onto the WiFi until mid afternoon and I was itching to share news and new found knowledge with the team. But that aside we finished at 6pm with a notebook FULL of ideas and went back to the hotel to change for dinner.

Toby and Grace hanging out on the anchor

Dinner was delicious! I'm not a photos of my food kinda gal, so there aren't any photos of that but I can assure you that if you are in Bristol that I would recommend The Olive Shed.

Just before dinner was served I was awarded UK Team Captain 2015 which is an honour and was truly a surprise! I really love the Brighton Etsy Team and the projects, collaborations and events we get to run with the team wouldn't be possible without my INCREDIBLY AWESOME team leaders and my ever enthusiastic team members!

Sunday Toby and I rocked up looking like drowned rats as it was chucking it down, my make up was melting down my face. This was obviously the day that a group photo was taken so I chose to hide behind Emily as that's not a look I want to be reminded of!

Toby on super concentrate mode

The day was full of PR, Social Media, Leadership and Craft Party presentations and I even won a notebook for having the most instagram likes on a photo tagged with #etsycaptainssummit. I did slightly cheat however as the photo also had George in it and you all love George!

If you want to read a bit more about the Summit check out Toby's blog post.

Sorry this post wasn't up on Tuesday, if you follow us on instagram, twitter or facebook you will have seen that I was in New York this week celebrating at the Etsy Bell Ringing Ceremony.

More to come on this next week!

ROAR!

Karli

brighton etsy pop up - behind the scenes

I'm sure you have seen or heard by now that we ran a Brighton Etsy Pop Up Shop in Brighton this winter, oh and that I'm the Captain of the Brighton Etsy Team.

You will have seen photos like this

of the finished shop and all the items in it but you probably won't have seen much about what went on behind the scenes!

So that's what I'm here to tell you, well some of it anyway...

6 months to go...
We started planning the Pop Up back in April, yup really. Cheska (Mooshpie) and I attended a We Are Pop Up meeting (along with a few other familiar #btnetsy faces) and then Cheska set us up on the website as seeking space.

3 months to go...
In August we asked members of the Brighton Etsy Team to apply to be part of the Pop Up and we whittled the list of over 60 down to just 25 with the help of Claire and Amy at Super + Super.

Alongside the Team Leaders, (Toby, Ali and Jam, Vicky, Claire and Ellen) we asked for others to help form the Pop Up Committee. Some awesome people came to our attention including Tori (Jasmine and Hobbes), Claire (In the Making), Elizabeth (ean jewellery) and Dario and Bea (Sebastian Bolivar)

2 months to go...
We applied for a bursary from Etsy to help towards the costs, which we were awarded after creating a budget of everything we were going to need including, rent, business rates, paint, the whole shop fit, vinyls for the window, insurance and more!

1 month to go...
The hunt was on for a space and as we approached our deadline, the 1st November, with no venue. I started to panic.

Claire had a plan for the decor, the branding by hello DODO, was done, Vicky had sorted the insurance, bank account, and set up the accounting system, we had all of the participants and we were poised and ready to go social media crazy!

1 week to go....
We called every landlord and agency in Brighton, with the help of Abi from We Are Pop Up, and walked all of Brighton to find empty properties. In the end we realised we couldn't afford anything except the space subsidised by the council in the South Lanes and the help of We Are Pop Up we secured 16 Brighton Square.

Our shop - as you can see it used to be a Dog Cafe so it didn't smell too pleasant when we moved in!

Claire measuring up so that she could  design the shop fit!

Toby in our Pop Up space before the project (nightmare) began!

What it looked like before we started plus our delivery from IKEA! We had to clean for an entire day, the back room was full of maggots (YUK) that Claire M and I fought off. We had to wash the floors and the walls several times, and after painting the walls and the ceiling white, we all smelt like dog...

Masking and Painting the trees. Marking out and masking took nearly a whole day, and then the painting took Claire and I another day to complete!

Team 2, we split the Pop Up Committee between Saturday and Sunday to get all of the cleaning and painting done.

Some of the furniture from Retro Station in place, and the trees which Jacques laser cut, oh and the awesome cash desk/display unit that was gifted to us from ink_d Galley!

Putting up the card shelves, I think we had been there nearly 13 hours straight at this point, hence the beers and grumpy faces. We were also asked not to drill about 10 minutes after we had started drilling which wasn't a good start

- 1 week to go...

One week from the committee of 13, my family and baby Ezra helping plus an awesome design by Claire Knill, meant we opened on the 6th November with our soft launch and private view.

Don't underestimate how long it takes to unpack 25 designers work, price it and display it, this took us nearly 2 whole days with four of us doing it! Also we all spent the whole 7 days which we rented the space before we opened to pop in and do the different jobs! It's a long hard slog opening a Pop Up shop!

The private view was packed and we hadn't even invited any press! We celebrated and continued to prepare for the big press launch on Saturday...

Want to see all of this in a time lapse by Bettina Nem?

Yeah so that's all I'm telling you this week, if you enjoyed hearing behind the scenes let me know in the comments and I'll finish off next week, if you didn't then I won't! There is quite a bit missing from this and I'm not sure if I have really conveyed how much work it is to open a Pop Up shop, but hopefully you get the idea! Did you come and visit our shop? Let us know in the comments!

ROAR!

Karli

Brighton Etsy Pop Up Shop

I didn't have time to blog last week, so I apologise if you missed your weekly dose of inane rambling.

However this is slightly justified as we have been crazy busy organising the Brighton Etsy Team Christmas Pop Up!

There are 25 designer makers taking part including ourselves. The shop is in 16 Brighton Square which is where Chubby Chops the dog cafe was (if you're local to the area) and where the dolphin fountain is in the South Lanes.

We launch this Saturday 8th November with an all day party and everybody is welcome, there will be live music, refreshments and free workshops.

For more details have a look at the Brighton Etsy Team Blog and also join the Facebook event.

COME ALONG IT'S GOING TO BE ALL THE FUN!

ROAR!

For more Press information please email brightonetsyteam@gmail.com

#btnetsy Talks - Tactile Craft in a Digital World

The latest BTN Etsy Talk was part of the Brighton Digital Festival and we invited Sarah and Susannah to come down and talk about the Etsy Marketplace and community.

I arrived at 6pm to set everything up, normally Sarah (Rockcakes) does all of the set up stuff but today I was in charge. I first panicked that the cable didn't fit (but it did) and then I turned on the laptop to a message that said WINDOWS CANNOT BE RUN. Yes to any of you frowning at the fact we use windows carry on mocking us but I am pro PC and pro android, mainly because if it goes wrong I kinda know how to mash buttons until it works. This was the case this time too, restarted and BLAM we were ready to go!

We loaded up Toby - i like CATS, Ellen - B Millinery and Claire's - Yellow Bear Wares talks as people poured through the doors. The room was half full before we had even officially opened the doors!

I love the talks, they are always held at The Old Market and it's a great chance to have a drink and chat to fellow crafties, whether they are bloggers, team members, makers not on Etsy or boutique owners. It's always a good mix!

We started with Sarah and Susannah giving us the basics about Etsy. If you want to find these tips head over to the Brighton Etsy Team Blog.

Both Susannah and Sarah really enjoyed meeting all the crafty Brightonians

"We had heard such great things about the Brighton Etsy Team talk series, so we were super excited to attend one of their famous evening events! Needless to say, it did not disappoint! It was wonderful to meet so many interesting, driven and creative people, all gathered in one space. Some people were experienced Etsy sellers already running successful businesses through our marketplace and others were just curious to find out more. It made for a really fun, vibrant and informative meet-up. Thanks for having us and well done, Karli and Team!"


Ellen from B Millinery was the first Etsy Seller to speak about her experiences of having a an Etsy shop, creating custom orders and having a product where it is normally so vital that the buyer tries the item on.

"I make hats and accessories with a bit of a old world glamour feel. Selling hats online can be hard because people do love to try them on, as not every shape suits them so I have to try and convey whether it will suit them in my photos. I also need to convey colours and texture as many of my hats are made using really lovely fabrics.

Some milliners use polystyrene heads, this is not something I have found works for me they are not 'actual size' and it’s really hard to convey the feeling the wearer will get. Finding a model can be hard and I often have to do it myself but this is worth it I think.

After the Mentor Month and an Esty School module on shop improvement I have been trying to make sure my photos have a full length shot as well as a close up. The full length shot is good to show the customer how to wear it and the close up is food to show texture and materials used, Ho Kiou does this really well, I would not be able to tell just how lovely these items are and how much work goes in without the close up photo.

Think of your ideal customer or customers when listing items, what style do they have, what do they like, someone who does this well is Janine Basil.

Use your About page to talk about and show how you make your items, it is a fab place to answer questions and explain who you are and the processes you use.

My shop is constantly a work in progress. This is OK. It looks a lot better now, than it was three months ago, and I hope it will be even better again in three more months. I’m always learning and playing with new ideas and that’s good!"

Toby came to the mic and charmed the room with his knowledge, wit!

"I used to prefer selling at markets as I loved for people to be able to see and hold my items, which I considered to be very tactile. I wasn't sure how well this translated online, however I soon realised that Etsy is simply a digital version of a market stall which needs curating and arranging just as I would set up my stall at a craft fair.

Although good photography is the most obvious (and in some ways the most important) way of conveying the physicality of your products, having a good description that really tells the story of the item will help your customer to imagine it away from the computer screen and in their actual real-life-life. The simplest way to achieve this is to always think of the Who, What, Where, Why and (as a bonus) the 'Why Buy'.

Using descriptive language really helps to bring an item to life, so make sure you have a thesaurus handy! You don't want to over embellish but throwing in some clever adjectives can open your customers imagination and help to convince them just why they should buy from your shop

These are great tips, from great sellers, even Susannah is an Etsy seller! So go forth and use them, and make sure you come to the next talk so that you can get even more hints and tips!"

Claire from Yellow Bear Wares was the last to speak but had lots to tell us...

"Selling your handmade items over the internet generally means that people won’t have touched or seen your items in real life, I wanted to share with you today a few ways that I have tried to make my items seem more real to my potential buyers, to make them feel like they know exactly what they are going to get when they purchase my jewellery.

I use cotton reels to lean my knitting needles bracelets against, and also to stand rings necklaces and earrings on. I use the cotton reel because it relates to crafts and textiles, it is instantly recognisable and most people would know the size of a cotton reel and can therefore see the size of the item they are looking at.

I use this simple and consistent technique throughout my shop, it can also help items to feel real rather than a flat digital representation.

Everything I design branding wise uses font’s and drawings etc that look hand-made or analogue, over time I have used fonts that look drawn, ink stamped, stitched, sewn and typed. You can download copyright free fonts online. Try to find something different and new. I feel that this technique adds further to conveying a hand-made aesthetic."

Learnt something? I hope so! Like I said the tips from Susannah as well as this post will be over on the Brighton Etsy Team blog so go and have a look and tell them I sent you!

ROAR!

Brighton Etsy Team Captain