September 2009

It’s very fashionable to be ecologically minded at the moment and that’s fine by me. If it takes fashion mags and celebrity no-brainers flashing designer tote bags to encourage people to reject plastic bags then who cares, because people are using their own shopping bags. Hurrah! I am an fervent champion of all things ecologically kind, but I also think we need to take the ‘make do’ out of Make do and Mend. How about Mend and Make Fantastic? Or simply, Make Something Fantastic:

Take the humble cardboard box…

…and make it better.

1. As right as a trivet over at Craft Gossip.

2. Make your own iPod/iPhone dock using the downloadable PDF at dessine moi un objet

3. Handy portable stool anyone? See Evil Mad Scientist Labs blog

4. Excellent cardboard dustpan instructable!

And for my next trick. Make it clean and green with this selection of dish cloths, scouring pads, face flannels and make-up remover ‘scrubbies’.

1. Log Cabin Wash Cloth knitting pattern over at Purlbee

2. Or if you prefer crochet, introducing the Magically Clean Eco Tawashi. Perfect for your 100% acryllic yarn leftovers, pattern provided.

3. Another free crochet pattern. Sweet Super CC Face Cloths (or cat capes, you decide) in 100% cotton.

4. Exfoliating round facial scrubbies from ‘Buy Hand’ of Etsy.

And here’s a handy little short cut to more of the same type of thing from Etsy. Search Eco Washcloth for 21 pages of affordable eco goodness.

And don’t we all love the shopping tote? If you’re like me you have a million, secreted in various handbags, branded with all sorts of oddities (including the inexplicable one printed with the slogan ‘Osnabrucker Funk Taxi’). The Betz White blog shows us here how to make the most of our boring canvas freebies. Cover them in swanky fabric prints!

Another high-throughput unavoidable disposable travesty are what are classically termed ‘feminine hygiene products’. Below are your eco friendly, purse friendly and body-friendly alternatives.

1. Washable pads brought to my attention by the Eco Etsy Team blog. Full post here is well worth a read through.

2. The hallowed Mooncup (see also Diva Cup). My favourite – highly recommended.

3. Washable tampons and wet bag by Moo Cow Momma.

4. Rockin’ washable pad set by Vulva Love Lovely.

There are several ways to cut out excessive disposable food and drink wrappings. Here’s just a start. Resuasble snack bags, sandwich wraps, lunch packs. Use your imagination!

1. Coffee anyone. Try this beautiful coffee cosy from Dance in My Garden to protect your little fingers. Or make your own using this tutorial from House on Hill Road. And for cripes sake make it Fair Trade!

2. Lunch/Market Tote from The Craft Pantry.

3. School notebook lunch bag ‘How-to‘ from Design Sponge.

4. Re-useable Deli Sandwich Wrap from Little Green Pea.

And to my favourite types of eco-re-do. Dresses. Frocks. Skirts. Nikki over at Wardrobe Refashion has got  the right idea. She encourages people to re-make, do-over, de-construct and generally mix it up with old or second hand clothes, rather than buy new. Here are some more ideas:

1. Kelly+Olive show us how to make plaid cushion covers from men’s shirts and trust me, even the beginniest beginner can sew these babies!

2. I ♥ Clementiny. Check out her re-fashions on Etsy.

3. Another tartan shirt re-do tutorial. Into a dress?! You better believe it.

4. Vintage fabrics into classically styled skirts from Soho Mode. Just my cup of tea.

OK so, cause extolled I’ll scramble down from my high-horse. But if you’d care to join me and mark yourself out as an eco-diva then try this: RRR Ribbon Pin from re-cycled drinks carton, by Mayari.

See you next Wednesday. x

Lets talk technical. This week I have a good few tips to streamline your Etsy selling process and hopefully increase sales!

Straight in then, with Google Analytics – a very useful tool that can tell you a great deal about how frequently visitors arrive at your site, and where in the world they are located. Also, find out how they got to your site, and what pages they clicked through during their visit. The good news is you don’t need to have your own website, use of Google Analytics is supported by Etsy and Artfire (though not yet by Folksy). See here, for a tutorial  in how to set up web analytics for Etsy/Artfire. Or here for a video tutorial.

While this might not sound like the most pressing aspect of maintaining your own Etsy shop, you can get a good ole’ shopping-cart load of useful information about the people who visit your shop, and importantly, ideas on how to encourage more people to visit.

Google Analytics allows you to see your referring sites. You can see where the commonly viewed link(s) to your shop is. Is it your website, your Facebook page, your craft group? Or is it a site reviewing or featuring your stuff? You can see then, that this is also a neat way to find blogs and other websites you didn’t previously know were featuring your products, and rack it up it amongst your ‘publicity’.

And. You can set Google Analytics to tell you which Etsy search terms land people in your shop. See how here.

Heart-O-Matic is a website which allows you to see all your Etsy ‘hearts’ and when you got them, and numbers of views you have on your shop and items.

There are five tabs on Heart-O-Matic – see image above.

The first tab shows, at a glance, details of the Etsy members that ‘heart’ your shop. It tells you how many ‘hearts’ you have, who the ‘hearters’ are,  when they ‘hearted’ you, and whether or not they have a shop of their own.

The second tab,  allows you to study the hearts that your individual items get, and gives you some ratios like views per heart.

The third isn’t so useful, you enter the Etsy listing ID, it shows how many hearts for that item.

The fourth tab shows item views, and also shows you how many views you’ve had on each page of your shop.

The fifth is maybe the most exciting. The tab is called ‘featured’ and it tells you if you are

(i) currently on the Etsy front page (You can also search to see if you’ve ever been on the front page)

(ii) have been featured on the Storque (blog), or

(iii) whether you’re featured in one of the gift guides. This can help explain why sometimes you find one of your items has had massively higher views/hearts than other similar items. e. g. lilidrawspictures has one item in the ‘Teen‘ gift guide with 754 views/29 hearts compared to a very similar non-featured version with 153 views/5 hearts.

Now here’s some important info for you. ‘Etsy Hacks’ is a wicked-cool website, offering enhancements to the Etsy seller experience. The website is produced by a smart man called Ian, (who as of the 6th of August 2009 was employed by Etsy – well done him!). This website is definitely a must see, it fills a lot of irritating Etsy gaps.

There are three kinds of tool on Etsy Hacks.

One. Firefox Add-Ons (called ‘Greasemonkey Scripts’ – follow the Etsy Hacks website’s instructions for installation, then go back and click on the add-on you want). Here are my favourites:

Fast Tagger: Add all the tags for your listing in one go.

Bulk Image Uploader: Upload up to five images in one go when creating a listing.

Copy Listing: Quickly create a new listing based on an existing one.

Edit this Item: Adds ‘edit item’ and ‘delete item’ buttons to the page when viewing an item in your shop. See Before/After image below!

‘Your Etsy’ Page Navigation: Adds page navigation to the top of your Your Etsy pages (it’s already at the bottom).

Fast Batch Feedback: Quickly set all the fields on the batch feedback page (rather than leaving one at a time).

Two. Information Tools (that anyone can use, on the Etsy Hacks website). I like:

RSS feedback: generate an RSS or Atom feed for your Etsy feedback.

Where am I?: find where you shop appears in a search.

Three. Bookmarklets. Add to your browser toolbar as bookmarks for simplified versions of the add-on programs.

Want some more? Try Etsy Tech Updates: an Etsy blog that details updates and new features on the Etsy website itself. It’s not too dry, but it is sometimes quite technical. Sometimes it has important but fairly boring details (scheduled site maintenance = downtime for your shop), and sometimes it bring you really helpful new features as soon as they go live.

For example, isn’t it irritating how items in your store are in order of listing date? A-ha! You should have subscribed to the Tech Updates (see later in this post for how to subscribe by RSS feed ). But since you didn’t, here is the post showing you how to arrange your shop the way you want.

For other great Etsy information newsletters – subscribe to your choice of emails here.

As promised: Setting up an RSS feed:

RSS feeds are my best friend. Using them allows you to receive updates from blogs/websites without having to find the time to check back. I use my Mac email program to collect my RSS feeds, they come in to my inbox as text and image versions of the web page. Other stand alone RSS readers are available, and you can also set your web browser or your Google homepage to accept RSS feeds. A more detailed explanation of RSS is available here at the BBC website.

To get the Craft Candy Blogg RSS, simply click the ‘RSS’ button (orange box) at the top of the page.

Good luck with the new toys and here’s to the coming business!

Until next Wednesday.

Typography, as I’m sure you know, is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Broadly speaking, font design. The aim of this post, rather than to provide a brief history of type and typeography, is to show you some interesting fonts, share with you some font download sites, and show you some font and typography related curios. I hope you like them. Because type and typography is a really technical topic.

So, beginning with the free font download site shares. I regularly use:

1. 1001 free fonts. From the Ronseal school of web addresses.

2. daFont. My favourite.

3. Abstract Fonts. Boast some 12,860 free fonts, including a long list of interesting and useful(?) dingbats.

4. And some free handwriting font downloads from Tripwire Magazine

Or fancy making your own font? Try Fontifier. $9 for your handwriting fontified! See my efforts, and my penchant for the reverse italics oddity font below. And check my pangram!

A pangram (Greek: pan gramma, “every letter”), or holoalphabetic sentence, is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. They are commonly used in the displaying of typefaces. There are many, though ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ is the only one that ever seems to get a look in. Here is a list of alternatives. Do try to use them, some of them are much better than The quick brown fox…

‘The five boxing wizards jumped quickly!’

‘Jack, love my big wad of sphinx quartz!’

‘Glib jocks quiz nymph to vex dwarf.’

Here’s another, showcasing a few of my favourite fonts (today’s favourites at least, tomorrow’s may differ):

And for the technically minded, or the totally baffled, a comprehensive Font & Typography terminology glossary from ParaType.

Check this couple of fascinating font/typography design projects. Dead-celebrities-made-out-of-fonts!

The Periodic Table of Typefaces groups fonts by families and classes of typefaces:  sans-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed.

Some more links for designers and font enthusiasts:

1. Typies blog brings us a designers guide to good font selection.

2. Best fonts for designers, from Just Creative Design.

3. Another curio. A Star Wars animated typography video. Guttenbergtastic!

4. And just for fun, a website-based call-to-arms* to stop the widespread use of the font Comic Sans. Creators of Ban Comic Sans state that although there are a ‘few specific instances’ in which Comic Sans is appropriate, they fear ‘widespread abuses of printed type threaten to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built.’ And I agree.

*the pen is mightier than the sword

Until next Wednesday – Inspire or Expire.

What contains fairies, sprites, goblins, wicked queens, elves, enchantments, trolls, brownies, fairy godmothers, dwarves, wizards, giants, ogres, gnomes, spells, witches, princesses and their associated princes charming and talking, dancing, frequently metamorphosing animals? Fairytales i’nt it.

Catalogued below are a few of my recent Etsy and Folksy fairytale f(th)emed favourites. A selection of modern interpretations of classics Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Frog Prince. There are myriad more of course. The list here on the Brothers Grimm Wikipedia page is staggering, and see also Hans Christian Andersen.

1. & 2. by Alix Swan on Folksy

3. by My Favourite, based in Norwich UK

4. by Made with Love by Hannah. Also see here in the Etsy Storque for a tour of LA designer Hannah Kopacz’s intriwuing gnome and toadstool crammed fairtytale chalet workshop.

1. A hooded piece from Parisian designer Malam’s ‘Lost Dolls’ collection.

2. Corsetry from the fairytale to the piratical from Damsel in this Dress.

3. by Italian Mad Hatter inspired hat designer RetroReproHandmade {adds to first draft of Christmas list}.

4. Unsettling art print by Badbird.

1. Animal inspired bag and jewellery collections from Squirrellicious

2. Dillon Designs – inexpensive frosted shrinkydink rings (and low price shipping to the UK)

3. Custom and pre-made rubber stamps from Blossom Stamps

4. Dada Dreams produces some fantastic comic book based artwork, and their Etsy profile page is worth a read too!

Keys, especially large, iron, ornate keys are to me symbolic of fairytales. Magic keys, princesses locked in towers etc. So below I have included some projects on a key theme.

1. Beautiful Work: Japanese fabrics, craft books, and paper supplies.

2. Urban Heirlooms specialise in handmade, vintage collection or upcycled thrifted finds. Their key fastener clutch purse is SO on my Christmas list.

3. Cram, (short for crazy auntie Megan) is a maker, doer and lover of the handmade. This key print rocks.

4. La Pomme Stories, not only hand-collaged fairytale books, but hand-written fairytale fiction.

Say, does anyone remember the Clarks ‘Magic Steps’ shoes advert? I was pretty desperate for those but I never did get any…{adds to Christmas list}

To wrap up the Fairytale theme, the forthcoming Alice in Wonderland film from maestro of the ‘scary-fairy’ – Tim Burton. Seen ‘in pictures’ in a post on the Guardian website from earlier this year. And the trailer here. Doesn’t it look spectacular?

Until next Wednesday…

A ’zine, an abbreviation of the word magazine, is a small circulation publication of original articles and appropriated texts and images. Commonly, the zine is a vector for self-publication of works of special interest. A popular definition of zine specifies that circulation must be 5,000 copies or fewer, although in common practice editions of less than 100 is probably nearer the mark. Profit does not seem to be the primary intent of publication. Included below are a few of my recent favourite craft and illustration themed zines.

Craft Leftovers is a fantastic monthly handmade craft ‘zine, a project of Kristin Roach. Her hand produced zine is filled with “projects, recipes, tips, stories, puzzles, and ridiculous illustrated nonsense just for the fun of it.” Each edition is 20 or more pages of crafty goodness and her all original art work and is printed on partially recycled paper. Check her Etsy shop for the latest copy and for subscription deals. You can also pick up her sewing and knitting kits there, all made up of (of course) craft leftovers!

Husband and wife team, Simon and Justine have been DIY producing Mixtape magazine in Melbourne Australia since 2007. First photocopied, then home printed, and now produced professionally, the ‘zine’s pages contain monthly collections of the latest in craft, eco-cool and pop culture kitsch worldwide. Buy it here.

Heroes and Criminals Press is owned by printmaker and bookbinder Jessica C. See her credentials here, or find her Etsy shop here.

Philippa Rice is a UK based illustrator/animator and updates her fantastic hand-made collage web comic My Cardboard Life every two days. Subscribe by RSS or buy the My Cardboard Life zine, amongst other beautifully illustrated series in her Folksy shop The Juzzard.

I’d also like to give special mention to aspiring children’s book illustrator Aijung Kim and her wonderful hand-drawn comic artwork. On Etsy she is Sprouthead, and here is her shop.

This Library Project concept-zine really grabbed my attention. Partly because I’m fascinated with people who write in books and partly because I am very nosy, and hence curious to know the findings of this report. This zine, subtitled “A Short Investigation into Graffiti Left in University Library Books”. details the illicit scribblings of university library book users, as catalogued by Folksy seller Lupin. “Sample graffiti categories include 1) Random Underlining, 3) Dissent and Sarcasm, 5) Cussing, 15) Staggering Stupidity, and 17) Scary Nutters. Beware: this zine does include some swears!”

Until next Wednesday – Inspire, or Expire.