Every time I gaze at all the beautiful handmade items in the shops at Etsy.com I am blown away by the many gifted and talented people there are all over the world! Their creations are amazing, and seem to only get better and better each day. Just looking at them provides visual delight, heartwarming images, insight, inspiration, and smiles! But Etsy is so much more than a visual feast. It’s a global market where you can shop around the world, right from your home. For buyers Etsy provides endless possibilities. For artists, Etsy is an incredible opportunity to reach people around the world that may never be reached through a local brick-and-mortar shop. It’s a match made in heaven!
When Etsy first started in 2005 their goal was to connect buyers with artisans and crafts people who make the very best in handmade goods. “Etsy is a community that actively supports one another in the shared goal of offering alternatives to mass-produced objects. We work to highlight the true value of handmade goods and their creators… We created Etsy to reconnect producer and consumer, and swing the pendulum back to a time when we bought our bread from the baker, food from the farmer, and shoes from the cobbler”.
Do you know there are an estimated 6,822,350,102 people in the world as of
HandmadeMN is one of those teams. We are located in the greater
Starting today I will be introducing you to the newest members of our team this year. We affectionately call them “newbies”. As more members join, you’ll get a chance to meet them here. Let’s all say “Welcome” to the first newbies on the block of 2010!
Cynthia has always enjoyed arts and crafts and has dabbled in many different forms over the years. Her creations usually became gifts for friends and family, but she hadn’t taken an active role in selling until she opened her Etsy shop, Bella Vista Studio, in December 2009. She currently enjoys making handmade jewelry in her studio in
Ivory Moon is a husband and wife team in
Jessica of St. Paul, Minnesota, is like most of us, she would craft “all day every day” if she could! She likes to knit, sew, make clothing, macramé, play with clay, and “anything else I can get my hands on”. She started her Etsy shop, Come Along Fawn on
Kelly of Kelly Hanson Handmade is a crafter living in
Kat of Faithfully Yours… is a self-declared vintage girl in a modern world! She’s an artist at heart whether it's playing music, reading & writing, creating jewelry or making clothes. She loves to recreate vintage and antique jewelry into something different and unique, often using broken jewelry from estate sales, garage sales and thrift stores. She also enjoys re-fashioning vintage clothes. Kat lives in
Jackie Lehmann’s Etsy shop opened in December 2009 and offers a beautiful collection of drawings, paintings and watercolors by this aspiring visual artist and graphic design student based in
The Red Goose is another husband and wife team that originally opened their Etsy shop in December 2007 while living in
Another newbie based here in
Zinnia Snip Snap was opened in September 2009 by Marley of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a married mother of 3 who has always loved creating. “I always have about 10 projects in the works at the same time!” For the past 8 years she has sold upholstery bags at craft fairs. Her Etsy shop is currently devoted to crafting supplies, but she plans to open a new shop featuring clothing and accessories made from reused, repurposed and vintage items.