Etsy Art & Culture

[music playing] Etsy didn't arrive fully formed from a vacuum.

There was already this preexisting community of independent artists, and creators, and crafters who were looking for a way to get their work out there.

So creating a destination where people around the world know that they can go to find artists, it's an idea that just needed to come to fruition.

Etsy is sort of opposed to the idea that fine artists are somehow above accessible art or crafts.

It's not a curated site.

It's you're finding somebody that really likes your stuff.

I think that's a beautiful thing.

[music playing] Etsy, for me, has been amazing because it allowed me to take this hobby and turn it into a business.

I just started posting things for myself and people liked it, and encouraged me, and so I just kept expanding it bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

I'm really obsessed with creating a fake authenticity.

Like, even if I'm using a vintage part, I like to push it further to really suggest the patina.

So I tend to either salvage vintage and keep it going by giving a new purpose, or I create something new that feels vintage, so it has an automatic sense of authenticity, some reason to keep it and embrace it.

I've done branches, birds, squirrels.

People say, looking at my objects is like walking into an antique store.

Taking modern experiences and interpreting them in this vintage feeling, I just want to have a connection with somebody and not create a landfill-destined piece of something.

[music playing] I took a bit of time off after school.

That's when I started designing lights and decided to start selling them on Etsy, and so it just kind of took off from there.

Whenever I see a new product or have a new idea, my first thought is always, oh, could that be a light?

And I think that's what's really cool, is anything could be a light.

I always think of things in terms of a three dimensionality, in terms of the space, layering, and a building up of different materials.

I've been using books, sheet music, cookbooks, dictionaries-- pretty much any paper that I can get my hands on that is already been use.

A product shouldn't have just one function; it can have a lot of different functions, and it can have a new life.

I'm rethinking how it could be used.

[music playing] I upcycle sails into bags and accessories.

It was really important for me to use recycled materials and not just create a new thing in the world.

I was actually looking for a material and it dawned on me that that was just a really heavy duty, durable material with a history.

I have a donation program, and if someone donates their sail, they get a bag from their sail.

I've had actual people come up and hug and smell the bag because they have great childhood memories.

I definitely think there is an upcycling movement going on.

I think people are looking at the environment a lot more closely.

Before Etsy, I did local markets.

The platform helped me reach a much wider audience than I would have, much faster than I ever would have.

I love Etsy.

It really gave me the confidence to do it on my own and to say, I can do this.

I can just be creative.

I can see that there's art and craft on a lot of different levels.

There's a piece of the maker in the product.

It seperates what we make from what is mass produced.

It's not a juried site.

It's totally open.

That's, I think, a really revolutionary way to look at art.

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