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Interview: Imagining Etsy with Cloudery

Posted on March 18, 2009 | Interviews | Leave A Comment

We caught up with Cloudery, a designer and visual artist who has grown a series of rewarding businesses around Etsy, a website for buying and selling handmade goods, including Cloudery, Cloudery Digital and Crescent Maille. The artist talks design and offers tips for anyone new to the world of on-line art and craft. More at somethingcloudery.com and on her gallery-style blog featuring Etsy’s visual artists, MVSEVM.

What did you want to be when you grew up? Does it seem like design work and now Cloudery grew out of childhood aspirations?

I’ve always felt a need to make things; arts & crafts have played a huge role in my life. I think that’s one reason I gravitated professionally to graphic design, specifically book design (and even more specifically, art book design). I’m able to combine my appreciation of art with my desire to make things, and have tangible results of my work.

By the first grade I was composing and illustrating my own stories (my first big project was called “Miss Mole Gets Married”). I dictated while my mother patiently typed each sentence—I was very specific about the paging, and which sentences I wanted on each page—then I illustrated the pages. I added a cover, title page, even a table of contents. I created little books of my stories, which I stapled together or bound with a three-hole-punch and yarn.

In drawing I have found my artistic voice to be relevant to who I am right now. My background as a designer influences how I use the page. My drawings are very purposefully positioned in the space, and often bleed off one or more sides. White space is as important in my drawings as the lines. Recently I received an apt compliment on my work: “Cloudery’s drawings strike me in some way as an artist’s rendition of thoughts—someone expressing an idea or sentence—in visual format. I suppose all painting and drawing is this to some degree, but to me these are close to sentences.”

A portion of all sales from Cloudery are donated to First Book. Tell me about how you became interested in supporting the organization.

First Book is a nonprofit organization that focuses on increasing child literacy by providing children from low-income families with their own brand-new books—their first books. As a book designer and avid reader, I feel very much in tune with both the importance of reading to develop one’s imagination and rich interior life, as well as the joy in owning one’s own books—especially new books and the multi-sensory experience they provide: the smell of the ink, the texture of the paper. I think children feel a sense of wonder and pride in ownership that makes their own books very treasured possessions. The desire to read follows naturally. One of the studies cited by First Book states that in low-income neighborhoods there is an average of one book for every 300 children, while in middle-income neighborhoods, there is an average of 13 books for every child.

I started the Cloudery shop on Etsy as a way to give to First Book. When a customer makes a purchase, I immediately donate online at least two books and often more. I include a printed confirmation of the donation in the package with the art. I want the customer to know that their money actually went to the cause listed, as well as to receive a note with their art saying that they’ve given two (or three or four or more) books to children. I believe this makes their experience satisfyingly complete.

Any advice, tools or tricks for new Etsy sellers?

There’s the standard advice, such as making sure your photographs are excellent, your descriptions interesting and informative, and having consistent branding and appearance. However, it seems the most successful sellers—at least the most compelling—first and foremost love their craft. Offering their creations on Etsy follows from that love. If you are selling only for the sake of selling, it shows; buyers prefer to buy from sellers who are passionate about what they make.

Spend a lot of time just looking at other shops, both in your area of expertise and outside it. Browsing is not only rewarding in itself; it also provides the community marketplace experience that Etsy strives for. Learning what is appealing to you as a buyer can help shape how you want (or don’t want) to present yourself as a seller.

I like to explore Etsy with the “favorites” function (and this is how I find most of the art I want to feature in MVSEVM). I like to go to a favorite shop and look at its favorites, pick one and look at its favorites, and so on and so on, like “six degrees of separation”; it leads me to artists and craftspeople I might never find otherwise.

My success with Crescent Maille, the chain maille jewelry shop that I’ve run since July 2007, is due to several factors: I ensure that my craftsmanship is as perfect as possible; I stay in contact with the buyer—consistent, informative communication seems key; I’m attentive to what they want; and I take care in every detail of the product, packaging, and shipping. I have many repeat customers because of this. I follow the same principles with Cloudery; it’s still such a new shop—just opened in October 2008—so I look forward to seeing it grow.

What content is MVSEVM, Cloudery’s blog, focusing on, and where would you like to see it go?

I really do consider MVSEVM my own museum of sorts, a virtual gallery where I get to be curator and display whatever I want. I focus on the visual arts—drawing and illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. I don’t provide any commentary on MVSEVM; I simply post works that I like with links back to the originals. Right now everything I choose is from Etsy.

I see the site continuing in the same vein; there will always be so much to choose from. I hope that as it evolves, it becomes a site that people will return to on a regular basis to make new discoveries and find new favorites, and that it will also help promote independent artists.

Ironically, I don’t generally read blogs—at least nothing on a regular basis. I gravitate toward sites that are primarily visual. Currently I follow Nigel Peake, Tiny Showcase, Evening Tweed, Postcard from Provence, and Duane Keiser.

There’s so much content on Etsy, both excellent and sub par. At what point would Etsy cease to be compelling? Do you think a process for screening new sellers would be effective?

I can’t agree with your use of the term “sub par.” Although there’s a lot on Etsy that’s not to my taste, what I value about the site is that it allows everyone to have a chance at showing, and hopefully selling, what they make. If Etsy ever implemented a screening or juried process, that’s when it would cease to be compelling. There are already so many juried art and craft retail sites, and many art, craft, and design blogs, including MVSEVM, have their own inherent “screening” process. Luckily, Etsy is still a place where anyone who makes art or crafts can have an affordable way to make a go at it.

I do think Etsy finds ways to get around what it may consider “sub par.” For example, there are the staff-curated Gift Guides; the staff-selected Featured Sellers; and most prominently the Front Page, which is either curated by the staff or chosen from member-created Treasuries (but since the staff selects which Treasuries appear on the front page, that’s essentially curating as well). But too much more than that, and I think Etsy would be in danger of losing that sense of inclusiveness and community that was its original intention.

What’s the future of Cloudery?

Cloudery began as all original pen & ink drawings. I want to continue that, and add to it. I’ve had two limited edition prints released by Wall Blank. I’ve just finished the first letterpress edition of one of my drawings, printed by Epistolary Press, and have a second in the works. I’m also developing a line of giclee prints, some of which will be hand-colored and therefore one of a kind. I am currently involved in my first group show—a huge step for me as an artist. I feel I’ve finally found my voice and my niche as an artist, and I just want to grow. I’ll simply keep drawing.