Jen Huhta

Nicole Alderman wrote:Kind of off topic, but I've always wondered, is there a way to easily spin the yarn to fade from one color to another and then back? In the store, they call it "painted yard" and I generally love making scarves/hats with it because I don't have to worry about switching from one color to another. But, often painted yarns are made in--what seems to me--really weird color combinations. And, they're usually made from non-natural fibers.

You can buy hand dyed top dyed  in a gradient form and then chain ply your single to retain those colours, or you could also take say five separate colours of fibre spin them in order and then chain ply them. you can also do two or three ply and just break off you single if they don’t quite line up

r ranson wrote:I've been doing a lot of crafting on commission the last few months, but now I have a break before the next batch and can focus on my etsy store more.  

I must admit, I like pre-selling my work before I make it.  It's more stressful, but I know that the person wants it.  


What about props in photos.  I've tried a few in the past, but I'm not sure if it adds to the yarn or detracts from it.  



I think photos are going to be my next focus.  I dug out the tripod and discovered how to set the timer to two seconds so I can take the shot and not shake the camera.  This has really helped.  Before, I had to focus strongly on my breathing to make certain my hand was steady.

Lighting and staging are still my nemeses.  

You definitely (according to the marketing/Etsy experts) a well-lit photo on a white background as your main photo. Yes it’s boring but it makes a big difference when people are scrolling a page and comparing products, and as I mentioned before it will factor in the image search function when it’s live. Styled and staged photos are ok for extra photos, and are particularly effective used on Instagram for marketing there.

r ranson wrote:etsy has a new feature where it can calculate the shipping for you.  This is neat because you can get free shipping upgrades.  This also means that I won't lose so much money when I estimate the wrong shipping amount.  

Here's my first experiment using this.  https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/262374861/

I'm not sure it's working as I can only see the price to ship to my part of the world.

Make sure you log out and test it. Others were finding that with the calculated shipping it was adding the full shipping charge on each time if they were making a multi item purchase.

Hi! I’m brand new here, this is my first reply. I’m hopping in here because I’ve spent a lot of time researching and implementing this very thing with my own Etsy fibre arts store. So much time in fact I’m in the process of leaving Etsy and opening my own independent storefront  site as I’ve had it. But that’s another rant!

For photos you want the first one on a white background. Yes it’s boring but a) it allows your product to be easily seen when people are scrolling and b) Etsy is developing a photo recognition component to its search. And showing up in the search is the key component to Etsy success.

You’ll want to make sure you research SEO to death and have good longtail keyword titles with matching tags. There are Canadian Etsy Facebook groups where you can learn more if you need to.

Use as many of the 10 photo spaces as you can, it helps your search rank. Fill them with the styled photos.

Renewing listings no long helps.

If you’re not promoting yourself on social media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook) you need to be. Not paid advertising but posting in relevant groups, etc. There are several fibre marketplace groups.

Hope these are helpful!