Your Personal Build/Crafting Website / Etsy, etc? Sell at Public Markets?

[Sytes]

First, I ran this by Randy and he approved this thread idea.

DIY, personal crafted items you present via ETSY, personal website, etc. No brand name products. This thread is specific to you and your family's created products. Items you craft sell on the internet and at Farmer's Markets, etc.

Would be interesting to know of you and your immediate family's personal handcrafted items for sale, trade, etc.

I don't have a website (except a small YouTube site) or such though i'm frequently creating items from camp stoves to modifying purchased items making them more efficient, in my opinion of course.

I recently finished my first two burner forge and now working on a bad ass anvil, inspired by another Hunt Talk member's DIY creation.

My YouTube site holds a few videos. I hope to have a video put together today for the forge for people interested in DIY crafting /building such... and plan to DIY the anvil for YouTube as well. I'll edit this post or place a post with the videos linked once made.

My wife has an ETSY site and it's been very enjoyable watching her handcrafted sales grow! She has over a thousand transactions via Etsy! I'll retire... she can keep her hobby going. Haha!

BigMtnDesigns - Etsy

Shop Unique, handcrafted, and custom jewelry by BigMtnDesigns located in Whitefish, Montana. Top shop for gifts. Buyers bought gifts from this shop and gave them 5-star reviews!

www.etsy.com

 

[LuketheDog]

My cousin has been selling the heck out of his fire pits and steel logs...

CumbresDesign - Etsy

Shop Cumbres Design by CumbresDesign located in Denver, Colorado. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Speedy replies! Has a history of replying to messages quickly. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher

www.etsy.com

 

[Werty]

Some stuff I make, sell or have for sale

 

[Dsnow9]

My brother and his wife have a nice little side thing going, he is definitely a lot more artistic and creative than I am.

ZLovesLo - Etsy

Shop Hand Made Wooden Decor and Shelving by ZLovesLo located in Houston, Texas. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher

www.etsy.com

 

[OntarioHunter]

My daughter and I have a taxidermy business (sort of) out of the home. She uses Facebook apparently but not happy. I will talk to her about Etsy but frankly I don't want to see business pick up until she gets better organized. I'm supposed to be retired but seem to be carrying too much of the load. Her fish work is fantastic and she's developing quite a reputation. Perhaps she should concentrate on the fish end of the business and I'll do the horns. Pretty much the way it is now anyway.

Thanks for starting this thread. Gives us some ideas about how to move forward ... when we're ready.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Good thread, @Sytes. I'm getting close to setting up some point of sale website for pottery and am not totally on board with Etsy taking a big chunk of the change. Hoping others have better options.

 

[Sytes]

@Ben Lamb , I'm not sure how it works and I know you're a fine print gent so I'd imagine you have it worked out, bang for the buck. I'd think a competitor would likely become a second source for sellers vs actual competition w/ Etsy(?). I've never looked

You're pottery is looking great! Waiting for you to open it for your colors (or will it stay that neutral tone) and sale..

Jen's mother and her join booths. Her mother sells really nifty small paintings. Doesn't need a whole booth space so Jen has a slightly expanded space. Last Saturday she had around $1,200 in sales... swear, stick her in an office and sweat some labor for my retirement. Haha! She'd beat me senseless if I tried.

If/when you bump it into market sales, touch base. I'm sure she has her pros/cons available to share. It's strictly side keep busy fun hobby for her. She's a guru in the banking world so spreadsheets of everything is casual work.
Here's a pic of her setting at the public shows:


My wife's involvement with Etsy for online and Square for her Farmer's Market type shows:

Etsy:
"It costs 0.20 per item to post the listing, then a 3% transaction fee for each sale plus credit card processing fee. I can look up the exact percentage tonight"

Square:
"Square at the farmers market, it's 2.75% per transaction. That cover's credit card fees as well."

EDITED: phone pictures added to the forum are very large. Not learned how to shrink them on the phone HT site. Meh, hopped on laptop to correct the size.

 

[Sytes]

My cousin has been selling the heck of of his fire pits and steel logs...

CumbresDesign - Etsy

Shop Cumbres Design by CumbresDesign located in Denver, Colorado. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Speedy replies! Has a history of replying to messages quickly. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher

www.etsy.com

Those are cool!

 

[Sytes]

I crafted a few of these for friends and a couple who saw my wife's as they waited at the boat inspection station for GNP (Kintla).

Aluminum. Playing with the new spool-gun attachment for the Miller mig welder. Simple, fast, and does the job. This is off a Jeep Gladiator with its whoppin 5 ft bed.. 14 foot kayak.

 

[Longbow14]

I've started writing paid articles and blog posts for other companies, specifically those with outdoor focus. It's not a good but it is a service and certainly personal.
Would it be ok with y'all if I posted a link or two of my articles?

 

[OntarioHunter]

I crafted a few of these for friends and a couple who saw my wife's as they waited at the boat inspection station for GNP (Kintla).

Aluminum. Playing with the new spool-gun attachment for the Miller mig welder. Simple, fast, and does the job. This is off a Jeep Gladiator with its whoppin 5 ft bed.. 14 foot kayak.

View attachment 187970

View attachment 187971

View attachment 187973

I think maybe you need to add a gusset at that elbow?

 

[OntarioHunter]

Ive started writing paid articles and blog posts for other companies, specifically those with outdoor focus. It's not a good but it is a service and certainly personal.
Would it be ok with y'all if I posted a link or two of my articles?

Perhaps send a private message to the site owner, Big Fin.

 

[Longbow14]

Perhaps send a private message to the site owner, Big Fin.

I will defiantly do that. I also felt that I should clear it with Sytes so I don't thread-jack.

 

[Rack Daniels]

My daughter and I have a taxidermy business (sort of) out of the home. She uses Facebook apparently but not happy. I will talk to her about Etsy but frankly I don't want to see business pick up until she gets better organized. I'm supposed to be retired but seem to be carrying too much of the load. Her fish work is fantastic and she's developing quite a reputation. Perhaps she should concentrate on the fish end of the business and I'll do the horns. Pretty much the way it is now anyway.

Thanks for starting this thread. Gives us some ideas about how to move forward ... when we're ready.

I did my own bear rug. It turned out, so far. And I now understand why even the local taxidermists send them to tanneries instead of doing them in house.. Strangely, it actually made me intrigued at the harder aspects of taxidermy and I thought look up fish taxidermy. I will be happy to pay a taxidermist from now on. super impressive that shes got the fish thing down. As a hobbyist myself with no intention of learning fish; it would be an honor to “shop local” in that regard. Might need your contact info at some point….

 

[Rack Daniels]

Good thread, @Sytes. I'm getting close to setting up some point of sale website for pottery and am not totally on board with Etsy taking a big chunk of the change. Hoping others have better options.

I love pottery. Still use slip and score for a variety of crafts that I learned from that class.. I saw some of your pics earlier. Very cool.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I did my own bear rug. It turned out, so far. And I now understand why even the local taxidermists send them to tanneries instead of doing them in house.. Strangely, it actually made me intrigued at the harder aspects of taxidermy and I thought look up fish taxidermy. I will be happy to pay a taxidermist from now on. super impressive that shes got the fish thing down. As a hobbyist myself with no intention of learning fish; it would be an honor to “shop local” in that regard. Might need your contact info at some point….

Here's a recent project. 18" brook trout.

 

[Rack Daniels]

My family goes out nearly every weekend even in the snow in January if we can, to find gold, garnets and sapphires. I attached some pics of the ones my wife’s grandmother faceted herself before she passed over 20 years ago. We will be buying a lapidary soon and my wife has made it her life’s mission to get good at cutting different styles and gems. Eventually, we will get them set in different jewelry and sell them. We were hoping more high-end, as we have thousands of these babies when the time comes.

 

[Rack Daniels]

Here's a recent project. 18" brook trout.View attachment 189062

So cool!! My oldest son caught the biggest smallmouth bass I’ve still ever seen come out of the local pond.. maybe 4-5 lbs but still wicked cool. He was maybe 4 years old at the time, and usually had no problem pinching that lip and peeling it back to hold it up.. wasn’t happening with two hands! One of the pics we have is him screaming in terror I always thought about having it done for him..

 

[Sytes]

I will defiantly do that. I also felt that I should clear it with Sytes so I don't thread-jack.

No threadjack imo. If it's your personal hobby w/o endorsing any brand products or advertisements involved with the printing(?).
Seems a better fit for fireside or sportsman issues (depending on content)... though links to your hobby writing, I don't think links would hijack the intent... unless it inspires controversy to wing the thread off to the black hole. .

 

[Sytes]

I think maybe you need to add a gusset at that elbow?

Wouldn't hurt to add a gusset though the vertical is welded as an extension onto the end of the horizontal, with the all contact points welded - top intersection, along the sides, and bottom contact point.

It's weld points are far more than strong enough for two canoes/kayaks with weight distributed on the truck bed as well.
It's not intended to haul +200#'s at the top horizontal 3" aluminum angle.

Nice trout taxi work, BTW.

@FoodIsMemories , that's really cool!