Friday, April 20, 2012

Dear Etsy, I'm BORED

Dear Etsy,

You are really starting to bore me.  Your "front page" treasuries are generally repetitive in nature and theme, but now you have stooped to a whole new low:  I have seen multiple items over and over again, featured in various front page treasuries, in a single day....C'mon now...with "over 800,000 sellers" you can't find a treasury good enough for the front page, to match up with your ongoing theme of the day/week/etc?  When I go to etsy's front page I don't want to see the same things....and really, maybe, I don't want to see "etsy brand" every time.  All of the treasuries have the same feel to them.  I get that to be "front page" material, treasuries need to be eye catching, but there is certainly more than one way to be eye-catching.  I have seen it myself while browsing through treasuries.....for a group of creative people, which etsy touts itself to be, you are certainly very much in the box.  Please, please, PLEASE, try to step out of your box, stop showing me the same items over and over again, and try to be more inclusive of different "eye catching" design ideas.

Sincerely,
Bored.

* I must note that I generally LOVE etsy, although it has its faults (inducing boredom at times is one of them).

Sunday, April 1, 2012

GraysGallery

I love etsy.  There are so many wonderful handmade items.  And buying handmade goods is a special experience.  My most recent experience excited me so much, that I had to blog about it.  For my birthday, my husband ordered me this necklace--it has bullets, coins, and lots of chains--pretty awesome...really awesome.  I got the package yesterday, and the box itself had me almost as excited as the piece itself.  A part of me didn't even want to undo it.  And if you think the box is going into the garbage, you're wrong--I'm saving it; that will be the necklace's home...unless of course, it's around my neck...which it was last night.  Weston Gray, the artist who designed and made this wonderful piece (pieces) of art houses his work, for sale on etsy.  His shop can be found here: GraysGallery.  His shop's focus is "handmade, upcycled, repurposed jewelry and clothing."  Here you will find some very creative items, and you can be pretty sure that GraysGallery will impress you before you even get the item out of the box, due to the packaging design.
The box has been beautifully designed to match the necklace itself.


The note and the package that held the necklace were tied with leather.

Even the "tag" was amazing--it had a circular war image,
Weston Gray, the artist who made the necklace signed the back, there's a patch, and a little metal tag.
Thank you, Weston Gray for providing me with a little bit of awesome.