The Spirit of Etsy

This weekend we've been witnessing Etsy history in the making, as the administrators unveil (and reveil, and re-unveil) the new Etsy constitution, a document that has inspired so much debate on the forums that I fear the friendly tone there will never be recovered. There were many changes, but most notably, the vintage category is being phased out, commercial supplies are being limited, and there are new rules about digital prints and design copyright. I didn't wade through all of the hundreds of pages of accumulated outrage, but I read enough to conclude that there is a whole lot of masking going on. First of all, many users claiming to be interested in "what's good for Etsy" seem more motivated by a need to assert some kind of seniority or superiority over other users, which I guess is pretty typical in an internet community. Also, I think that this nebulous "Spirit of Etsy" that everyone keeps invoking to justify their arguments is pretty clearly an increasingly meaningless piece of rhetoric. I mean, selling handmade goods is still selling goods, and no amount of Etsy spirit can cancel out that essentially self-interested impulse. At the end of the day, the sellers on both sides of the debates just want to get buyers into their shops, and I think they would do well to admit as much.

I'll admit as much, and more -- I'm desperate to get buyers into my shop, or even just people who will look at my things and tell me they're pretty! Having lots of schoolwork to avoid, I've been especially interested in making jewelry this weekend, and have produced eight pairs of earrings and one bracelet (a bracelet so boring I don't know what I'm going to do with it).

I bought these amazing champagne glass teardrop beads, and I just had to keep for myself the first thing I made with them. For these I used the same wire-wrapping technique I've been using for awhile now, but this time I oxidized the silver with liver of sulfur. Um, I apologize for the creepiness f my ear out of its context, but it's the better to see the earrings with...I still haven't mastered the oxidation process, so I don't think I'll be listing anything oxidized for awhile, but it is really fun, and since everyone warns in their instructions how toxic liver of sulfur is, it makes me feel like I'm living dangerously, though of course, I'm really just spending my Friday night playing with nasty-smelling powder and then blogging about it...



I did produce a few new listable pairs of earrings, however, especially these experiments with long pieces of hammered wire that I'm pretty jazzed about. No one who's looked at them seems that jazzed, but still, I predict many more ideas in this vein before I'm discouraged enough to abandon it. I'll spare you the awkwardly embedded photos of my other new listings, but they include a fun piece made with polymer clay beads, and some more brightly colored briolettes. I'll never get over briolettes, I don't think.