Locals Sell Handmade Products on Internet Marketplace

Got some last minute Valentine's Day shopping to do? With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s not too late.

One way to make up for lost time is to shop local from your home. Visit www.etsy.com, a "handmade marketplace," to discover what locals are selling this holiday season. Etsy is a place where individuals can buy and sell handmade or vintage items.

Lacey Patch profiled just a few Lacey Etsy sellers. Think about buying unique while also supporting a small business this year.

SullisStuff

Marilyn Heaney of Forked River first got started with Etsy about six to seven years ago.

“My husband could no longer make it to the craft shows with me and I wouldn't leave him home alone,” she said. “As I have always made wind chimes, I figured why not sell them online? And Etsy seemed like the best place for me to do that. The price and the exposure we're best suited for me.”

Heaney said she was brought up with “busy hands,” never just sitting in front of the television. She has been making wind chimes for 10 years.

To craft a wind chime, her featured product, Heaney starts with a glass flower frog. From there it’s wire, shells, beads and stained glass. Heaney purchases sheets of stained class and then cuts, grinds and drills, she said.

Heaney also crochets as she makes table toppers, doilies, bedspreads and wall hangings.

“The economy has affected the price of everything,” she said. “I did lower the price of my items- thank goodness I don’t have to make a living at this. Hopefully I will start doing craft shows again.”

Heaney also sells beaded eyeglass holders.

TutusByTara

Tara Went of Forked River started selling homemade products on Etsy after her daughter was born. She would make bows for her.

“Everyone kept asking me where I got them,” she said. “When I said I made them myself, people would ask if I had an Etsy store.”

Tara’s featured items, bows and tutus, take all different styles, Went said.

“Whatever tutus I make, I always have a bow to match,” she said. “I always have the stuff needed for holidays.”

When Went goes shopping at stores, she’ll look at clothing styles, write down the colors and try to make bows to match, she said.

“This seems to sell better because people have the clothes to match the bows and tutus,” Went said.

When asked what goes into making her product, Went said “love.”

“Seriously, I enjoy it,” she said. “I love making the hair bows and tutus.”

Went started making bows and tutus about 10 months ago, when her uncle sent her a money gift for her daughter’s birth.

“It was to spend on myself,” she said. “I took that money and bought all the material I would need to get me started.”

Since it’s the holiday season, business has picked up, she said.

“I mean, who wouldn’t want their little girl in a green and red tutu with a matching bow for a picture with Santa,” she said.

Cutie Patootie Boutique

Mildred Delmont’s daughter got her into Etsy.

“I love to sew and make accessories,” said Delmont, a resident of Forked River.

Delmont made her granddaughter a cape, one of her featured items, when she was just a baby and her daughter had bugged her to sell them, she said.

“The tutu’s, I’m new at,” she said. “It takes about four hours to make. Every piece is cut and then sewn.”

Delmont said selling on Etsy has been fairly slow.

“I have sold about 10 items and opened in June of this year,” she said. “I would like to go to some craft shows when I get more inventory, maybe in the spring.”

In addition to baby ponchos, Delmont sells Barbie clothes, boots, headbands, flip flops with beading, charm bracelets and purses.

Calm Seas Creations

Selling on Etsy for Natalie of Lanoka Harbor brings a calm, she said.

“I am the mom of three children, one severely handicapped with Cerebral Palsy,” she said. “In order to keep my sanity, I walk the beach and collect sea glass. I walk in the rain, after it snows and a lot of times, I am the only one on the beach.”

The experience of collecting sea glass is very different from summers at the Jersey Shore, she said.

“The whole experience brings me isolated calm,” Natalie said. “Taking home the beach glass allows that feeling to linger. I have created my jewelry to bring that feeling to others.”

Natalie took several jewelry making classes in college but has been combining sea glass into jewelry since the beginning of 2011. Not long after, she set up a shop on Etsy.

“Etsy is known for selling all things handmade,” she said. “So with no true overhead cost, I quickly had my work viewed by people around the world. It truly is amazing.”

Having a shop on Etsy, allows Natalie to target a specific group of people who are interested in sea glass, “treasures” from the Jersey Shore and beach jewelry.

“I have sold my jewelry as far as Australia, Italy and Hawaii,” she said.

The “handmade marketplace” has also allowed Natalie to connect with her local community and other sellers, she said.

“It amazes me that in less than a year, Calm Seas Creations is so successful,” Natalie said.

ChaCha’s Crochet

Barnegat mother of two Charlene Scott said she learned to crochet as a curious 11-year-old waiting with her mother for the family car to get an oil change at a Sears Auto Center. Sitting near them was a woman crocheting.

“I asked if I could watch her,” she said. “On the way home I made my mom stop at the rag shop to pick up exactly what she had.”

Through trial and error, she figured out the craft, and started making baby blankets. Much later, when her friends started having kids, she picked up her crochet hook again, this time with an eye on more complicated projects, like baby hats.

All of a sudden, everybody wanted them. Her Etsy shop was born.

Scott said she does all custom work, so she doesn’t have a big stock of items built up. Instead, customers explain the design they want and ask for specific colors. The dinosaur hat with Stegosaurus spikes – modeled here in blue and green by one of her boys – is particularly popular right now, she said.

 At the moment, she’s got orders backed up ahead of the holiday, but she’s looking forward to offering much more in 2012. “I The possibilities are really endless,” she said.

Sticky Boutique

Pascal, a mom who lives in Ocean Acres’ Manahawkin section, said she got inspired to start making her own custom vinyl wall art when she started seeing similar products selling in stores. She dragged out the vinyl cutter her husband had bought years ago for sign making, dusted it off and got started making cut-out stick-on quotes and art.

It was the perfect creative outlet for her, she said. “I hate painting, and I’m alwas changing my mind.” Vinyl wall art is great for decorating the rooms of kids’ whose interests are constantly changing, too. Toy story one week, Winnie-the-Pooh the next? No problem, she said.

Pascal said she’d long been an Etsy shopper, and when friends strted showing interest in her work and suggesting she market it, she signed up for her own online shop. The orders started coming in a week later. After just a couple of years, she said, she’s doing a brisk business, and even sending her art overseas.

“It’s so cool to think something I made is sitting on someone’s wall in Greece,” she said. And Etsy has become a place to meet like people and find support. “You become a part of these peoples’ lives, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Pascal said than half of the orders she fills are custom requests. “If you dream it, we can do it,” she said. The letters come stuck on plastic sheets rolled up in a tube, and she offers detailed instructions and a thorough how-to video.

“We’re really big on making sure everyone is 100 percent happy,” she said.

Other Forked River Sellers:
Spallos Studios, LLC by Jim Spaloss- glass turtle pins, jewelry, quilts
JellyBeanStitches- feather hair extensions
Donna's Crochet Shoppe by Donna Hammell- baby afghan

Other Lanoka Harbor Sellers:
Deep Songs Unique Boutique by Valeen Netzel- bags and hats
Kimberley Vincent Vintage by Kimberley- pins, bracelets, brooch, antique and decorative serving items
JCahill Originals by Jennifer Cahill- fantasy creatures
Sim713 by Sebastian Montenegro- Masuku drawings
Artanew by Debbie McGuire- watercolors and artwork

Visit Etsy Local to shop by zip code.