Welcome to another edition of Artist Showcase. This week's Etsy artist is Francesca from
Inspirational Gecko. Francesca makes colorful cute felt keychains, decorations and accessories.
Tell us a little about yourself and your creative business. Hi! I'm Francesca and I'm an italian student of Natural Science. By now my creative corner is the very same writing desk on which I prepare my exams. I love to create little felt fellows, decorations and accessories perfect for funny people and nature lovers.
How did you get your start? My first attempts with felt crafting started with the desire to make more personal gifts for people I know. Sometimes happened that the perfect gift for a friend would be something strongly connected to anecdotes, jokes, elements that suits deeply to that person. You would just like to create it. So I started making experiments with felt, this soft and handy material, learning from my mistakes and improving my skills one stitch at a time.
Where do you get your inspiration? Animals, Nature and a pinch of Fantasy are my inspirations. I feel very close to these elements and they give me so many ideas!
What has been your biggest successful moment so far? Every time that someone choose to take one of my creation with her/him is a joyful moment for me. A success is hearing back from them: sometimes I receive beautiful messages explaining me how they use the item they bought. They became meaningful gifts or special elements of their homes. Another great success are custom orders: when people ask me to make something personal and special I feel very pleased and happy. Everything gets a brand new meaning in every stitch.
What challenges do you face selling online? Selling online is wonderful, you have the potentiality to literally reach the world. But you need to put a great effort in understanding how to connect to people who (hopefully) are looking for what you offer. This means a lot of study, but this is part of the fun!
What advice would you give someone just starting out on Etsy? Take a very good care of your shop: think like a customer who's visiting it. Are your shelves clean, full of well shown products? Offer good pictures of your goods, people can't neither touch nor measure them. Especially at the beginning work hard on keywords, learn how to use the site's functionalities. Join a team, you will find the support you need. And have fun! You will be surprised by all the things you will learn from this experience.
Thank you Francesca for sharing your story with us. If you would like to see more of Francesca, check out her
Facebook page.
Next week we will feature another Etsy artist. If you would like to be considered, just drop me or Zoica a note via Etsy convo.
Thanks for stopping by...
Until next time,
