Monday, January 18, 2010

GAY IT FORWARD!

The Queer etsy Street Team is proud to announce the grand opening of its collective shop! 100% of sales from the Queer Team shop (less etsy and Paypal fees) will be donated to various charities.
For the next month Queer Team will be donating to madre.org's emergency relief fund to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. To encourage purchases, Queer Team is offering FREE shipping on everything listed! Visit us, get something beautiful and help those in need.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/queeretsystreetteam

Friday, January 15, 2010

Spotlight on Queer Team member GILLIAUNA

Zoie and Leal from http://www.etsy.com/shop/gilliauna interviewed by fauxsure

What sorts of things do you offer in your shop?

We offer handcrafted jewelry and accessories. Most of our pieces are made with beads and gemstones although we just recently added some woodwork and fiber wrapped pieces as well. The pieces we offer include necklaces, bracelets, earrings, charms, eyeglass chains, badge lanyards, bookmarks and rosaries. We've also recently opened a section that sells destash and have intentions on starting to list a selection of stitch markers, chaplets and have a few other ideas we're kicking around still.



How did you first start selling on Etsy? How long have you been selling? Do you sell anywhere else?

We listed our first item on Etsy on October 20th, 2009. So, just about 3 months now. We also have a shop over at 1000Markets, but we don't promote there or do much there other than list items.

Etsy is our first online selling efforts.

Zoie's mother runs a candy and craft business called "Aunt Billie's" that sells in craft fairs in the Pacific NW area, and we often have a selection of our accessories available for sale through that venue. We've been selling through Aunt Billie's for a couple of years. Neither of us consider this actual selling experience since we don't participate in the fairs ourselves but simply provide the pieces an take a cut of the profit from them.

Tell us a little about your typical creative process and how you go about making your work. What kinds of steps do you usually go through?

Zoie - I like to sit down at the table where my supplies are located with a blank slate in my mind. I have a very large coffee table and my bins an containers of beads and findings are spread out over it. When I sit down, all the colors are there to help inspire me and I let instinct take over to pick what will go with what to piece together a new creation.

Leal - I dream a good portion of my pieces before they come into reality. I often wake up with new ideas fresh in my mind. Like any dream, sometimes they stick and you remember them later. Sometimes they don't. The ones I end up remembering are the pieces I end up making. Like Zoie, I'm set up on my coffee table and sit on one of those athletic exercise balls for working on my craft. It's easier on the... uh, posterior, than a chair and since I'll often sit and work through until a piece is finished (excluding rosaries, which take about 25 hours of work to complete) it's important to be comfortable while working.



What are your favorite materials to work with?

Zoie - I love working with beads and glass. Jewelry making isn't my only kind of craft and I also work with glass in other ways (etching, etc). I like the way glass beads feel when I work with them and sound.

Leal - Stones. Gemstones. And more recently, wire.

Are there other creative projects you are involved in outside of your work in your Etsy shop?

Zoie - Absolutely! My family is a family of woman crafters, and I was raised in a very creative environment. I love working with crafts and I'm always learning or working on something new. I enjoy landscape photography (preferring SLR 35mm film camera), glass etching and a variety of other activities.

Leal - I'm a full time college student and my interests lean heavily towards plants and botany. I'm not sure if gardening and landscaping is considered a "creative project" but that's where most of my creative interests outside my jewelry design are directed.



Besides art/ crafty stuff, what else do you like doing in your free time?

Zoie - I love to read. I've been an avid reader my entire life from a very young age. Most of my spare time an hobbies are crafty or artsy though and so I spend a lot of time there.

Leal - I think I answered this already above. I garden and do landscaping design. I also participate in literary role-play with my significant other, which is similar to a creative writing exercise between yourself and others with similar interests. I hike and bike ride. I also love to eat, although I'm not a big fan of cooking.

Does your queer identity come into play in your work?


Zoie - I'm not sure if it does or not. It's a part of who I am, so I guess so, since I put a lot of myself into my pieces. I'd be hard pressed to explain how, specifically, it comes into play, though.

Leal - I occasionally make pride related items that we sell either on Etsy or at the craft fairs Zoie's mother attends. I think that my "queer identity" comes into play in my work no matter what I'm making though, if for no other reason that my father frowned upon my jewelry design interests as a "part" of my being queer for years. It seems to have, over time, caused me to blend my interest in this art with my "queer identity" in some ways.



What are your hopes for the Queer Etsy Street Team? What brought you to join?

Zoie - Finding other sellers we can identify with has been something we've been interested in since beginning at Etsy, but we haven't had much of a chance to explore the Teams. When we came across Queer Etsy, it seemed the perfect fit.

Leal - Like-minded sellers. We hope, over time, to become an active part of the QEST community. Zoie, in particular, enjoys online social activities, etc.

LINKS:
Facebook: http://facebook.com/BitsnBeadsbyGilliauna

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gilliauna
My Blog: http://gilliauna.blogspot.com
deviantArt: http://gilliauna.deviantart.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilliauna/

Friday, January 8, 2010

Spotlight on Queer Team member GALLERIA DI GIANI

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GalleriaDiGiani interviewed by fauxsure

What sorts of things do you offer in your shop?

I do beaded jewelry. Currently, there is one piece that also incorporates fused fine silver. That is a skill I only recently acquired, so I am looking forward to offering more things like that in the future.



How did you first start selling on etsy? How long have you been selling? Do you sell anywhere else?

I have only been on etsy for about three months. I also sell through 1000 Markets, and have been selling there since July. But I have been making jewelry since the mid 90's, and started off by selling through consignment shops throughout Seattle. Now, I am focusing on online sales only. I will do the occasional craft fair as well, but I haven't been doing consignment shops lately.

Tell us a little about your typical creative process and how you go about making your work. What kinds of steps do you usually go through?

Although I make jewelry, I consider myself first and foremost a photographer (will get into that in more detail in later questions on the list). So, with a background in photography, I am a visual (sometimes visceral) artist. I don't often create out of thin air. Often, I will see something, a pendant frame, a stone cut a certain way, a brooch, something, and it will give me ideas as to something to make. Once upon a time, a bead wholesaler that I ordered from included, as a free gift, a wooden pendant in which the cap had a wand attached. It was a perfume/aromatherapy pendant, and I had never seen one before. When it came time to design a new product line for my shop, I remembered that pendant and went looking for more. I found many people on ebay selling sterling ones, which were even more fashionable, and so was born a product line!



What are your favorite materials to work with?

While I use as big a variety of beads as I can, I always come back to the earthier stones...things like tiger eye, onyx, unakite, hematite, jasper, lapis (when I can afford to)...I just find the earthier looking stones to be so wonderfully grounding and help bring an extra bit of peace to my pieces.

Are there other creative projects you are involved in outside of your work in your etsy shop?

Yes, as I stated earlier, I am a photographer. I am working on opening two photo shops on etsy this year. One will be for my nature/landscape/architecture style photos, and the other will be for my erotic prints. My b/w erotic prints (www.johntozzi.com) are really the cornerstone of my art life.

The funny thing is, I didnt even really become a photographer until my late 20's. I had done a lot of writing before that. But, in the early 90's, I had a hand injury, and, as part of the rehab process, I wasnt allowed to type (outside of an hour or two on my day job) for many months. So, without that creative outlet at my disposal, I was starting to get a little stir crazy. One day, just for fun, a friend asked if I would take some nude pix of him. He wanted some, but wasn't comfortable asking someone he didnt know to take them. Personally, I think he just asked me to get my mind off my problems for an afternoon. Anyway, the pix turned out great, I had a blast, and found that I really enjoyed doing it. And, as the saying goes, the rest is history. It was really a surreal experience having my life's passion come out of such an ordeal, but, hey, however it got here, I am just glad it got here!

Besides art/ crafty stuff, what else do you like doing in your free time?

I watch a lot of movies (my dvd collection at home is scary....one of my best friends nicknamed my collection "Blockbuster", if that gives you any idea). I also listen to a ton of music, and read when I can.



Does your queer identity come into play in your work?

It doesn't really come into play in my jewelry, but, obviously, for my erotic photography, it definitely comes into play. Although I call my work erotic, I would really rather call it "sensual", because it is more about moods than brazen sexuality. Still, when it comes to finding the sensuality in a person, I am not sure if a straight man would be able to find it and bring it out in other men the same way a queer artist would. We just have so much more experience with that part of men.



What are your hopes for the Queer Etsy Street Team? What brought you to join?

I was actually turned on to the team by one of the members (Moinks), who I encountered in an etsy chat room one night. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to meet, hang out, and talk with other queer artists just to see what other types of work were being produced within the community.

Please feel free to contact John through an etsy convo if you have any questions about his work or anything else...