The British Sellers on Etsy Team

Howdy folks!

     I'd like to introduce you to the British Sellers on Etsy Team, it is one of five teams we are currently involved with on Etsy, and by far and away the largest. The Captain of the team, Chiara of CLS Craft Creations kindly took some time out of her (very busy!) day and agreed to an interview about the team, how it grew so quickly and how she's coping with the pressure!

Kitsch Over the Shoulder Apron Print Bag 
by CLS Craft Creations

 Frank: How did this team first come about?

Chiara: I had decided to re-open my Etsy shop CLSCraftCreations and really wanted to become a party of the Etsy community. I discovered the teams in the community section did a quick search for a British team and couldn't find any (I must not have been using the right search terms as other British teams are indeed out there) so I thought "Why not, I'll start my own" For the next couple of evenings I stayed up into the wee hours (much to the annoyance of my husband) searching for UK sellers that I could invite to join the team, the numbers just kept growing, I was amazed!

Tea Pot Fun Vinyl KeyRing 
by Rockavision

F: How long has the British Sellers Team been on Etsy? 

C: It's hard to believe but I started the group on the 6th of December 2010, just over 2 months on we've run our first BNR event, set up a team twitter (thanks to PoppySparkles) and have blog for the team up and running. We're also approaching 1000 members! (I think as this goes live we have just gone over 1000*)

In an English country garden 
by velvetimages

F: What is the purpose of the team?

C: The purpose of this team is to provide advice and support for other British Sellers and to help us network with each other and generate ideas to increase sales as well us giving us all much needed exposure. I had no idea there were so many British Sellers on Etsy!

English Summer necklace 
by The Magpie's Daughter

F: Do you have to be on Etsy to become part of this team?

C: You do require an Etsy profile (which is free to set up and join) to become a part of the team but you don't necessarily have to have a shop, we have quite a few members who are buyers only.

Sea Glass filled vial 
by RubyCQuins

F: Are there any other ways to find out about the team?

 C: You can find the team on Twitter which is regularly updated, we also retweet member tweets if they use the #uketsy tag. We have our blog britishsellersonetsy.blogspot.com/ which we post to almost everyday of the week with regular weekly features, a facebook page and a flickr page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rustic brown and blue utensil holder 
by Little Wren Pottery

F: Is it difficult to manage such a large team?

C: It can be challenging squeezing it in around my husband, son and running my web design business but to be honest it grew so large so quickly that I never could have stayed on top of it all without the help of my leaders. Viv Smith of PoppySparkles was the driving force behind our Twitter group and brought us so many new members. Claire from House of Hampton helped to organise and run our first BNR†. 

Floral Day Tea Dress 
by Katherine Louise Kerrison

Our other lovely blog helpers are Clara of nuvonova, Julie of JulieBull and Rhianne of soeasilydistracted each have their own blog post which they write each week and post onto the blog. It's a huge commitment and I'm really grateful for their help.

Some of our other British Sellers on Etsy team members:

Pocket Mirror Thistle Botanical Papercut Design 
by KitzieG

The Aspley Classic Fountain Pen 
by UKkenspens

Large Leather Sketchbook Medieval Binding 
by Susan Green Books

Copper Beech and Oak Hampstead Heath 
by artsdesireable

All works here are copyrighted and belonging to the artists shown.

* 11/02/2011

† BNR stands for Buy 'n' Replace, this is something organised between a group of sellers usually over a weekend and involves building a treasury of sixteen shops, which has a curator that allows a seller to buy out one of the sellers goods and then replaces that seller into the treasury, and so on.

Many thanks to Chiara, and we're very proud to be part of the British Sellers on Etsy Team!

To join Etsy go to: www.etsy.com

If you would like to join the team please go to: British Sellers on Etsy 

My regards to you all,

Frank

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