So I’ve been seeing on several blogs that there is this new website called Art Fire where artisans who make handmade items can put their products up for sale for one monthly fee. Right now for the first 5000 artisans who sign up, it will only be $7/mo for life – as long as they remain a member and their payments do not lapse. After the first 5000 I think it goes up to $20 a month.

I am kind of on the fence about this, mainly because I have very little product to sell. Right now if I were to set up a shop on Etsy, I think it is .20 per listing (for 4 months?) and something like 3.5% of the sale – if it sells. I think I figured, just based on the listing price alone, to get my money’s worth at Art Fire, I would have to list at least 35 items. Obviously this does not take into consideration the fees that are charged at Etsy, but considering I have only had two sales of my current product at my ecommerce store, I am just basing my comparison on the same lack of sales (what great confidence I have, eh?).

So for now, since I do not even have an Etsy store yet, and don’t yet have enough product to list 35 items at Art Fire to make it worth the $7, I will be carefully watching their site to observe the number of accounts remaining… if it starts to drop like wildfire I may just buck up and pay the $7 to reserve myself a spot at that price, as it is certainly better than being left in the cold and having to pay $20 a month later on if I miss the boat. But for now I will just bide my time and try to build up some inventory.

(please note this is not a sponsored post – I just wanted to pass the info along to any crafty blogger looking for another place to sell their wares)

I have a bunch of polymer clay sitting around from when I did sculpting (of dragons, primarily, if you’re curious) a few years ago.  Once the kiddo was born, my interest in it kind of waned because it was a bit of a challenge to try juggling work, caring for her in the evenings and trying to do any kind of sculpting with her in the room, especially once she became mobile.  Now that she’s a bit older and can either be entertained by a DVD or with playdoh, I have been contemplating pulling out my stash of clay and trying my hand at making beads.

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I sure haven’t.  *eek!*

I have a general idea of what I may be getting for hubby and the Kiddo, but that is about it.  Oh, and maybe for my parents too, since there is a company that is giving employees at my workplace a pretty good discount, and they have stuff my parents (especially my dad) like.  So I may do my shopping for them thru this place for the 25% discount. 😀

Otherwise, I do kind of know what I will probably get for my siblings.  Let’s see… for my sister, I will probably get her family a W@l-M@rt gift card so she’s restricted to getting groceries and such (rather than a Visa card she can use to blow the money anywhere).  And maybe some handmade soaps.

For my brother… probably handmade soaps, and a visa card (he is a bit more responsible).

My other brother… I may think about finishing a scarf I was *going* to give him last Christmas until he landed his butt in jail for a domestic fight with my mom & dad.  And some soap.

Yeah, I’m probably going to do soaps again this year (buying them, not making them myself).  Everyone on my side of the family seemed to like them, and handmade soap is supposed to be better for you anyway since it doesn’t have all the harsh chemicals that manufactured soap has.   I did most of my shopping for the soaps on Etsy.

As for my husband’s side of the family… I have no idea yet.  I originally thought I may make the ladies some jewelry again, but I have few – if any – ideas of what to make just using the supplies I have on hand, and I don’t want to spend the money just getting supplies for jewelry just for them.  I think last year I spent right around $200 just on supplies, which isn’t that bad I guess for six people, but I don’t know if I want to do it again this year.  I may stick to their lists this year and go off-list next year.

So anyway.. how’s your shopping coming?