A few years ago I read a thought provoking book called Blindness by Jose Saramego. It was made into a film in 2008 and I finally got round to watching it last night with Mr Kapow! In the film everyone apart from one person suddenly goes blind without explanation and there follows an exploration of the ‘true nature’ of man. I won’t spoil the film for you in case you haven’t seen it but it is both harrowing and uplifting. There are some characters who take advantage of the chaos for their own gain and others who form a strong group or community and it is them who ultimately triumph through helping each other and companionship.

It struck me this morning when I woke up (after having terrible dreams about waking up blind!) that a good comparison can be made with positive elements of the online crafting community.

First of all, we are all in a way blind. By that I mean we quite literally cannot see one another. We are all names and avatars on a computer screen and the avatars are representations of our craft and not our selves. I have 230 followers on twitter with whom I regularly exchange quips and musings however you only really learn minute details about other crafters’ lives. We don’t know each other’s names, we don’t know if someone’s an old school or new wave crafter (i.e. how old they are or how long they’ve been doing what they do) and we don’t know things that unfortunately can lead to preconceptions in the ‘real world’ such as gender, creed, ethnicity, sexuality; we’ve never seen each other, heck we don’t really know where everyone is from! When it really comes down to it we know nothing about one another apart from the fact that we share a common interest – crafting!

And yet the sense of community I feel is incredibly strong! I’m relatively new to crafting, since I was a child I made my own stationery and had an obsession with stickers and silly drawings but I’d never really had the confidence to show anyone my ‘work’ other than a couple of close friends who were the recipients of some bizarre mailings (snail mail obviously!). Then last year I went through a rough patch and had to take some time off work suffering from anxiety. Always a fidget I was unable to concentrate on knitting (my first crafting love) or reading and I was too overly sensitive to watch my favourite TV programmes (mostly crime drama) but simply had to do something so I started messing around with the leftover card blanks I had from our wedding stationery. Friends liked my slightly erratic artwork and laughed nervously at some of the ‘themes’ but for the most part the cards I made were really well received and before I knew it I was hooked!

I never dreamed I would open up an online shop and that people would actually buy from it but I did a Google search for ‘something like Etsy except for the UK’ and came up with Folksy.

It was from the Folksy forums that I learned the importance of having a decent bio, a good shop banner (I’m still working on that one!), blogging and promoting my work on social networking sites such as twitter and facebook.

It’s amazing how much you can learn once you’re up and running on twitter for example. When I first set up my account it felt very much like talking to myself except on a computer! I was intimidated by the thought of saying something which wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular and trying to make it funny or interesting… it seemed somewhat self indulgent… however once I had myself a few followers and worked up the confidence to interact I was away! You learn about really cool stuff on twitter like giveaways and it’s also a place where crafters promote each other in addition to themselves. The first time I realised that someone I didn’t know had retweeted something I had written I was stunned but it was so exciting!

The community on twitter is amazing and fiercely loyal, I happened to have a day off my full time job working for a mental health charity when Hidden Eloise Vs Paperchase started to kick off. In case you missed it independent designer Hidden Eloise accused Paperchase of ripping off one of her drawings and her evidence was really very compelling. There had been other stories circulating prior to this about independent designers having their work ‘stolen’ by larger companies and being helpless to stop it and the next thing it just, how do they say….went viral! It seemed that everyone on twitter and beyond stood up and shouted “Oh no you don’t!” and Paperchase literally crumbled under the pressure. Before you could say “they didn’t, did they?” the items in question were removed from sale and there were twitter high fives all over the planet!

Another shining example of the crafting community is the Folksy Friday blog posts which are growing in popularity every week. Folksy sellers pick a theme (mine was punk this week after the death of Malcolm McLaren) and choose work by other sellers to showcase. I particularly love this trend as it is pure unadulterated admiration for other people’s work rather than self promotion. In particular, there’s something so satisfying about featuring a shop with no sales as we’ve all been there and the feeling of your first sale is one to be cherished. I first became aware of Folksy Friday when one of my valentine’s cards was featured by fellow craft blogger Crafty Jemima and it really made my day! I do my best to do a feature every Friday now in the hope that I can bring that feeling of pride to someone else! I recently set up a Folksy Friday facebook group where anyone can post a link to their posts and even if they haven’t done one find plenty of reading! It’s also not uncommon for fellow crafters to purchase other crafters work too, particularly as a result of a forum thread or Folksy Friday!

Yet another inspiring element of online crafting is the ‘how to’ blog posts written by the more experienced crafters to help newbies (or oldies who just didn’t know!) get on their way. Sites like Indie Smiles provide endless and indispensible help and advice on topics such as blogging, SEO, social networking promotion; shop design… the list goes on! Through Folksy I discovered online magazine UK Handmade which has a really helpful ning (a bit like facebook) community and Craftblog UK which promotes crafty UK bloggers and provides endless tips for blogging success!

My Folksy shop has improved markedly since I opened it in September 2009 and without the help and support of a whole host of complete strangers I seriously doubt I would have had anything near my current total of 58 sales! It’s life affirming isn’t it?!

Tags: advertising, blogs, craft business, crafting, folksy, indiesmiles, KonnieKapow, marketing, online craft business, twitter

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