I am slowly transforming my idle hobby into a full-time business this year! I’m very excited about this. While I’m in the process of building my website with fully-functional, secure shopping scripts, you can see my work at NigatsuBebe.etsy.com and BebeVintage.etsy.com. NigatsuBebe is for all of my handmade items: necklaces, earrings, bracelets, scarves, bags, etc. BebeVintage (and Supplies) is where I sell extra supplies, vintage items, and sometimes* handmade supplies such as charms or papercrafting supplies.
A taste of what I make:
| Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade nigatsubebe.etsy.com |
Handmade items, unlike what commercials would have you believe, do not have to be gaudy, rag-tag assemblages with questionable taste and quality. Rather, handmade items are often as good as the person making them- it is a reflection of skill, taste, and personal integrity, as many of the artists and artisans represent themselves and must run their businesses on their own. Whether or not they do repairs or returns speaks to the business of the person; for example, if an items breaks due to defect, I’ll happily fix it to the best of my ability and send it back, with the understanding that many of my items are made of rare, one of a kind, or vintage materials and may not be able to be repaired with the original beads. Returns I’ll happily make, if the person sends the item back within 30 days (this, of course, is assuming it was sent to a person in the US. Overseas postal services may take longer, and thus, they have a longer deadline.) I can do nothing if the person breaks it by allowing children to pull on it, or animals to get ahold of the work, or if other avoidable activity caused damage. This protects both seller and buyer, as money and time put out for repairs must be reflected elsewhere in the business, and thus drives up prices for everyone. This means that I have incentive to make each item top quality before sending it out!
Some items take many hours to complete. Careful attention to detail go into each piece. My three-strand bracelets take much longer than some people expect! Because of variation in pressed beads, or cut seed beads, it takes much work to make sure each side and each strand is balanced and even, no beads overlapping another from strand to strand, while also ensuring that it comes out a length in an acceptable range of sizes. Three or four hours can go into a single bracelet of this kind! It takes dedication to finish a project such as these. Halfway through, I may find out that the original colour set or design just isn’t working with materials on hand. This brings us back to my love of using unique materials. I may have to go out and scout for more or new beads of certain sizes to make the bracelet complete, reworking it to accept the new pieces, time spent which is not included in that 3-4 hour timespan. As a last resort, I may have to abandon it altogether. These are only a few reasons why these bracelets are so expensive, so few, and each one is the ONLY of its kind.
Crocheted or knitted items also take hours, sometimes days to complete. Some people see crocheted anything as a piece of fancy fabric, not realising that while it may take a machine ten minutes to churn something out, it can take a live person five or six hours to make a standard scarf, and up to two days’ worth of work to make a larger, wider piece. Add several extra hours if the knots or stitches are decorative or particularly unusual. These arts are a labour of love- more often than not, the people who make them are barely paid for their work, the money not even covering the yarn cost used to make the item. Instead, they often sell out of their love of the hobby and not for hopes of profit. Myself, I love the huge fuzzy boucle scarves I spent days making- they’re ultralightweight and wearable in the 75F Florida indoors, and warm enough that my friend wore them in the snowy mountains of Nevada one winter! Hers has lasted for over three years now. It is made of the green yarn my cat is kneading on the About Me page.
I only hope I can soon expand the types of work I can offer.
