Matthew Stinchcomb was the original founder and guitar player of the French Kicks, a New York City-based indie rock group, before he decided he wanted more out of life. So he dropped out of the band, married a girl from Germany and helped to create a new sort of "artsy e-bazaar" called Etsy.
Etsy is "an online marketplace for buying and selling anything that's handmade," said Stinchcomb, who is now vice president of the up-and-coming Web site.
The largest category is 'jewelry,' with nearly 350,000 items, followed by categories 'art,' 'bags and purses,' he said. Other categories on Etsy include clothing, furniture, toys, music and house-wares.
Rob Kahlin, an artist and carpenter, founded the company in June 2005 when he realized artists suffered from a lack of a united online outlet.
"There's just so much crap on eBay that people who were selling original art got lost in the folds," Stinchcomb said, "so Rob and everyone spent about three months building the site, and it just took off."
Stinchcomb said Etsy is home to a lot of conscientious consumers who care about where their products are coming from.
"When you're buying on Etsy, you're dealing directly with the producer of the good. They're not exploiting it, or employing some unethical morals," Stinchcomb said. "Personally, I'd rather support an independent artist who isn't exploiting child labor or environmental concern."
Kelly Murphy (sophomore-English) agreed, and said she really likes the socially progressive concept behind the Web site.
"It's a way to get away from the capitalistic movement in this country, by buying handmade," Murphy said. "I also like it because you can pretty much find anything that you want to, and most of the items are really unique. It's a way to express individuality."
The Web site has many features for online shoppers, including a "Shop by Color" filter, which allows the shopper to search for items in certain categories by color; a "Pounce" feature that showcases recently sold items; and a "Shop Local" feature, which helps users to view sellers in their particular area.
State College, for example, has more than 25 sellers on Etsy, selling everything from photography to stained glass. Ann Bloom and Annie Swincinski are two local sellers with distinctive connections to Penn State and the State College community.
Ann Bloom, www.knittykittie.etsy.com
Q: Could you describe the kinds of products that you offer on Etsy?
A: I offer knitting-related items: pins, miniature knitting pins, magnets. The most popular item that I make is a Neck Cozy. It's like a scarf with a button sewn on, around the neck. That's the item that seems to sell best for me, and I get the most comments and feedback on them. Over the holidays, I sold probably over 100 neck cozies. I have a contract with [a distributor] in Aspen, Colo., and they purchase the Neck Cozies for ski shops. I also sell them at the store Savvy [State College, 153 S. Allen St.].
Q: Do you have a connection to Penn State?
A: I actually majored in education at Penn State. I went to Penn State for my first two years [of undergrad] and then to Indiana University for my last two. I came back and went to grad school at Penn State again. Now, I work part time at Schlow Library [100 E. Beaver Ave.]. It's very nice. There's always a lot going on around town, and I do love taking in all the activities.
Q: How long have you been practicing your craft?
A:I had done it a long time ago; I'm not even sure how long ago. Being at the library, I'm around a lot of books all the time, and I saw a knitting book and thought I'd start it up again. I love it.
Q: What inspires you?
A:My younger sister's been my biggest inspiration; she also went to Penn State. She's a paper artist and has been doing that for a number of years. She's actually how I came across Etsy.
Q: Why do you love Etsy?
A:I love meeting other people that have the same interests I do. There's just such an amazing amount of artists and items on Etsy -- I spend days on there looking at things. Every day I see names I've never seen before, and there are always new sellers to check out. As a seller, I'm suddenly getting orders from Portugal and Israel, and it's nice to interact with people from all over. The nice thing is you can sell to everywhere in the world.
Annie Swincinski, www.sweetAnnieJeanne.etsy.com
Q: Could you describe the kinds of products that you offer on Etsy?
A:I offer prints, which is what I'm teaching up on campus. They're called relief prints that consist of woodblock or linoleum cutting, where you have a surface that you carve away, sort of like a stamp. Then you ink and print it. I also offer silk-screened prints. Silk-screening is closer to a photographic process. I take a silk screen, which is a piece of silk stretched over a wooden frame. Then, I coat it with a photographic emulsion, and I create my design on a transparency with solid black ink. I expose the transparency onto the screen with light from the sun, and it creates a stencil. Ink gets squeegeed through the stencil onto the paper. Those are the two main types of art I do, but there are a few others thrown in there as well.
Q: Do you have a connection to Penn State?
A:I've been living in State College for three years. My boyfriend was an undergraduate student here, and he just recently graduated. It's a nice area, a little more hip than some of the places I've lived before. Starting this semester, I'll be teaching a printmaking class for the Center of the Arts and Crafts. I also work part time for a restaurant, Zola's New World Bistro [324 W. College Ave.]. I used to work full time in the restaurant and do Etsy part-time. Now, I've finally been able to switch and do Etsy full time and the restaurant part time.
Q: How long have you been practicing your craft?
A:I took a class when I was in college, but that was like 10 years ago. I've only been doing full-time printmaking for about a year and a half.
Q: What inspires you?
A:I am mostly inspired by natural surroundings. I have a lot of botanical designs within my prints. I'm also inspired by current trends in textile designs, what I find in stores for home décor, as far as anything with texture, fabric and pattern. I do a lot of shopping without buying anything. One of the things I believe you need to do is create things that are in style, so I go to Pier 1 and Target and all of those stores and I look to see what people are buying. I try to work those ideas into my own prints. That's where I go to get a lot of my creative influence -- I just go shopping.
Q: Why do you love Etsy?
A:There are so many reasons why I love Etsy. It's a direct connection between the artist and the buyer. You don't find that if you're exhibiting in a gallery or if you're putting your stuff up for commission in shops. Etsy cuts out the middle man. The artists, instead of sitting on their work looking for an outlet, become able to sell their art out of their own home. I think the fact that it's e-commerce and a home-based business makes it extremely convenient for artists to stay home and create during the day.
