I Feel Like I Robbed the Treasury!

Last night was special. Not only did I "get" another etsy treasury spot...and on an early Friday evening...when more than 1000 people were waiting for one...but one of my necklaces was featured in someone else's treasury for the very first time...thanks to etsy seller prettycheap.

When I search for items to include in my little curated collections, I usually pick specific words or phrases I am interested in. For the newest one, I searched for bumpy things. I look in handmade, vintage and supply categories because I love vintage things and buy many of my supplies from etsy sellers. I think most people however, only include handmade items. (Depending on your search term(s), you can get 100's of pages to go through!) This is one problem with treasuries for certain etsy sellers.

It never ceases to amaze me how many talented artisans I come across when I search...people whose work is very unusual, or very funny, or very personal. And I have just discovered them. Despite all the searching and promotion, twittering and team membership etc. ~ I have just discovered them! They create things that I would love to pick up and handle. Some are too expensive for me to actually purchase. Lately I tell myself that no matter how lovely the bowl or vase or scarf is, I really don't need it. Especially when I am not selling very many pieces of my own work. I try to select sellers who have not had many sales or sellers who don't have many items in their shops.

But that's the other problem with treasuries. I would bet that most of them are created by etsy sellers rather than buyers and I don't know how many do both. I started on etsy as a buyer so I remember what I looked for, what features I used and there was always so much beautiful stuff, I never really had to leave the front page. That meant I was seeing a teeny tiny percentage of the treasuries people were creating. Now that I know more about them, I try to look at as many treasuries as I can before they expire. Once you get a treasury, the game becomes to promote it (rather than your merchandise) so that it gets views and clicks and will hopefully make it to the front page. All that work and still so little is seen.

If I find a curator I am "simpatico" with, he or she has done a lot of the legwork for me. That makes the process quicker but now I am missing out on the actual "hunting," which at a real world (not virtual) craft fair or flea market, is a big part of the joy.

I guess we're all still trying to figure out how to do real world things online and get the same satisfaction doing them. Or discover the unique things that can be experienced online, like view and purchase the work of an artist in Spain who makes beads you want to work with!