Selling Woodcraft Items on Etsy

About two years ago I started selling some of my creations on Etsy.com.  If you are not familiar with Etsy, it is a website that offers crafters and artisans a virtual shop of your own to sell your items.  Actually, I have two shops on Etsy. The first is called the Firebird Cigar Box Transformation Studio, or Firebird Box Studio for short.  In this shop I sell repurposed wooden cigar boxes. I use the empty cigar boxes as a medium for my creativity by carving or pyrography or collage.  I have been making these boxes for many years now and they were accumulating in my basement.  My shop on Etsy gives me the opportunity to sell some of my accumulation without the hassle of setting up a booth and selling them at a craft fair. 

I stared the second Etsy shop last month.  It is called “Cast with Wood”.  In it I sell all my other crafted wooden items that are not repurposed cigar boxes.  Most of what I sell in this shop are hand crafted wooden boxes.  I’m not trying to earn a living from these shops, just a little spending money.  (Actually, most of the proceeds go back into tools and supplies.)

If your wooden craft creations are starting to take up too much space in your house, even after you’ve given gifts to all your family and friends, maybe you should consider Etsy. It really works.  But before you jump in, here are a few tips based on my personal experience.

Tip #1 – Browse around Etsy first

Before you set up your shop on Etsy, take some time to browse around.  Search for items similar to the ones you will be selling.  Notice how the seller describe the items and present them.  See what they are charging and what they add for shipping.  Notice the quality of the photographs they use.  Think of a possible name for your shop and see if it has already been used or if there are similar shop names that might get confused with your shop.  Figure out ways to distinguish your shop from the competition, to make it stand out.

Tip #2 – Begin with the end in mind

This tip is straight out of Stephen R. Covey’s famous book: “The Seven Habits of HighlyEffective People”.  Before you start writing a description of any item you plan to put into your shop, look at the item and figure out how you are going to ship it.  Actually, your very first step would be to purchase a postage scale if you don’t already have one.  Once you know the weight and the size you can investigate shipping options.  Will you use the United Stated Postal Service, or UPS, or FedEx?  If USPS, will you ship Priority Mail or regular mail?  Do you have a box to fit the item, or will you use a standard USPS box?  Do you have packing material?   Will you charge the purchaser the exact shipping cost, or will you add an amount for handling?  You get the picture. 

Tip #3 – Take good quality photos

If you are not good at taking good quality photos, get the help of a friend.  I think it is extremely important to present you items as professionally as possible.  In browsing through Etsy, you will quickly notice the shops that use good photography verses the ones that take a quick iPhone shot on the dining room table. Use a background cloth. (Felt or fleece fabric works fine.) Show you items in natural light.  Show close-up details.  Etsy allows you 5 photos per item.  Use all five.

A carved wooden cigar box I sold on Etsy

Tip #4 – Get organized

Use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of every item listed and every purchase.  Set up your own system.  Number each item. If you are not comfortable with Excel, do it by hand on a ledger sheet.  Etsy is good at keeping track of your sales, but it is a good idea to keep your own records so you can personalize them.  If you think that you will only be selling a few items so you don’t need organization and records, you will have a rude awakening.  Things get confused rather quickly.  If you are not organized your efforts will result in problems, not enjoyment.

Tip #5 – Don’t price too low

This is a common mistake for crafters.  Don’t price your turned wooden bowl to compete with the mass-produced turned wooden salad bowl from some sweat shop in Asia, on sale at Wal-Mart.  The things you make with your own hands are valuable, one-of-a-kind works of art and should be priced as such.  People scan Etsy looking for unique crafted item for that special gift.  They are seldom looking for the cheapest item, but rather the best item for their needs. They appreciate your work and craftsmanship and are willing to pay for it.

Tip #6 – Treat the buyer like they are royalty

I’m suggesting you go beyond merely thinking “the customer is always right”.  I believe you must treat them with extra special attention.  Your goal should be to make them happy with their purchase.  Thank them often.  Include a personalized form letter or note with the shipment, and maybe add a short handwritten line.  The making of some of the items I have sold were actually described on this bog.  I pointed that out to the buyer.  It's all part of the personal connection.  There is a practical motive for this customer rapport: positive feedback comments on you Etsy site.  When a buyer takes the time to write a nice comment, it is certainly very valuable for influencing potential future buyers.

Give Etsy a try.  It is a rewarding feeling when someone sees the value in your work and is willing to pay you money to posess the item you created. 

 

Inspiration Stagnation Liberation

photo of my zinnias

top of carved cigar box



 

I’ve heard of writer’s block, but I wonder if there is such at thing as carver’s block.

I had this beautiful discarded cigar box made of thick cedar wood.  It was just aching to be carved, but the box sat for weeks because I had no inspiration what-so-ever about what to carve on it.  I could use one of those graphic Japanese crest symbols, or Celtic designs, but this box had a certain elegance that seemed to cry out “flowers”.  I went through images of flowers on the internet, but nothing popped out.  I then decided to go through my own file of flower photographs that I had taken myself.  Bingo!  I found a nice photo of zinnias taken in my front yard. 

 

With some tweaking, the design seemed to fit the box well.  It had nice detail, but not too difficult to carve. I printed the photo on plain paper and then simplified the flowers by selected the elements of the design that I thought would make a good carving on the lid of the box. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, these empty wooden cigar boxes are available from my local cigar store for just $1 each, so I carve the design in the lid first, before I attempt to work on the rest of the box.  If the carving doesn’t work out, I just discard the box without wasting time on the finish or interior of the box.  Well, this carving turned out pretty good, so I went on and finished the box.  I added the black walnut corner inserts.  This was the first time I did this on any box.  I used a special jig that I built based on plans in a box making book.  I cut the thin walnut corner inserts to an 1/8 inch thickness to match the kerf slot made by my table saw blade.

 

interior tray

I finished the box by using the interior cedar side spacers that came with the box to construct an interior tray.  Like anything else, the more of these interior trays I make, the better they turn out. I’m pretty pleased with the resulting box.

The finished keepsake box

Now, I have to get inspired for my next carved box.  Any suggestions?

Carving Japanese Crests on Old Cigar Boxes

In my search for interesting symbols to carve on recycled wooden cigar boxes, I discovered Japanese crests. These crests, also called mon, or in the case of family crests, kamon, have been an important element in Japanese design for centuries. Their history and usage throughout the ages is an interesting subject. I will not go into the history in this posting, but you can do your own research on the internet. The crest symbols were originally used by the samurai and powerful warlord families. Today they are used primarily as decorative symbols for fabrics, tattoos, and corporate logos. The three diamond Mitsubishi logo for example, seen on all their vehicles, is actually the family crest. It symbolically represents three water chestnuts.


I started by getting a good reference book which shows hundreds of Japanese crest patterns and variations. Certain designs are perfect for carving; others are not. Some crests, even though very beautiful, are just too detailed and intricate to carve in wood. Some crests are very dramatic and impressive; others are rather mundane.

Most representations of the mon symbols are seen as two dimensional impressions on paper, fabric or skin. Carving them into wood presented some problems with proportions and spacing because of the depth dimension and sloped edges. Also, in the two dimensional representations, there is almost always an important contrast of positive and negative spaces…usually dark printing on a light background. Showing this contrast in uniformly colored wood required some added steps. I wound up using dark background stains and pyrography.

Despite these challenges, I was able to find a few crest designs that seemed to lend themselves to carving on the top of a wooden box. Three are shown in the photo above. Have you ever used Japanese crests in your work?

A More Manly Cigar Box Transformation



I was getting tired of carving flowers into empty wooden cigar boxes and transforming them into jewelry boxes and tea caddies.  I needed to make something more manly; something a man could appreciate.  I wound up making a box for my son-in-law for Christmas.  A woman puts her “stuff” in a jewelry box.  A man puts his “stuff” into a…valet box, or utility box, or something. I guess it doesn’t have an official name.

The design is a Celtic snake which is an adaptation of a tattoo design.  That’s manly.  I call it the Snake Box…very manly. The cigar box is made in Honduras using sapele wood, which is native to Africa.  Sapele is pretty nice to carve, sort of like mahogany, but it can get splintery in spots.  You also might run into hard knotty areas and irregular grain patterns. Most of the side pieces of these cigar boxes are made of quarter sawn sapele which usually shows a brilliant ray pattern.

After carving and sanding, I used an Ebony stain to darken the recess area.  I then stained the entire box with a Golden Oak stain.  I lightly sanded all the raised areas of the design to give added highlights.



I made the interior trays entirely from wood from other scrap cigar boxes.  The sides are Spanish cedar and the bottoms are thin plywood.  It is not shown here, but I left the cigar manufacturer’s imprinting and brand on wood on the bottom of the trays.  It sort of keeps a connection with the original use as a cigar box. It says “Made in Honduras” and “Hecho a Mano”.  I added small wooden feet, which helps the transformation from an ordinary cigar box to handsome valet box.

I used a maroon felt with an alligator skin pattern, adding to the manly look.  The top tray slides back and forth over the bottom tray to expose or hide the bottom compartments.



If, like me, you are tired of carving flowers, find a Celtic tattoo pattern and carve something manly.

Mass Production...sort of

I’ve been selective is scavenging empty wooden cigar boxes at my local cigar emporium. One particular brand of cigars comes in boxes that are made from thick sapele wood. The tops are extra thick and ideal for carving. I decided the size of the box would make a great tea bag caddy. I carved the top in an Oriental fashion with the Chinese (also Japanese) symbol for tea. I was pretty pleased with the result, but there were a few things I thought I could improve upon if I did another one. Then I thought, since I have more of the same size cigar boxes, why not make two more. It was an experiment in mass production on a small scale.

Perhaps I could make lots of these tea bag caddies and sell them at craft shows, or give them away as gifts. I hear stories of other artisans who make many pieces of the same design and give them away. One ambitious person actually made several hundred small band saw boxes; one for every guest at his daughter’s wedding.

The result of my experiment was that I came to the realization that mass production is not for me. For one thing, carving boxes does not lend itself to mass production. It’s not like baking cookies or making a jar of peach jam for each of your relatives and friends. Other than using the same design, there is no economy of scale in carving since there are just as many wood chips removed no matter how many boxes you carve.

Even if there was a time benefit, I just don’t like making the same thing over and over again. I like to experiment with new approaches and different techniques. After I made the second tea bag caddy, the third one really became a chore. As I was making it I was thinking of all the other creations in my head that I could be making instead of this duplicate. I guess I’ll just stick to individual pieces.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been experimenting with creating things out of old cigar boxes. I’ve been using carving, pyrography and decoupage to transform these old wooden boxes into interesting works of art. The photo above shows a “good” result: a jewelry box for my daughter made from beautiful sapele wood with a nice thick top for carving. Unfortunately, on some other attempts I ran into problems. I’m glad the boxes are inexpensive, because a lot of them wind up on the scrap wood pile. Most of them are made to look exquisite in the cigar store, but a closer inspection shows their flaws. Here are some of the problems I have found working with recycled wooden cigar boxes. I hope you an learn from my experiences and save yourself some grief.

Severe Warping – Cigars demand a moisture rich environment. The wood for the box is probably newly cut and very moist. The air in the cigar store is kept humid. Then you bring the empty wooden box home to an atmosphere that is very dry by comparison. The result is severe warpage. See the photo below. Beautiful wood…nice box shape…but totally useless.

Laminated Wood and MDF – Some boxes are painted or stained. You sand of the finish only to find medium density fiberboard or cheap plywood. Bummer! The plywood is also a prime candidate for warping.
Label Removal – Otherwise known as a time-consuming exercise in screaming and cursing. Why is it that the nicest looking boxes have labels attached with glue that could be used to build steel bridges? Forget water as a solvent. Try paint thinner or mineral spirits. I even tried acetone. The label came off, and so did the finish. Because the labels are so hard to remove, you can easily scrape the surface if you are not careful. Labels on the inside of the cover are especially troublesome to remove. They are usually very colorful and foil coated. I tend to leave them on as reminder of the fact that the finished box was a cigar box at one time.
Cheap Hardware – Don’t expect the hinges and clasps to be top quality. In some cases, you might want to replace them with better hardware.
As a result of all this, I have become pickier at the cigar box bin. I now know what brands of cigar have the best boxes to work with. I still enjoy recycling these old ladies into beautiful maidens.

Ah, the burn of a good cigar... box, that is.

I picture one of my early ancestors, thousands of years ago, forging a metal spear point out of bronze and laying the hot metal object down on a piece of wood. “Hey, would ya look at that!” he would say, as the hot metal spear point burned a design into the wood. Thus, the art of wood burning or pyrography was born.

As crude as that early experience might have been, my recent experiences have not been much better. I have taken up the art of pyrography, which means I have invested in a decent burner transformer unit, a few tips of assorted shapes and a tip holder pen. I’m just a beginner, and still in the experimentation stage, but I’m starting to really enjoy this new hobby.

I am very fortunate to have a cigar superstore about 5 miles from my house. They sell empty wooden cigar boxes for one dollar each, ten for $6.00. There are sitting in a huge crate right near the entrance to the store, which doesn’t seem to stay full very long. I’ve been stocking up on boxes for several months now. Some of these boxes are very well made out of solid exotic woods with beautifully crafted box joint corners. Why do I feel like I’ve just given away my secret? Oh well, there are lots of boxes to go around.


This new interest of mine combines art with recycling, which makes me feel good about the enterprise in general. I’m still not sure what I will be doing with the finished boxes, but Christmas is coming up and they might make good gifts.

Have you ever tried pyrography? Have you ever tried to turn old cigar boxes into new works of art?