Here are some cute ice cream brooches I added last weekend. (If you follow me on instagram, you may have already seen these.)
I mentioned last week that Etsy changed the look of listing pages, and I thought I might as well give my shop a makeover as well. I'm still in the midst of making changes, but you can see a big difference already in that I've made my backgrounds consistent. Here's a screenshot of my new look. What do you think?
I had done a few hand-drawn backgrounds when I photographed my bird brooches last February. I liked the look, but reshooting everything in my shop seemed daunting. I'd been playing around with other backgrounds as well because I was really tired of neutral white and grey. But everything I tried seemed too busy or too boring. So I put the question out there to my fellow Etsy sellers on twitter for advice. Sarah Louise of branchbound said she really liked the hand-drawn ones I'd already done and suggested doing more. I decided right then to reshoot everything and create a more cohesive look.
I'm still tweaking things a bit and my images aren't perfect yet, but I'm so happy I did it. I feel like these backgrounds are so much more "me" than plain white, and they fit the aesthetic of my brooches better now. My brooches are colorful, quirky, and cute, and I think these simple line drawings, almost cartoonish looking, are a much better match.
I still need to design a new shop header, but it might be a little while before that is ready. I don't think I'll photograph my illustrated and embroidered journals on these backgrounds, nor the paintings that I'll be adding soon. But going forward, all the brooches will look like this...at least until I get bored with it.
I'm also happy that this look separates my shop from all the other felt makers out there (I think, anyway) and makes it more distinct. (I have already seen one person who "borrowed" my idea though, and I hope that doesn't happen too much or it sort of defeats the purpose.)
I'm brainstorming ideas for autumn too, and I'm happy to take suggestions. Is there anything (animal, vegetable, mineral? ha) that you would like to see as a brooch? I don't think I'll keep making felt brooches forever, so I'm kind of feeling an impetus to make all the ideas running around my head reality, sooner than later.
I love love love the new backgrounds. So quirky but so much fun, and the fact that they are reusable is genius. It would be so much harder to actually pin them on things so the fact that you can streamline is perfect.
ReplyDeleteBummer on the copycat, though. It seems to be inevitable that when you have a really good idea someone is going to come along and use it.
I agree Kristen, LOVE!!! the backdrops. I remember loving them when you shared a few a while back and I think you made a great decision doing it across the board. Well worth all that extra effort:)
ReplyDeleteAlso, my mom (lame i know but still..) always told me copying is the sincerest for of flattery. While it never reeeaally made me feel any less annoyed, it helped tiny bit. Besides we all know it was your idea first! Ha! ;)
Great work Mary.Xo
LOVE the new backgrounds! I think they're especially helpful with giving a sense of scale, because sometimes it can be hard to tell with a brooch. Too bad about the copycat, but that seems to be how things roll on Etsy now. Sigh.
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