Spotlight on Mizz Shelley

I'm happy to put up our second team member spotlight, the fabulous Shelley of Mizz Shelley's Vintage Finery and Findings.   She's a keeper!

First, Please tell us a little about yourself.
have you ever heard of dahlonega, georgia?  didn’t think so - that’s where I grew up and went to college.  after school i moved to atlanta, where i lived for the past 12 years prior to moving to vegas last summer.  currently i like:  working for myself, learning how to play golf, and exploring this crazy city.  the only thing I truly dislike is cauliflower.  it is disgusting.
 
Your shop Mizzshelley's Vintage finery + findings has some real neat vintage items including jewelry, buttons and hairpins.  How did you get started collecting them?
well, that would be my mom’s fault – she raised us on antiquing!  to me, vintage buttons are tiny works of art - the amount of detail in some of the older ones is just mind-boggling.  A lot of the headbands I make come from vintage fabrics rescued at estate sales – it makes me so happy to save someone’s handiwork from (heaven forbid) the dumpster.   i think it’s really important to respect the past,  luckily I get to do that through my work.

In this economy it is hard to make ends meet.  Do you have any tips for keeping costs down in your business or improving sales?
i recently started blogging about this topic at www.mizzshelley.blogspot.com …i don’t think I would have been in business this long (7+ years) if i didn’t practice what i preach! 

here are 5 tips off the top of my head:
1. learn how to take good photos.  read the boring camera manual. you’ll be glad you did it. 
2. don’t think you have to pay someone to do everything for you!  the internet is an invaluable tool for finding free ways to make your own photo booth, blog banner, website, etc.
3. don’t be intimidated by your computer – learning new technology can be scary, but it can also be rewarding and save you money. 
4. package your products in a way that helps customers understand what it is or why it’s special.  if you do craft shows, make your booth eye-catching and your displays effective. 
5. focus.  believe in what you make and why you make it.  that will shine through to your customers!

Is there any advice you wish you would have had prior to starting your own small business?  If so, what is it?
try to attend a craft show once before deciding to participate in it.  spending alot of money on booth fees, even if it’s only $40 here and there, really adds up at the end of the year (especially if the show wasn’t profitable)!  time is money: a saturday spent at a bomb-of-a-show could’ve been a saturday spent making new items or working on your website.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
yes! In honor of the anniversary of my first year in vegas, i’d like to have a little contest.  there are two ways to enter:  1. post a comment about a mizzshelley.blogspot.com post – be sure to mention handmade in vegas or etsy in your comment (each comment gets you 1 entry)  2.  become a follower of my blog (good for one entry). 

enter as many times as you’d like!  the winner will be drawn from a hat 1 week after this interview is posted, and will receive 1 complimentary item (with free shipping) from my etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/mizzshelley).  good luck, fellow las vegans!  

Meet Your Team Mate (and Team Creator) Sarah Flake of Flaky Friends

Las Vegas didn’t have an Etsy Team 2 month’s ago.  Now we have a team with over 180 members.  Sarah is our fearless leader and the inspiration behind the team.  It is only fitting that the first team interview be with her.
 
Tell us a little about your shop: What do you make and sell?
I make my cartoon doodles into 3-D, super huggable, incredibly silly stuffed animals.  I've been doing these doodles ever since I could hold a pencil but it wasn't until 3 years ago that I made my first "Flaky Friend."  Having children really made me want to create something more tangible.  I'm no expert seamstress, and can't follow a pattern to save my soul, but luckily there is no wrong way to make these guys so however they turn out is how they are meant to be.  While I'm creating them, I also try and figure out their personality so by the time they are listed in shop, they're all packaged with all kinds of emotional baggage, life stories and dreams of their own.

 
What was the first "Flaky Friend" you made?  Describe the creative "spark" behind the your "Flaky Friend"’s.
I have six sisters who are all crafty and had just spent two weeks over Christmas break creating all sorts of creative goodies with them.  When I got home from that trip, I had caught the craft bug in a serious way.  I loved my doodles, and my kids loved toys, so I went from there.  My first toy I attempted was a manatee.  I wanted to get some practice making a stuffed animal before attempting my real goal, a purple pony for my daughter and the manatee design I had come up with seemed simple enough.  The manatee is a certified disaster.  When I showed my husband and friends, they all gave me the same feedback - "sewing is not for you."  But it was such fun that I stuck at it and in no time, I had created a pony for my very appreciative 3 year old daughter.   I would go into toy stores to "feel up" their toys, to see where seams were and how they were made.  After a while, I'd gotten the hang of it and people actually started asking how much my items were selling for.  Thus my Etsy shop was born!
 
Do you have a favorite piece of work, that you would like to show to us?
I do.  I used to always have a lucky rabbits foot on my backpack when I was in elementary school.  Of course these aren't p.c. anymore, but I do kind of miss the idea of them.  So I made a stuffed rabbit's foot plush accessory.  But along with that, I had to make the rabbit it came from so I ended up with the "Lucky Rabbit's Foot, Unlucky Rabbit."  I showed this piece in a plush show in St. Louis in 2008 and it was a real hit.  I have pet rabbits so this particular piece really makes me laugh.


What prompted you to form this team?
I didn't have anyone in all of Vegas to bounce art ideas off and was looking for some kind of art support group.  I'd moved here only a year before and felt utterly devoid of any artistic inspiration in Vegas. I went to join my local Etsy team, found there was none, and decided that unacceptable.  I'm the kind of person that needs to act on my ideas otherwise they drive me insane.  Honestly, I wasn't thinking long term. I just thought I'd get 10 or 12 locals together, enough to call a "team" to make Vegas look less pathetic on the Etsy Teams page!  But 100 millions ideas later, we've got a real force on our hands!
 
This team went from non-existent to huge membership in a short amount of time.  How quickly did the team form from the idea?
I decided to start the team at about 10pm on April 29th and began contacting Las Vegas based Etsy sellers asking if they would be interested in joining me. By May 1st, we had close to 30 members and I scheduled our first team meeting for the 25th.  On May 18th I ran into the coordinator for ArtsWalk at a community arts meeting, told her about our team, and she asked us to provide crafters for their event - they had none and wanted to create a monthly craft fair. On May 20th, after a small but impressive showing our our crafters at the new ArtsWalk event, we were asked by the Henderson Business District to partner with them to create a vibrant monthly craft fair using mainly our team members.  By our meeting on the 25th, we had 181 members and I had stopped actively recruiting.  At our meeting, team member Robi from NevadaWoodsWearables presented plans to hold our first team craft fair on August 8th.  On the 26th, we won our Etsy grant for $150 for team promo items.  We currently have 195 members.</P< strong>>

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
I've always had a strange, romantic dream of New Zealand.  The fjords, the ocean, the open land - I'd love to live on a farm there and live the good life  in the wild beauty of it.  I'd spend the hours of 4pm to 9pm staring blissfully into the sunset with the wind blowing through my hair.  Someday I'll actually visit - but I almost hesitate to because I don't want to ruin my dream!
 
Is there anything else you would like to share?
My mom made sure all seven of her daughters ended up Renaissance women.  She encouraged me to learn violin (a hobby I still dearly enjoy), got me excited about art history, taught me how to make my own solutions using whatever resources I have on hand, how to use a sewing machine, how to connect with my soul.  I always have to mention her when I talk about my artsy side because I owe all my crazy passions to her education of us girls.  She's an amazing woman.  She always encouraged all of us to "bloom where we are planted" and I think we've made the most of that.  I love to think I can make a difference in this world.  I can think that because she believes I can.  I've got two daughters of my own now, and hope to pass down her legacy of artistic passion self assurance.  So I guess I just want to say I love my Mom!  

I want to thank Sarah for visiting with us and for creating this team.  

These are the places you can find Sarah and her Flaky Friends.


Website: Flaky Friends
Etsy: Flaky Friends
Blog: Flaky Friends
Facebook: Flaky Friends-plush-with-issues
Team: Handmade In Vegas