Friday, September 17, 2010

Feature Friday - MoMuertos



It's Friday!!

Maybe it's my affinity for green. Maybe it's my affinity for birds. Or maybe it's that Dia de los Muertos is one of my favorite holidays. This interview is so exciting!

This Friday's interview is with a superhero seller, MoMuertos. Full-timer by day. Adventurous crafter by night! You'll find all sorts of goodies - from clay skulls to fabric flowers - all there to spice up your life!

My favorite is the "Minty Green Nicho With Bird and Heart" (though the Winter Cranberries Scarf is a very close second! - don't worry- you'll see it below!) This lil shadow box is both heartwarming and contemplative. But, mostly, it's insanely creative!


Enjoy the interview!

1. What is your shop name and URL?
MoMuertos http://www.momuertos.etsy.com

2. To which Etsy Teams do you belong?
SFETSY team
3. Please tell us about the items in your Etsy shop. What do you make? How did you learn your craft? What is involved in your creative process?
MoMuertos offers halloween and day of the dead inspired skull decor, fun family-made crochet scarves and shawls, and accessories. The items in our shop are handmade by my family. Mom always encouraged our imaginations and creativity ... she had us crafting at an early age. I remember drawing, sculpting, and making toys and jewelry. We hand made a lot of gifts. We got to be creative and really had fun in the process. Even today, we'll see something neat in a store and come away thinking "I can make that!"

4. Tell us two (or more) other interesting things about you.
I'm a cubicle drone by day, crafter by night, and I love to geek out on Etsy. Even researching seller permit and sales tax issues was an adventure to me (I was like, look at the killer spreadsheet I made! *dance). I have a great family and we have had a fun time with the shop so far. You can see that while a lot of our items have a Day of the Dead motif, we each have our own individual style. When we’re not doing crafty things, we spend our time hanging out together, singing terrible karaoke, and just trying to live happily.

5. What is your favorite item in your shop? Why is it your favorite?
It changes from day to day. Right now, it's a sweet little bell-shaped box with a red crepe flower and sheepish looking skull. It has a bit of glitter on the stem, and polka dots painted inside the box. I like how lighthearted it is ... it would be a fun gift to get. http://www.etsy.com/listing/42312874/bloom-where-you-are-planted-black-and


6. What advice do you have for other folks selling or buying on Etsy?
Enjoy it! And let it show that you do through your products, presentation, and interactions. We don't have enough time on this earth to waste it on stressful work ... we need to fo
cus on the areas of our lives that bring us joy. Creating and sharing our work should be a rewarding experience that we can share with the Etsy community.

7. What has been your biggest success and/or proudest moment since opening your Etsy shop?
When we opened shop, some wonderful friends purchased gifts from us. It was really encouraging to have their support. We recently had our first two sales to people we didn't know though, and it felt awesome to know that someone liked our work enough to spend their hard earned money on it. I felt like quoting Sally Field: "...this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"

8. What does buying and selling local handmade mean to you, and how has it affected your life?
It means supporting people in the cities and communities that I care the most about ... and encouraging people to learn to make and do things on their own, rather than looking for prepackaged solutions.


9. Give us some insight on how you personally, or your shop, gives back to your community.
I read a lot of interviews on Etsy for people who want to "quit your day job." My dream is much smaller than that. I actually like my job ... my goal is to take what I make and use it to buy handmade gifts for my family from other Etsy shops. There's such a wide range of talented people out there! I want to sell items on Etsy so that I can buy items from other sellers. I like the idea of the online community supporting each other that way and being self sustaining.

10. Where else can we find out more about you and/or your creations?
When I'm wearing my crafting crown, you can find me at my uber garage workbench. Or, online at the following places:

Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

5 comments:

Kelly aka STITCHNMOMMA said...

Mo has a great shop! I talk to her on the Etsy forums frequently, but it's really nice to read some of the other "stuff" we don't talk about in the forums.

Great feature!
:)

Anonymous said...

Aw, Stitchie! Thank you. And many thanks to Ash (aka kellydrive) and Jen (aka mamasmagicstudio) for the post. You're great. :-)

VeganCraftastic said...

Great feature, I love Mo's shop!

Unknown said...

you are invited to follow my blog

Anonymous said...

I love anything Dia de los Muertos and in the past have tried my hand at making some of the arts and crafts related to that. I'm glad to have someone on our team doing this- great article!
@ Steve- your comment is spam as it has nothing to do with the article above.

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