From Art Star to Hunter Gatherer: How Teresa O'Connor has helped shape Houston craft

Houston craft would be quite different without Teresa O’Connor. This sculptor turned boutique owner helped pioneer the indie craft culture of Houston with a pop up shop called Art Star founded in 2004. Art Star was located inside of art galleries, bars, and later Retropolis in the Heights. I asked Teresa some questions about her history of being a maker.

Read the rest of the article here on Pop Shop Houston news.

Etsy Team Fellowships applications due October 1st

Here is a link to the information and application.

Top 5 Things We Learned at the Etsy Houston meeting Sept. 19th

1. www.houstoncraftcalendar.com is a great resource for events and markets

2. Etsy has an option to "shop locally" on the left side bar. This shop locally feature is widely used in Texas. Sellers should make sure that their location is in their shop information.

3. Specific tags like "Nintendo" and "Zelda" or "horse show ribbon" and "vintage ribbon" often work better than more popular broader tags like "handmade" or "DIY".

4. Think of your product titles as tags.

5. Treasuries are a great way to promote groups of people or groups of shops all at once (like all the Etsy Houston members for example). This is something that you can post to your facebook and blog as well to cross-promote.

Here is the treasury we made yesterday! We will continue to do this for our Etsy Houston colleagues once a month or so. Hope to see you at the next meeting in January.

https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUwMDAyODl8MjcyMjQ0NTgyOQ/etsy-houston-sunshine