Update June 2, 2014- On 8/26/2013 I
blogged about a great new website market place for handcrafted arts and crafts
items. The site was called Craftinest.
Unfortunately
Craftinest is now no longer online. No one knows what happened.
Though Craftinest did post on their facebook page that a fire had
destroyed much of their sites equipment and they held out a promise to us that
they would repair the damage and get the site back up and running . . . that
promise is yet to materialize. As I update this post is has been
about 9 months since anyone has heard from Craftinest. Craftinest has not
bothered to update their facebook page nor notify any of their many shop owners
as to what is going on. All our emails are returned as
undeliverable. We have pretty much given up hope that Craftinest will
repair the fire damage and reestablish their website.
Personally
I believe that they grew too quickly and the inundation of so many artists and
crafters overwhelmed them and their sites capacity to handle such an influx of
shops and traffic. The loss of Craftinest is sad as it held forth so much
potential . . . but sometimes things are simply not meant to be.
Below is my
old blog post of 8/26/2013 -
***********
I recently ran across a new and upcoming website for artist and crafters called Craftinest .
Yes it is just a baby and has not been discovered and there is always a possibility that it may not make it into the big time the way Etsy or Artfire has. But the fact that it is new intrigues me and so I took the plunge and filled out my application.
Application? Why? Well they say they want to have a website that will be solely for handcrafted items and they wanted it to be innovative, fresh and filled with marvelous artists and crafters . . . well aren't we all marvelous artists and crafters? Craftinest claims that their site is juried and in order to have a shop there one has to be juried in. It sounded like this might be a good way to discourage all those bogus handmade shops that are really just resellers in a thin veil of disguise . . . a very thin, almost transparent veil.
Unfortunately Craftinest's jurying process is not done by a devoted, unbiased team of artist and crafters but by the public and I need 100 votes in order just to be considered for their site. I'm sure you can all see where this is going, right?
(Yes, I'm blatantly soliciting your vote - please click here and give me a vote or a heart:
AlmostPrecious - on the chopping block at Craftiness.com
Since Craftinest is so new it is not yet inundated with a barrage of visitors, so those applying for a shop will have to provide their own voters. I even received an email from Craftinest encouraging me to go on facebook etc. and encourage all my friends and followers to vote for me. They told me if I can get 200 votes and 4 hearts I'll be automatically juried in.
That's not exactly how I've had to go about being juried into an art show - it was never a popularity contest but was done by a separate panel of unbiased judges that judged on the merit of the artist's art or the crafter's craft, taking into consideration their originality and the quality of their work.
Pictured are a couple of pieces that I entered for jurying, if you click on the photos it should take you to my voting page . . . hint, hint. :)
Oh and if any of you decide you'd like to join me on Craftinest please let me know so that I can give you my vote . :)
That was easy, Anna! I was pleased to see they didn't go after my "information" and the voting was one-click easy. I certainly hope this becomes a force of change in the handmade market.
ReplyDeleteMonique - Thank You. :) And I am really glad that they made the process easy - I had quite forgot how some site require registration before one can even enter their site.
ReplyDeleteBut I do think that Craftiness has potential and, well . . . nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Thanks again. :)
I VOTED :)
ReplyDeleteI was glad too I didn't have to sign in to do it :)
Wishing you well, Anna, cheers, T. :)
Thank you T. :)
DeleteI voted! I hope it works out and you get some sales.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Annette.
DeleteIf it were voting with hands up, I'd raise both :) I'll share this on my FB page, asking even my non-crafty friends to vote - at least, they've made it easy :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your support and I truly appreciate your sharing on FB. That is very sweet of you. :)
DeleteI am happy that Craftinest has made the voting so easy and even happier that they do not ask that voters register with them. I always dislike having to fill out a form with my user-name and a password.
Done. It took a moment for me to figure out that I had to actually click on the hearts. Best of luck to you.
ReplyDeleteThank you KJ for your vote. I appreciate it. :)
DeleteYes I too think there could have been a little more explanation on Craftinest's voting page.
I voted for you, but I'm not impressed with this method of getting in. The site is trying to drive people to it by strangling the applicant with a required number of people. Basically, they're making you do their marketing job. Which you would do ANYWAY if you had a store there, so to do this to you seems... kinda mean. But you have fabulous stuff, so hopefully it all works out for you! :)
ReplyDeletevoted , and your work is awesome ,
ReplyDeletewishing you all the best !
Done! I was gonna try and join but not if it takes 100 votes to get me in. :(
ReplyDeleteVOTED!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete