Handmade by design: Wichitans get creative on Etsy
Imagine if a craft show, an antique shop and a Goodwill store merged into one. Such a thing exists at Etsy.com. Etsy is the global marketplace for handmade crafts and vintage items, where anyone can buy or sell one-of-a-kind items from anywhere in the world. And many Etsy crafters live right here in town.
Here’s a look at a few shop owners from Wichita:
Allison Stucky
Shop: Shoe Designs by Allison, specializing in hand-painted canvas shoes www.ShoeDesignsByAllison.etsy.com
Price range: $45-$140
Most people receive junk mail or bills, but Allison Stucky finds canvas shoes in her mailbox. “People send me Chuck Taylors and Vans and all kinds of canvas shoes,” Stucky said. “Someone even sent me a shower curtain to paint.” Stucky takes these shoes, or shower curtains, and hand-paints any design the buyer requests onto the canvas. The most popular request? Harry Potter’s Marauder’s Map.
“It’s the only map I have memorized,” Stucky said. “I could do it in my sleep.”
Stucky, 41, has hand-painted over 700 pairs of shoes in her Etsy shop, Shoe Designs By Allison.
“Only two other shoe painters were on Etsy when I started selling,” said Stucky about starting on Etsy in 2009. “Now there’s 2,000.”
Stucky’s customers come from all over the world. You might meet a pair of her shoes in Canada, New Zealand, Australia or Singapore.
“My logo has the Wichita skyline behind the ‘Design Your Sole’ text, so I try to make sure people know where I’m coming from,” Stucky said.
She sells some shoes at the Porter Street Art Show, so her global business still works locally. “Etsy makes it easy to reach customers I wouldn’t normally be able to,” Stucky said. “It’s a huge benefit.”
Linda Hicks
Shop: Cats Paw Pottery, specializing in Victorian-style pottery, www.catspawpottery.etsy.com
Price Range: $8-$50
Linda Hicks of Cats Paw Pottery got her start in pottery while sweating in gingham and bloomers at Silver Dollar City.
“From then, I decided I really don’t want to do outdoor work,” Hicks said. “So let’s try online.”
Hicks, 67, and her three helpful cats turned to Etsy in 2009, where she traded in her red clay for slab-rolled stoneware with colors and Victorian motifs.
The shop’s name is derived from the handiwork of Precious, Joni and Bart, the “helpers,” that leave paw prints in clay when Hicks turns her back. Hick’s made-to-order pottery features petal points and vines that can be customized. The average potter dips a dried piece into glaze after a two-week drying period, but Hicks uses a spray gun with hers — these motifs are so fine and intricate, they require hand-worked attention. And then, the piece needs to sit another 16 hours.
“So it’s a long process actually,” Hicks said. “It’s not quite so simple.”
Hicks, who is now retired, initially melded her pottery with her job as a social worker at the Maude Carpenter Children’s Home in Wichita.
“My first dream in pottery was to mix it with the social work therapy part,” Hicks said.
She started helping the children design pieces as a creative outlet, as well as teaching workshops at Joyce Meyer Dream Center Christmas events for children in St. Louis. “We did a lot of pottery there,” Hicks said. “It was a kind of art therapy.”
Now Hicks enjoys working full time from home on Etsy, where she can create on a whim, but still have time for family.
“I can take care of my granddaughter more,” Hicks said. “I really wanted to get to know her, and it’s hard to do that when you’re working away from home.”
Amy Young
Shop: Foam on the Range, specializing in handmade sunflower soaps, www.foamontherange.etsy.com
Price Range: $3 for a lip balm to $20 for conditioner, with soaps at $6.50 a bar
Amy Young, 36, brings a new twist on an old favorite in her soap and cosmetic shop, Foam On the Range. There she provides a slew of sunflower oil soaps with clever names like “Back in the Saddle” or “Harvest Moon Rising.”
“Most of my soaps come from a feeling,” Young said.
She uses her experiences as soap-spiration. “Soap is a very sense-driven process. I wanted to capture what it feels like to stand in a Kansas meadow, when there’s a moon and a breeze,” Young said. “The scent I came up with could only be called Prairie Twilight.”
These “prairie-chic” soaps have even more local ties. Young collaborates with the Wichita Brewing Co. and River City Brewing Co. to create six malty bars of beer soap. Hops have antioxidants, and the malt provides amino acids for extra conditioning, so naturally, Young wanted to include these elements in a soap.
“I feel strongly about staying local and really want to invest in relationships with local groups,” she said. “I do my best to team with local places wherever I can.”
Tayla Naden
Shop: Wildfire Accessories, specializing in jewelry made from flattened pennies, www.wildfireaccessories.etsy.com
Price Range: $9 to $28
Tayla Naden is a “handmade entrepreneur addict,” who works full time to make her shop, Wildfire Accessories, flourish on Etsy. And it certainly has.
“I really enjoy experimenting and learning, which is why I’ve had so many different mediums over the years,” Naden said.
Naden, 27, creates mixed-media jewelry from a penny base, clear coat, and a paper embellishment, which results in a shiny pop of color. These buttons can be affixed to earring posts, pendants, rings or strung together in a bracelet.
She recently upgraded from a slippery hand drill to drill press for joining bracelet links. With her new tools, Naden can flatten and finish 200-400 pennies a week, and still find time to sell at craft shows on the weekends.
Naden likes creating new designs from her customer’s requests, such as a “Big Bang Theory” key chain “with three pennies on it, so it said ‘knock knock knock “Penny?”’ just like Sheldon does,” Naden said. “I continue to experiment with different techniques and combining different things; it helps fuel my creativity.”
Naden sells out of a few consignment stores, like the Wichita Art Museum and CityArts. But she and other handmade artists use Etsy as a “good base to refer people to,” so buyers at shows can peruse the collection online, and send the links to their friends.
Does she have a favorite piece? No. “Everything I do, I made sure it’s exactly what I want it to look like,” Naden said. “So everything I make is my new favorite.”
The Etsy community has helped connect her to other artists. “I think Wichita is really growing when it comes to handmade or art or just being creative in general,” Naden said. “I had no idea there was more people like me.”
Kristie Finney
Shop: KS Handmade Florals, specializing in silk floral arrangements, www.kshandmadeflorals.etsy.com
Price Range: $5 for cards, and arrangements from $20 to $70
Kristie Finney’s floral designs started out as a problem.
“I can get bored easy, and I started making too many arrangements” said Finney, 31, about her overflowing workroom.
But an Etsy shop was the answer. “People wanted to buy them,” Finney said. “Turns out I love it.”
Finney creates bouquets, topiaries, and baskets of floral arrangements in her shop, KS Handmade Florals. She uses silk flowers so customers can have statement pieces that will last. Finney started in flowers for her best friend’s wedding. When she made all the arrangements and bouquets, she knew it was something she loved.
“It’s something I can see myself doing for a long time,” Finney said.
Finney’s real joy comes from custom work. She prefers a challenge, like a request for a statement piece with just the color scheme included.
“I knew it would be the only thing in the room,” Finney said. “So it had to be good.” Finney tied together the buyer’s love of blue and her cottage decor with an eclectic arrangement of cobalt peonies and cattails.
Some of her arrangements take a couple of hours to complete while others take a couple of days, but Finney clips and hedges until the the piece is perfect.
“I’m all about putting a smile on someone’s face by doing my job,” she said.
This story was originally published October 5, 2014 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Handmade by design: Wichitans get creative on Etsy."