Dear Reader,
One of my main mantras since we turned a corner into 2024 has been visualize and manifest.
What do I want to see for my future self and family?
What do I want to see for US as a country and species?
Visualize and manifest
But I bet we could push it a bit more to incorporate
Normalization is in the eye of the Beholder
(reminiscent of sneakers in the 2024 dryer)
Did we visualize a sick, vampiric Corporate Machine that would capitalize on our incarceration system, knowingly traffic human beings for labor, and recruit migrant children for labor?
If not, we certainly have normalized it along the way.
Next Up : AI Generated Deep Fakes
(when we close our eyes, do we see what the machines see?)
I made three sales with my first Etsy shop offering crocheted goods back in 2013.
ToolBoxEarth's first home within the World Wide Web was on Etsy in 2021.
Making near 200 sales in my first two years.
Largely in part to sending personalized messages to potential patrons after they favorited an item.
Something Etsy had already slapped me on the wrist for.
(These messages are unsolicited. If you continue to send them we'll close down your shop blah blah paraphrasing blah)
We've all watched it implode.
We watched the Etsy Strike in 2022.
We've watched it become a new breed within the Corporate Machine causing handmade artisans a need to defend themselves against.
Wait. Etsy is supporting handmade artisans by offering a reasonably priced outlet who just adopted the cute tagline 'Keep Commerce Human'.
If Etsy is supporting the artisans, then why would there be an outcry?
Artisans coming forward and vacating the platform.
We're watching Etsy grasp at straws.
(and my personal favorite)
All Etsy needed to do was let us make.
Now hardly anything on the platform is handmade and www.etsy.com feels like the scene in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss just before the last Truffula Tree is chopped down.
It's now one of the many chaotic, big e-commerce platforms that emulates hanging out in a dumpster.
One of those really technicolor rusty dumpsters.
It's not just Etsy.
We seem to be losing patience with this...
(what to even call America in 2024)
Capitalistic, Techno-cratic Monarchy
In the past week, three private parties have contacted me via Etsy inquiring about purchasing my business.
This morning I noticed the ability to message another human on Etsy (go to someone's profile, click a lil envelope icon and write them a love letter) has been disabled.
So I wrote a version of the below message to Etsy Support this morning because I am unwilling to normalize a corporate entity removing my ability to communicate with other humans openly.
I'm sharing it with you to shine a light on how I feel as a Etsy Seller and handmade artisan in 2024. In hopes of one light reflecting off and catching another's, like ancient Egyptian mirrors.
ILLUMINATE
Dear Etsy,
With your new tagline of 'Keep Commerce Human' I am writing today to question with vomittable force about the revocation of the message button in users' profiles.
Etsy is intentionally drilling cracks and holes between handmade artisans and people looking for cool, handmade shit.
I no longer purchase from Etsy due to SO MANY terrible experiences. I am actively looking for other emerging, platforms that holds some semblance of humanity.
Business with and through Etsy holds nothing human about it.
What is your human life for, dear Reader?
To continue to support this corporation that intentionally drives distance between maker and patron?
Between hands and homes.
The antithesis of humane commerce, your sellers' are treated like cattle.
And we notice.
Cheers to the fall of Etsy,
Rachel
Etsy and I have officially broken up.
Yeah, I know. Break-ups are always hard,
but when the one you're breaking up with responds like this:
it becomes easier to let go.
Thanks for your support.
YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH SOMETHING SIMILAR?
Exactly- sometimes platforms change for the worse and Etsy can't just expect us to sit around loyally for table scraps.
What's really perplexing about these break-ups is that they feel mutual.
Like these platforms are distracted by something glimmering brighter than the services offered, and customers they have.
Funny, innit?
If it feels right to shed these overbearing, greedy relationships,
then don't doubt the decision.
We don't need to normalize table scraps.
Trust your instincts.
We're Creatives.
Remember why we started.
Remember the importance of handmade art.
Remember what you can do with your mind and hands is the commodity.
ToolBoxEarth runs entirely on raw networking.
If you have a second, please show your support to handmade artisans gettin' bullied by telling three friends about ToolBoxEarth.
Next time you purchase, consider purchasing it directly from the artist/maker, manufacturer or restaurant.
Warm their pocketbook by cutting out this weird world of apps and middle-men, and nuzzle your heart as a loving patron.
Two handmade e-commerce platforms worth getting to know and undeniably worthier of your business than Etsy and Amazon are:
goImagine seller plans starting at $2.50 a month and ALL profits are donated to charity. Each purchase and payment directly impacts the life of a child in need.
Artisans Cooperative born out of the 2022 Etsy Strike, this handmade cooperative offers a long-term, member owned handmade cooperative vowing to protect handmade. Buy-ins and supportive purchases alike.
Indie Sellers Guild not a marketplace exactly but they do have a directory of handmade artisans doubling as guild members. Just a forceful community of cool ass artists protecting each other and linking arms against Etsy and Big Tech, while also offering a myriad of support to the handmade community. Tune in for their inaugural ISG Virtual Convention April 13th and 14th
Haven't we been standing on the shoulders' of giants for long enough?
The Giants have become Monsters.
What would standing on our own two feet look like?
If it doesn't feel right, don't normalize it.
Please support handmade, and each other.
We need ya.
Don't be afraid to be mischievous.
With tongues sharp as knives,
