Date joined etsy- 7/7/09
Sales to date - 443
-Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.Hi, my name is Angela Traunig. I currently live in Atlanta, Georgia with my husband, son, 2 dogs (a Dobe and a Rottie) and 3 cats. Yes we have a house full! Somehow I manage to cram a studio space in there too! I've always had a crazy amount of animals, so this is actually as close to normal as it gets for me. In the past (not necessarily all at once) I've had dogs, cats, parakeets, fish, hamsters, bearded dragons...you get the idea. I think the funniest time was when I had almost all of them at the same time. At that time I had a crazy little Bichon dog that liked to gnaw on the corner of the hamster's glass terrarium while the hamster ran around gloating. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
What else...I am a full time elementary school art teacher, a mom and a full time artist...so umm...can we say no sleep?! :) I love it though. What other things do I love...fruit, chocolate, salt, flowers, standing out on the carport watching it rain, roads that go through old forests, a brand new box of Crayola crayons and not using the gold and silver so they'll last longer...Ooo!..and the sound of the ocean at night when I go camping at the beach. That sound is kind of like falling asleep on the couch when you were a child and your parents were still hanging out playing cards with their friends. There's comfort in the background sounds and knowing that life is going on around you while you sleep.
-Describe an average day in life of "you".
'Average day' is a total laugh when you have a full time job, an art career and a family that includes animals and a toddler...but ok, I'll give it a try...
I get up around 5-5:30am and get ready for work while my husband gets our son off to daycare. I work at an elementary school as the art teacher and get done around 3:30pm. If we don't have meetings I am home around 4-4:30pm. I have a snack and watch 20 minutes of tv and then I get to work either printing, packaging, going to the post office, drawing, answering emails, or surfing the web looking for business information, good blogs, advertising ideas etc... Around 7pm I'm fixing dinner for 3, which usually includes 2 totally different menus! I sit on the couch with my son while he eats (the dining room table is my work space, so he's totally getting bad habits) and then when he crashes at 9:30pm I'm finishing my dinner cold. I get back to work if I can (probably on flowers this time) and roll into bed somewhere between 10pm-midnight.
-Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?Oh yes, but I think all kids are. My favorite things were painting, coloring as perfectly as possible, and making landscapes out of real dirt and twigs and rocks glued to paper.
-What made you want to start selling on etsy?
All my knobby knee critters starting invading my thoughts while I was pregnant with my son. I guess the pregnancy hormones were fuel for art for me. I don't really remember how I found Etsy the very first time, but with the low cost to get started and all these drawings I had for no reason, I figured what the heck!
-How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
It took me about a week to get my first sale. From the very beginning (my first sale even!) it was custom orders, and I started to realize that I had a great format for creating art for nurseries tailored to the clients decor.
-Top 5 favorite foods, tv shows, and bands?Food... fruit, chocolate, cheese, casseroles, salty things
tv shows... Fringe, Warehouse13, Top Gear, House Hunters International, Star Trek NG
Bands...I'm much more about the individual songs and the singability than I am about specific bands.
-Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing? Knitting, baking, soap making, wood working, an instrument, etc.
EVERYTHING! Seriously, if I won the lottery I'd have the biggest, best stocked studio ever, with a space for every conceivable art form!
-What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?Relisting/renewing is key. I spend on average, $100 a month on relisting/renewing. You gotta spend money to ...well, you know.
Have a decent sized selection (more than 1 page of items).
Check in and comment in forums and blog articles.
The most important advice I can give is to figure out what your market is, who is your target customer. If you love to create religious folk art, then you need to focus on websites, craft fairs, and parts of Etsy that are suited to you. If you create wedding jewelry then you need to focus on that narrow subset of the jewelry market. Find a niche!
I suggest finding a successful shop like yours, and figure out what they are doing. Don't be a copycat, but you can learn a lot by following a great leader.
-3 etsy shops you just LOVE?
Ridiculorum
TheFancyLamb
atelierBB
-One year from now, I hope...
To live in a house big enough for a proper studio. To be doing my art full time. To have another bun in the oven.
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Have an etsy shop with over 300 sales and want to be a featured seller? Contact me at phletcher@gmail.com
As always, thanks for reading :)
