Etsy Success Event & the Bug get internet famous!

Last night I spoke at Etsy HQ for their Etsy Success Series and you can sign up to view the talk here. I was really excited about the topic, Customer Service, because it is so important to me as a small business and also such a challenge for me. Keeping on top of custom orders and responding to an overwhelming inbox are huge struggles for me. I feel like I'm always behind since most of my work is made to order.

I really wanted to approach Customer Service form a sellers point of view. I kept these questions in mind:

• How can a seller make their job easier, more efficient, and streamlined in terms of customer service?
• How can we better connect with our customers?
• How can we build community with other sellers to help support each other and grow our businesses?
• How can I make my customer's experience the best it can be so that they not only come back, but also share their experience with others? 

Here's one of my slides. Bug made it into my talk not once, but twice. AND he even got a mention by one of the other speakers!

Here's a brief overview of what I talked about & some tips I learned from the event. I'd love to hear your thoughts and your own experience.

Customer Service Checklist
1. Great photographs, listing text and a policy page
- Answers buyers questions with images & text.
- Make sure to visualize and use the drop down menu for any options or customizations
- Break down your listing details: introductory paragraph, item details, processing times and shipping info.

2. Convos
- Join the Etsy Convo Improvements Team for the updated convo system. It's rad! Much more user friendly.
- Write with a smile! Avoid frustration with kind, short & sweet replies.
- Try your best to reply as soon as you can, at least in 24 hours. Answering convos helps make sales!

3. Be You
- Rock your About page with an awesome portrait and interesting bio. Link your FB, twitter & blog.
- Be as personal as you can with your customers. Use their name in all your communications. Thank returning customers!
- Join a team & try doing in person events like fairs or teaching.

- Share bits of your work & life on social media. Blog, tweet, FB, Instagram. You don't have to do it all. Pick at least one and run with it!

4. After the sale
- Celebrate! You are doing a good job and you need to recognize that.
- Make a strong “Message to the Buyer” that clearly states you’ve received their order, restate briefly your processing times and shipping days. Leave a link for your buyers to opt into your mailing list.
- Get organized. Print out orders receipts or make a simple sales document.
- Communicate! Update customers on their orders if there is any delay. 

- Let them know when their order ships, and provide a tracking number (US only).

5. Packaging
- Make it a treat! Personalize it with a handwritten note and make it a delightful experience.
- Say thank you with thoughtful extras and packaging. Target your extras to help market your shop. Sell prints? Include a mini print. Cards? Include a cute address label. It could be as simple as a postcard that features a beautiful image of one of your items.
- Include a business card and coupon code. 

- Aim for your customers to have a word of mouth worthy experience with your packaging & item.

Photos: Cheyne of Cut Out & Collect- thanks lady!!

You can sign up to view a taping of the event here.

Please let me know what you think! I'd love to hear from sellers & buyers. Any tips to add?

BUST Craftacular highlights...

It was such a beautiful day in Dumbo, very cold, but beautiful. I discovered the Cinnamon Snail, with ridiculously delicious vegan food and donuts, and ate wayyyy too much. Postography helped me send my mom a postcard pic of me & Jeremy for our moms via a camera phone snap, which made a great personal mother's day surprise. It was really nice to see some friends there too.

I swear that was Patti Smith checking out my wares. I really wanted to ask, but thought "Nah, it couldn't be." Could it?...

Pizza socks!! & the girl wearing these socks wrote about the fair on their blog & gave Jeremy's beard a big shout out!! so cuuuute!

Felt like a total creeper asking this girl if I could take a pic of her neon Hip Hop earrings. Although here they read, HIPPOH. Either way, so good...

Fairs are so much work, but at least it was a pretty day & I got to stuff my face with the most nommy food. I might have to stalk the Cinnamon Snail now...

Let's meet at Etsy HQ!

This coming Wednesday I'll be speaking at Etsy HQ as part of their ongoing Etsy Success series. At Keep Buyers Coming Back, you'll hear from me and a few Etsy admin with loads of info and tips about great customer service, custom items, and coupon codes. AND we should take lots of pictures in the photo booth and there's a raffle for an Etsy gift card too!

I'm really looking forward to the event and can't wait to share my best tips. Hope you can make it!

Let's get together yeah, yeah yeah!
Etsy Success Series: Keep Buyers Coming Back
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Brooklyn, NY

If you're not in NY you can always sign up to watch the online presentation.

DIY: Sewn Crepe Paper Installation

My friend Chelsea, a surface pattern designer and artist, makes some of the best party decor I’ve seen. Once I went to her house for a party and she had created an elaborate weaved crepe paper installation. I was in love with the it- so fun and colorful. I asked her to share a project here and give us some tips on creating our own crepe paper installations. 

The materials are super minimal and once sewn the crepe paper is much more durable and could even be used again. Chelsea picks a theme, for this one rainbows, and just plays with the materials trying to fill up the space. There’s so much creative room for play with the colors you use and how you can hang, twist, stripe, weave and polka dot your space with sewn crepe paper. I imagine this design would be perfect for a kids party!

MATERIALS
- 10 rolls (Target is inexpensive and has a wide color selection)
- upholstery tacks NOTE: these will make holes on your wall. You can try taping the crepe paper to avoid the tacks, but creating shapes like the clouds is hard to do without tacking them down.
- sewing thread

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Sew two to three pieces of crepe paper together using your sewing machine. Chelsea used this tutorial by Dana Made It. To keep things simple she only used the forward stitch and taped the sewn ends of the crepe paper to avoid unraveling.
2. Visualize your theme & play with the materials. Think of threading them together like a weaving, twisting them into spirals, or even hanging them from a dowel over the way or a doorway.
- The cloud is made by creating flat circular shapes anchored by tacks and twisted into three-dimensional single spirals.
- The rainbow is 5 rows of the sewn crepe paper.
- Polka dots are three pieces of crepe paper sewn together and mounted with a single tack.
- Definitely play around with the paper. It’ll want to lay or fall certain ways.

FYI - Chelsea will leave her installations up for awhile and noticed that direct sunlight fades the colors and darker colors can stain your fingertips a bit.

Chelsea also has a Etsy shop, Blue Ship Wreck. And you should totally hit her up for creating an installation for you! I want one in my studio in black and gray and lime!

Maddie on Things book tour...

Did I mention I met Maddie?! I went to the Maddie on Things book launch at PowerHouse Arena. It was such a beautiful evening, so we took a ferry ride to Dumbo. A warm spring evening is very high on my list of best things ever. Add boat rides and meeting Maddie & Theron and I'm a goofy, happy kid. 

As soon as I entered the event I stood there a bit shocked it was so packed. Maddie wandered right up to me nosed my hand as if to say, "Welcome" and then went about saying hello to other people. The line for a signed book wrapped around the giant store! I'm glad I waited though, because I got a signed copy with a Maddie foot print and got to tell Theron how much I love his work. 

I love the book and am so inspired by Theron's other projects too: Why We Rescue & This Wild Idea. Traveling, meeting interesting people, photographing them and sharing their stories seems so fulfilling and fun...

Are you a Maddie fan too?

Recent stitches

Lately, I've been juggling so much- orders, promoting my book, wholesale orders and while its all so great I'm a bit overwhelmed. One thing that keeps me going as a small batch maker of bespoke goods is finishing a project and mailing it off. It feels so good to know that the things I make will have another life and story after they leave me. Corny, as it sounds it's a very fulfilling part of what I do and who doesn't love crossing things off their to-do list too?!

These gray handkerchiefs are for the groomsmen in a wedding party. The bride and groom picked all the colors and each is different- such a fun, custom gift...

And had to share this one of Bastian. His goofy face & little lips! He always makes the weirdest faces. Love him...

My momma...

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day! My mom, Cici, is the pretty much the sweetest thing ever. She loves wholeheartedly, is the kindest lady you'll ever meet, and is very creative. Every time I call her she's either sewing or gardening. I always miss being with her on days like yesterday. Being so far from my family is the worst part of loving living in NY. I always feel split in two.

Missing my mom (my dad & grandparents everyday, who all left us this past year. Holidays are hard. ) so much made me think of a good day we had together when I was home last. Her little bird, Corky, needed his wings clipped so we went to the local bird shop. My mom was so excited to share this store with me, because she knew I'd love all the little toys and bird decor. 

This baby African Grey is not Corky, but so very cute. 

What did you do for mother's day? Do any of you live far away from your family too?

Happy Mother's Day + DIY Card

Wishing all the moms out there a very happy Mother's Day.

To help you celebrate I made this pattern for you, which I shared with How About Orange. You can find the full instructions + pattern as a download here. Super sweet gesture to make a card and this one is a gift in itself. Super nice last minute DIY gift too...

Lots of Love from me, Bug, Banjo, and Bastian.

Tea with Design* Sponge

We are tea obsessed in my house. Last Monday, to thank Grace & the Design*Sponge team for my month long Embroidery 101 series I thought it would be so nice to share a Chinese tea ceremony with them. Tea ceremony is all about taking your time, and enjoying your company. It was a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon with friends.

Jeremy makes a lot of tea! I love watching him make it, because he uses beautiful pottery- pots, bowls, and cups and it's very different from what I'm used to (english style tea). He's quite skilled and very knowledgeable about tea. J explained the process as he brewed several of his favorite teas, and talked about the history of the tea we were drinking.

I also brought fancy little Japanese jelly candies to share. Beautiful packaging & nummy little treats. 

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!

Come see me this Saturday at the Bust Craftacular! I'll be vending & teaching a class in the Bust Workshop Tent, 1- 2. We'll be making your choice of my Zodiac Embroidery Kits and learning all the stitches to make your own starry piece. The class is only 12 bucks and includes a kit. I'd love, love, love to stitch with you! More info here on the class. Email me if you'd like to reserve a spot: hello(at)miniaturerhino(dot)com

I'll be sharing a booth with the crazy talented Occulter. I'll have lots of kits, my book, Stitched Gifts, of course, and I'm working on some cyanotype pillows!!

BUST Magazine Craftacular and Food Fair @ DUMBO Free admission!
Saturday, May 4, 11AM-6PM

Manhattan Bridge Archway and Pearl Street Plaza, Brooklyn, NY

Zodiac Embroidery Class 1-2PM $12 for kit & class

Find me at Table 93 right behind the workshop tent.

Fabric cyanotypes ready to be stitched up into throw pillows...

Hope to see you at the fair!! 

Recent Stitches...

This weekend was so beautiful, Spring has finally come! I'd planned to work non-stop, but there was just no way. Can not resist a Brooklyn Spring day. Had to play in the sun and soak in that vitamin D.

I've been so behind on work that I don't feel like I'll ever catch up. So it feels so good to cross off some of the projects on my to do list. I love sending out my finished pieces. Definitely get a little high from the small accomplishment. These pieces here are gifts for new babies, and anniversaries.

Hope you had a great weekend! Where'd the sun go though? Come back & stay forever sun...

Treats from Italy....

When ever Jeremy travels for work he brings me home a little something. It's usually paper goods. True fact, whenever I go to another country beside soaking up the food and culture I always have to visiting the local stationery store.

This Italian haul was so good I had to share! Gummed labels, a deck of Dog Tarot cards (!), block printed cards, a cats of Italy calendar (such great pics inside!), pen ink, soap, sealing wax and spoon, and a miniature handmade book.

The tarot dog deck came from Osvaldo Menegazzi, whose store looks like a cabinet of wonder. The artist makes lots of different beautiful decks. J brought back a few in gorgeous wooden boxes. The stationery came from Signum. Check out their miniature theaters!

Here are a few of my favorite dog tarot cards...

Happy Friday everyone!! I hope poodles in baskets and princely bull dogs set the tone for a great day!!

Cats in Space...

and other thoughts on making...

Today Design*Sponge is sharing the fourth :) and final :( post in my Embroidery 101 series. I really wanted to go all out for this last project, so I made an epic constellation table runner piece. It's really not hard to make at all, just large in scale. It's almost funny how I always underestimate the amount of time making something really takes, especially when I'm simultaneously creating a pattern, instructions and documenting images for others to follow. My aim is to enjoy the making process & I really did with this starry piece (even though I cried out of maddening frustration when my sewing machine just would not to work anymore. Why machine, why?).

Here are some behind the scenes of creating the pattern and working on the piece. Bastian was really into rolling around on the paper pattern. I squealed with so much delight on seeing his goomby* face in space, his little furry paws amongst the stars...

Head on over to D*S for the full project, pattern & instructions. Woo woo!

* I always refer to Bastian as goomby. I've no idea where this came from, or exactly what it means, but he's so damn goomby & cute! 

Goomby: goo-m-bie adj. of or pertaining to the gooniest of goons. (© 2013 Jessica Marquez) ;)

Inspired by: Nick Cave's Heard

Heard NY was magic! Seriously, magic. You know that feeling when you get lost in the moment of something so beautiful, so inspiring, and joyful? That's kind of what Nick Cave's Heard was for me.

I'm a big fan of Cave's work, but have never seen it in action. His elaborate costumes are heavily embellished constructions not just to be worn, but to have a movement of their own, and to make sound. These horses were costumes for two people made of thousands of stands of colorful raffia. I can't imagine the kind of coordination it took for them to become a single moving horse. It was amazing to see the dancers come out, transform right in front of the crowd into a horse, with it's own personality, and distinctly horse-like movements. 

I think, as an adult we lose a bit of our sense of wonder, because life is just so busy and stressful. For this short performance reality was suspended. There were colorful horses frolicking in Grand Central. Raffia swamp people danced their hearts out. I accidentally sat in the kids section, which made it really fun! The kids yelled out "Horsey!" and screamed with delight, and the horses paid special attention to the children allowing the kids to pet them. I was totally one of those happy kids petting the horseys...

I really wanted to share the experience with those of you who couldn't be in NY. Nothing beats being there, but hopefully these videos are the next best thing. More here on my YouTube page....

Isn't this amazing?!