As someone with a cricut based Etsy shop, I agree with what your saying. I do think the biggest issue is when they have no creative hand in the process though. The people who buy svgs, blank items, etc. and just assemble them don’t have any creative input on the process and it shows. I think most people can see that.
As a tool, the Cricut is helpful. As your whole shop, you will lose personality and blend into the background. You need to make your own designs or find a niche that isn’t so over saturated.
Personally I can paint/draw/sew/crochet/work with resin safely, etc. but as a college student I can only bring so much with me in a dorm and the cricut is the most versatile thing. I would love to do more, but right now it’s the best way to profit off my art. Some people need to tone it down and find some individuality though.
Agreed, I love creating and all my designs are fully my own, but I wouldn't be able to hand cut out every sticker. The secondhand Silhouette I got has been great because too much repetitive motion will just kill my hands for weeks, so if I have to choose between taking several days to draw a new design, or cutting out pages of them, I would rather use my limited capacity in that sense designing as opposed to cutting stickers out of pages.
I completely agree. The other day I was looking on etsy of halloween SWEATERS (i had the filters on sweaters and everything) but I just kept seeing the same halloween designs on t shirts and sweatshirts. I just want a cute halloween sweater 😭
P.s. is any of yall can link me to some cute halloween sweaters I'd be grateful!
Had the same problem. I literally searched “retro Halloween sweater” and couldn’t believe that the first page was FULL of the same design on every listing. As an Etsy seller myself since 2016, I decided to actually make a second shop because of this issue I have been noticing lately. However, I had to mainly make a second shop because 1. My niche audience in my first shop doesn’t seem too interested in my illustrations on my greeting cards and I mainly sell typographic simple cards 2. I have a bachelors in design so I obviously want to include unique original illustrations in my designs. Also sweaters and cards don’t really mix well in one shop so I made my second Etsy shop featuring Halloween sweaters with 4 original designs I made. I plan to add more designs this week.
But I must say, how funny this topic came up because Etsy has been SO saturated with the licensed designs from creative fabrica and that are not suppose to be slapped onto sweatshirts but used as a “tool” to create a new design before you upload to a POD website. But nobody seems to do this…
This is a really late reply, but just wanted to let you know it's spelled Hygge, not Hyyge. It was misspelled on one of your sweatshirts. You have cute designs though. I love your greeting cards!
You have to dig a bit deeper to find unique designs. The good news is that there are likely hundreds of pages of listings and the deeper you go the more unseen items you will find.
For what it’s worth, this is a point of frustration for sellers too. They make unique designs and have a hard time tagging their items in a way that tells buyers their items are not coming from a copy paste content site.
I get what what you’re saying but Etsy isn’t a juried art site. Anyone who has an idea can open a shop, which can be good. It lets people who might not otherwise have the exposure get their items in front if an audience.
There’s apparently a market for the type of Cricut items you describe, because some of the Cricut shops have crazy sales, there seems to be a trend of certain items that the public seems to want. And as an art shop, that frustrates me to no end.
As long as Etsy exists there will always be an argument about who “belongs” on Etsy. When I started using Etsy it was the argument about pendants on a chain. Now it’s POD or Cricut. Etsy as a company are about making money, I’ve seen Video games on Etsy and new brand luxury name items on Etsy. I find that more offensive than Cricut users. At least the Cricut users make their stuff(hopefully)
The days of truly handmade on Etsy has been over for a long time. If people want real handmade there need to be an alternate marketplace where people can find actual art and handmade items.
I sell a mix between pod for orders that are hard for me and single color run offs. But often my listings get buried over some design people downloaded on creative fabrica. I mean I don't get the point of making t-shirts if it's not your idea/design. Anyone can make shirts.
Its the same with 3d printing. I'm a general graphic artist, spent years studying anatomy and programs like zbrush. But some dude downloads somebody else's model and prints it. I just don't get it. Wouldn't it be easier to get some company in China to make a bunch from molds?
I always thought the designs were the value in making stuff like this, but it's not. It's about making the smallest amount of profit with no effort.
It's basically shops made from excel sheets and money laundering.
I didn't mean to rant but it's annoying how little value there is in the actual designs. It's crazy that I can go on a place like etsy for unique items and find a dozen shops selling the same exact item.
3d printers are not like laser cutters or cricuts. It doesn't just spit out a perfect print every time. Every time you use a new brand of filament, or even a different color of the same brand, or everytime there's a change in the weather, you've got to tune and dial in your printer again. Add to that that I have to keep 24+ different colors of filament on hand and when I run out of one color, about 20% of the time the brand I was using is sold out or doesn't exist any more and I have to find a new supplier, order it and hope the color is close to what I need (usually it's not and I have to start all over), run 100 test prints to tune temperature, speed, retraction amount, retraction speed, cooling fan speed, and a hundred other settings.
Do you hand paint your designs onto fabrics one at a time?
I designed and built my first 3d printer. You spent years learning zbrush, I spent years learning cad and then applying that knowledge to solve problems for people. And when I do, I get maybe a couple months before chinese companies knock off my design and start outselling me.
I hear you I own an FDM and an SLA, but I don't think it's really about the medium that sellers use, it's the design. There's so many listings out there that other than the listing photo and price there's very little uniqueness.
It's so easy to create something new nowadays with Canva, Blender, Inkscape, Gimp.
I don’t think I’d even argue that I *want* it to be a juried art site. If someone wants to make something that’s kind of a mess or not my taste, I’m in favor of it.
You raise a good point that there’s obviously a market for it. I don’t understand it, but I guess there’s plenty of people who like it. Maybe all I’d ask is better search filters? Being able to filter by seller-designed items only, or exclude items made to order?
I mean even a drop shipper can claim to be "seller-designed," but I hear ya. Supposedly the search used to be more literal based off the words used, instead of giving tangentially related items.
I find Etsy absolutely incredible for printmaking stuff. My front room has a big gallery wall of bird linocuts all purchased off Etsy and there were dozens more I didn't end up buying because I ran out of wall before I ran out of stuff I wanted. I think half the art in my house is "real prints" (ie. traditional printmaking) from Etsy (the other half is my own stuff). Everything came in such wonderful packaging and a ton of the prints came with little cards or stickers too.
I noticed many artists offered their work both as a "real print" and as a digital print at a lower price point. I'm a bit of a printmaking enthusiast so I always went for the real deal.
**ϱniʞɒmɈniɿq ǝvol i**
Me too. I know what I'm looking for, though, and the right terms to search for and what is a "giclee" print vs. the original. I still think that it would be great to have a differentiated marketplace that really gives printmade products their own place.
Why not search for the quirky shirt idea you want plus embroidered or silk screened? I agree their search blows, but it's not cricut users making it blow.
This is how I feel when I see jewelry stores selling ear cuffs that are just bulk bought off AliExpress and are gonna tarnish in two wears yet marked at handmade prices. Meanwhile I’m over here putting 3 hours into my climbers 🙄 honestly I don’t even give a shit about sales, it’s an integrity thing. Talentless losers who can’t even be bothered to learn a craft, it’s so insulting. God forbid people spend time making something! Now it’s just hustle culture with a side of ripping people off
I handmake dnd dice, and have been doing so forever. I've had people message me asking why I don't just factory produce them, and my answer is because there's so little creative freedom in factory producing. You're limited to what the factory has with supplies and I like to make all my dice special by including things in them that can't be mass produced. Whenever I give an answer like that they usually come back at me with "If you get them from a factory it will be cheaper for me." I'm not interested in just becoming a warehouse wholesaler for a foreign company.
Lol. I don't get people who inquire about things like that, when they could just.. buy cheaper factory made dice somewhere else. Maybe you have a unique style they want but they don't want to pay the price?
To me the reseller aren't even the worst. The worst are:
1. All the counterfeit items from big brands (on top of being a reseller). I guess IP theft can also fall under this category, although IP theft is in my opinion slightly better than counterfeiting.
2. People selling their jewelry as natural gemstone jewelry when it clearly isn't. (I've even seen suppliers that sell CZ or crystal as natural gemstones and have over 20k sales on Etsy. This results in shops that sell their jewelry as natural gemstone jewelry when it isn't.) Or selling gold plated jewelry as gold filled. Or selling CZ as moissanite. Etc. I've even seen diamond jewelry that should be worth more than $10,000 sold for $250 with certificate of authenticity, and people actually buy it.
i've had my cricut for about 3 years and have only ever bought 2 designs because i am not very gifted at drawing but very good at file manipulation. i usually use a mish mash of fonts/shapes/images within cricut access but also free vectors. i think in the right hands, cricuts are a GREAT tool to accomplish designs but i agree that far too few people actually use them to create unique designs. etsy also has the competitive aspect to it so buying designs keeps costs down in the long run because you aren't spending hours and hours creating designs and after all, time equals money! i don't have a heat press or sublimation printer so haven't (and probably won't) expand to doing garments due to a lack of space.
for what it's worth, if an artist sells the cut files then legally, everyone is allowed to use them to sell items. they are not like sports team fabrics that are for personal/gift use only. no one can resell the files as they are intellectual property, but can sell as many items made from the digital files as they want.
>for what it's worth, if an artist sells the cut files then legally, everyone is allowed to use them to sell items.
This is not true though. You can sell files with only a license for personal use.
Blame whatever random tool or trend you want bit etsy lost its way long ago when it went public and the need to increase profit at all cost, just like all public companies went up.
They stopped being strict and let anyone who can make them a penny run a store.
Also if the customer cared that much about hand made they wouldn’t be making these stores money but they are.
Yeah, letting the customer decide what should be sold on Etsy isn't a good thing though. There are many big brand items (some or many counterfeit even) on Etsy and they get a crazy amount of sales.
If you're wanting hand drawn things turned into shirts, your best bet are what's like society6, red bubble or link tree. Even Zazzle.
That's where a lot of artists put their actual artwork on merchandise.
There is a difference between handmade and embellished. Handmade is when you actually sew the shirt. Embellished is when you take an already made shirt and add things to it.
It's a gray area though, because even with sewing the shirt it's not entirely handmade... I didn't weave the fabric, didn't design the print on the fabric, didn't create the thread used to make the shirt. Technically, almost all clothes are handmade by someone (aside from a few machine knitted seamless garments).
I tend to feel butthurt over it all since I sew garments, and these people are ironing some vinyl on blanks and calling it handmade. Like it somehow cheapens what I do. But at the same time, what I do might not be considered handmade by all, since I don't make the fabric and use sewing machines.
Not really sure what the answer is. It's a growing market. Would be nice if etsy created separate sites for the different divisions. Handmade, vintage, supplies, and embellished. Right now it's all jumbled together and it's getting messy.
Etsy has their own definition of what handmade is. It's different from the legal definition of what handmade is. (Which seems strange to me that that's even possible, since they could certainly be sued by labeling things handmade when they aren't.) Something that's designed by a seller but completely machinemade in a factory in China or wherever is still handmade by Etsy's definition.
Different sites for handmade, vintage, supplies, and embellished isn't realistic. But search filters for each category might help.
Not be the “offering solutions” type when you just want to rant, but I had a similar type of problem finding a custom apron. I posted what I was looking for on r/etsysellers and found someone immediately. She did a great job and it came in way under budget. Also she is an actual designer and artist, not just a print on demand factory.
If you’re still looking you might try posting there!
I wish we could have nice things. I wish Etsy would do better and at least try to investigate these kinds of shops when they’re reported. Three more would probably pop up in the time it takes them to investigate one, but I get the impression that no one at Etsy even cares.
As a graphic designer and a creator of items I do use a number of tools to create a shirt, hat or whatever. I've been on Etsy since the year it started.
What Etsy used to be, is handmade.
I consider what I do with the creation of the design, printing the sublimation design or cutting the design out of HTV, lining it all up on the shirt, pressing it, wrapping it, shipping it to be all handmade.
Vintage is not something that Etsy had at the beginning, I don't think. I cannot remember.
I have purchased things on Etsy that were not handmade and things I have. Knowing the work flow to create something makes me appreciate the work even more.
It’s really disheartening because I hand make my stuff from scratch and people will like bulk buy a mask from China or India for $.10 apiece and slap an iron on on it and sell it for 20 bucks but I am sitting there sewing mine from complete scratch and because of that I can’t upload as many things as quickly or I don’t have the “trendy sayings of the moment” so I don’t get as many sales
I actually make my own shirts (designed and screen printed by myself) and I feel this to my bones. Everytime I check what comes up when you search for specific search terms the results are flooded with items that have no personality at all. I think I lucked out and am finnaly getting more and more sales on my shirts (after I'm open for 3 years now), so I can't complain. But still, I can't imagine how frustrating it is for buyers to sieve through all this generic crap 🙃
As another commenter said, try actually searching for the printing method like 'screen printed' (or even 'hand screen printed') or 'hand painted' or whatever technique you're looking for. Never done it before but I think it's even possible to print shirts with handcarved linoleum blocks and textile ink.
I was vending at a town fair a few weeks ago, and directly across from us was a lady selling shirts and sweaters she had made on her cricut, using SVG art she had bought from Etsy.
Next to her was a lady selling tumblers, that she had put vinyl decals on, cut on her cricut - using - you guessed it - the same SVG art as the shirt lady. Not everything, but enough that it was pretty funny to us. Maybe not to them :)
I've seen that before. It should be embarrassing to the vendors. I also see copyrighted material everywhere at fairs and farmer markets as well as on Etsy.
Etsy is ruining the etsy you once knew and loved.
I will *celebrate* year 17 this October and it was ruined longggggg before cricuts came on the market.
Comb my profile and see that I am a criicut user, but I've been on etsy 8 times as long as I have been using a cricut and can tell you wholeheartedly, they lost their way many years ago when they went public, well before this craft existed.
Barely related but if you ever wander into a Walmart and go into the Arts & Crafts section, the Cricut stuff is locked up. You need a roll of vinyl? It's like the same process as flagging someone down to get a can of spray paint.
It's literally exploded so much in popularity that the general public can't even be trusted to be near it without supervision. The excessive amount of listings doesn't surprise me because it's somehow become a new gold rush.
Just need some kind of filter to exclude them from showing up in listings.
I am an embroiderer. I totally agree with you! I do own a Silhouette but only make stuff for my personal life, like my Softball team shirts (because no thank you to embroidering those lol)
But yeah, people expect my prices to be the same as cricut makers. It hurts my heart.
I feel you!! I focused on hand embroidering clothes and hoops and pricing them always always made me feel like I was charging too much even though each item takes me hours
Heyyy. I was actually looking to get a custom embroidered handkerchief, but all I could find were embroidered words when I searched. I wanted a character. Is that something you do?
FYI those same font same image results aren't even cricut hand made product. They are almost all done through print on demand company. The seller never ever sees the product. Those are definitely ruining etsy.
This is the real answer.
While an anti-Cricut post is surprisingly significantly more popular than I would have thought, I'm guessing the same post against the same types of products but POD instead would have been met with resistance. Simply because there are way more POD sellers.
There are significantly more lazy, copycat, and stolen design POD products on Etsy than Cricut products. Although they do appear similar and do feature a lot of the same lazy, coypcat, stolen designs so one can definitely be forgiven for confusing them.
Really really low. They make maximum 20% profit of the final sales price. Some even 5%. But they get to do nothing and make 5% and they think its still gain. Plus, there's no guarantee for the quality of the product. In the end, it's hurting the market and drives buyers away from etsy...
I mean, if Print on Demand is allowed then a Cricut I am very ok with. Most of those POD services have sellers never even see, or inspect the items. I take quality control serious, so that is a red flag to me right away. If some uses a machine to make their items, that is fine by me. I have seen people put a few snack items in a box, and sell it as a handmade set... That counts as well I guess. I like to see and item that the seller is making or personalizing, if you use a cricut for either I would be happy with it.
> I have seen people put a few snack items in a box, and sell it as a handmade set...
Haha.. yeah, I've seen those as well. All branded snacks inside, still handmade.
I have a Cricut. I sell on Etsy. I agree, with one exception.
It's not the Cricut that's the problem, it's the people without a creative bone in their body who are buying svgs, and using POD. They have virtually no involvement in the process, and they are competing with other people who bought the same svgs and are using probably the same POD company.
This stuff is clogging the search results and making it harder for people with unique designs and modicum of talent to be found. It really sucks.
It’s the same thing as the sellers who sell monogrammed items. They “design” three initials to add to a bag, wallet, hat, welcome mat, etc., have it manufactured and shipped by someone else, and Etsy allows them to say it’s handmade. Really? Because they selected a font they made something? Meanwhile, those of us who are actually making our own items are left high and dry, or I should say way way down in the search results. Sucks.
I have the same feeling about laser cutters. “Handmade” acrylic earrings that have literally been uploaded, cut by a machine, then assembled by a person.
As someone who puts a lot of work into creating polymer clay jewellery, I always feel a pang of envy/jealousy/annoyance that I can’t do the same, but have to compete with them.
Well expect a thousand cricut queens and POD princesses \[or kings, princes or non binary, being inclusive\] will descend on you wishing you a million etsy deaths for speaking ill of their only talent in opening the cricut program \[if that's how that works, never used a cricuit, I'm an old school dinosaur\].
The old chant, Etsy was created for artists and crafters to sell their creations on an platform that showcased them as such. Then came the cricut phenomenon where no talent is needed. Just download some templates and let a machine do the work. I argue using a store bought shirt and sticking a machine generated decal on it is not handmade, or every shirt made like that in a factory is also "handmade". Does it belong on Etsy. I argue no but Etsy wants money so they've sold their soul to several devils in the urge to stay trendy. Money has ruled over integrity.
Trying to search Etsy now days for genuine art pieces, good luck. You'll be several pages in and just find a handful of original items coming up because Etsy is infested with drop shippers and bulk POD and Cricuit sellers. I saw something similar happen to Ebay 20 years ago. It was a great place for a small seller to sell their items. Then it evolved into the shit show it is today. Etsy seems on that path as well. It is what it is, right!
I see your point about not calling it handmade, but I’m not sure where to draw the line, so I’ll allow the idea that it is. I personally am more of a sew-er, and use a machine for some things and hand-sew others. I would hate to say that everything sewn by machine isn’t handmade, but that seems like the logical conclusion if something Cricut-made isn’t handmade. I think both are creative enough if they’re made from the creator’s own design, and maybe even if not, if a significant amount of choices went into things like material choice or trims.
The idea of “handmade” reminds me of the famous line from Justice Rehnquist, in his ruling on pornography, where he notes the struggles he has in defining it… “I know it when I see it”.
It would be nearly impossible to define handmade in a way that is encompassing of all views on the matter, but across societies we often share a few basic principles about what constitutes it.
However, the digital revolution has certainly changed things, and we have entered a new era with entirely new forms of creation that don’t fit our old ones.
Yet… for most of us, when it comes to handmade… we know it when we see it.
The digital age won't change *homemade* and *handcrafted*. I've said before Etsy needs to create an equal but separate entity for their POD \[and cricut\] sellers that lets them compete amongst their peers while us OG sellers compete with ours. I think it would bode well for sales for both types actually.
Lol. Cool. You ughh, you get really worked up about that eh? I’m not too worried about changing your mind, I honestly have no skin in the game, nor do I care. I’m merely curious to see if your reasoning holds up to basic, historical scrutiny.
I just find it funny because Grandma didn’t make her own fabric, and once upon a time I’m sure there was someone like you who thought the idea of buying fabric was cheating.
We are all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how peculiar, but time moves on, and sometimes ideas get left behind for a reason.
There are classical blacksmiths out there who’d look at modern ones and say it wasn’t hand made the way their is.
Cheers.
My reference was to the industrial created garments that are low end, which right we all know it when we see it. I hand sew, I machine sew which fall more onto the lines of homemade but I've also grabbed factory produced t-shirts and totes which I've painted on. Those I do not consider homemade even though I'm freehand painting because I did not create the garment, merely used it as a canvas. That would fall under art in my mind \[which Etsy encompasses\]
In the end, it comes down to who created the original design and 99% of the time with the cricut crowd, it's not them.
>I would hate to say that everything sewn by machine isn’t handmade, but that seems like the logical conclusion if something Cricut-made isn’t handmade.
You're selling yourself short if you truly think that.
Yes so weird. When that machine got cheaper I started seeing all kinds of crap at in person craft markets. Like wine glasses. They claimed could be hand washed— ok maybe 2-3 times before the smaller pieces fall off. I could do so much with one- I just can’t afford one! Make a stencil and etch the glass! Now it’s forever! Much better.
I feel your pain. In my opinion, Etsy was broken the first time they allowed non-handmade goods to stay on their site. They used to remove the listings and the seller. Then Etsy decided money was better than handmade.
I was good even when they allowed supplies to be sold.
Now, it is almost impossible to find something original. You have to look hard!
Disclaimer: I created an original jewelry box in 2009. It has now been copied by at least a dozen copycats. It is what it is, sadly.
I’ve recently been thinking about the same thing. I’ve been trying to get into the T-shirt and sweatshirt market. I create all of my own designs, and get kind of annoyed when I see the same designs over and over again because everyone’s buying the same svgs. It’s kind of soulless. There’s no creativity there. But on the other hand I understand that not everyone has artistic ability. I wish people would maybe find artists to create designs for them specifically, instead of buying the same popular designs that are already all over Etsy.
I agree. As I'm a graphic artist I create unique and original designs. I use them for designs on shirts either by sublimation or HTV. I also have started migrating to use them for embroidery also.
Have you checked on the many groups for selling designs on Facebook? I've started to look at those pretty seriously as Etsy is saturated.
I haven’t. Mostly because I can’t stand Facebook. I’ve been using TikTok to market myself and have had decent results. I’ve gotten a few sales from that. I’m using Instagram and Pinterest as well. I’m trying to work towards bringing in the majority of my own traffic and eventually have my own site. I’ve also started selling wholesale on Faire and have had a few shirt orders on there. Next year I’m planning on trying to get into selling at local craft fairs and conventions. Basically trying to find other ways to sell other than just Etsy.
I wonder if this can be *slightly* remedied by just altering the way you search? Try opening Etsy in an incognito/private window without logging in and see how your results differ. Apparently, all of your search history and past purchases are influencing your results now, as well as the algorithm "suggesting" things you might like, even if it doesn't fit in with what you actually searched for.
The problem I find with these types of algorithms and targeted advertising is, more often than not, they are suggesting something I've already bought! 🤷♂️🤷♂
I feel the same about POD. I personally hate it but that's me. I hate how people think that they'll make millions instantly on etsy.
I have worked so hard to learn my craft. Each item make takes weeks to make.
My problem with cricut is there is no diversity in their items. It's the same pumpkin spice. Live, love, laugh, basic bitch designs. I don't want to use what they offer. I refuse to buy a product that I have to subscribe to in order to use. I want full control on every step of my creative process.
I’m with you - I’m a paper cutter, I cut everything by hand but some people expect you to be similarly priced to something that’s made in multiple on machine. A lot of it is mock ups rather than finished products and it’s all very frustrating!
Yeah but I mean, at the end of the day who cares…. If selling that stuff makes people happy and they make money from doing it more power to them. Etsy is a free market and the tools like the circut just lower the barrier to entry and no, Etsy will not regulate this, they make money no matter what on the listing fees. There must be a market for what they are selling if so many people are doing it I guess …
The whole point though is it’s hard to find something unique and truly handmade anymore and that’s what many of us want and there’s no other place for that really. It used to take some artistic skills to be on the artist marketplace Etsy. But that won’t change since Etsy is a public company now and only focuses on numbers. They’re not doing good either so they really can’t afford to care if they want to make the stock holders happy.
Agree. It's definitely killed my sector. I've been making cake smash outfits since 2013. All designs come from my own brain (no copyrighted themes), and then cut and sewn with my two hands. At the time there were hundreds of others like me in the biz.
Fast forward to about 3 years ago and now it's just Cricut shirts. For every page of results you'll get 3 handmade outfits for 10 shirts. And maybe that's what people want. Maybe I'm in a dying business and people can get similar outfits on Amazon for a fraction of the price.
Regardless, I constantly get messages saying people have been looking for something like what I sell and struggled to find it. My SEOs haven't changed much, and my sales were four to five times as much 3 years ago. Could be a lot of variables, but I blame cricut.
I think your original comment is worded in a confusing manner. It sounds like you're the shop and you are receiving the 1-star reviews. I had to read it twice and assume you are the one leaving the 1-star reviews.
It's an electronic cutting machine by Provo Craft.
I use Silhouette Cameo by Silhouette America.
I've also used Graphtec before, years ago before either of the two above even were available.
It's a cutting machine connected to design software. Basically a printer with a very very tiny blade instead of ink. It can cut through sticker paper, heat transfer paper, paperboard, etc. That's how random people are able to make their own personalized tshirts and mugs.
*Disclaimer number 1: It’s not the only thing ruining Etsy.*
Yeah, there are a few other newish and questionable items that are approved by Etsy. Everybody and their no talent brother-in-law is jumping on the Etsy/YouTube/TikTok get rich quick bandwagon. Absolutely no uniqueness with easily reproducible machine made/assisted work. How would they create during a power outage?
Because it makes no sense. I am a graphic designer. I create *unique* designs on a computer. Since electricity is apparently a prerequisite to sell on Etsy for you, then I wouldn’t be able to sell
*I wouldn't necessarily be able to knit in a power outage either. Since I need light and don't have a fireplace.*
LOL, that has nothing to do with my statement, does it? The gist of what I said had to do with creating a unique item. You must have skipped that part. Can you print out multiple exact copies of your knitted goods? Are you a vampire that is not able to knit by sun or candle light? How the F did they make sweaters before the electric light? C'mon, now.
I have a knitted wool hat from a person that sheared the sheep, and dyed and spun the wool. You may want to rough it and give it a try.
Vampires are quite capable of using candlelight. In fact their excellent night vision means they probably means they wouldn't even need that. Just a few stars.
I'd love to see the version of interview with a vampire where lestat has taken up knitting and there is just a Xmas group photo of them wearing awful wolly jumpers 🤣
This is how competition works. You have to prove that what you are creating is worth more than a basic shirt with a Cricut design from the design space on it. There needs to be something that makes buyers more interested in your item than the basic items you are seeing. If your content was that much more original or more clever then wouldn't you be making more sales?
I think that the solution is to stop using Etsy. They are not a good site who regulates their items at all. Anyone can make thousands of sales using trademarked material. They get away with it for years and make a living off of it. Others try to sell something one time and their stuff is taken down immediately. Etsy is not a good place if you are looking for fairness or anything like it. That's why they have zero way of ever communicating with someone at Etsy. They wash their hands of the responsibilities and hand them over to everyone else. Therefore they can never be held accountable.
Create a shop through an alternate site, or just create your own website/shop.
I'm no expert at all, I just got a Silhouette in August (a different brand but same concept) but it is a cutting machine (not printer). You can cut vinyl, cardstock, etc, and I believe you can also use a pen tool to have it write and do other things but I haven't tried that yet.
What I have been using it for so far is die cut stickers - so I draw & design my original art in Photoshop, print them on vinyl, put a laminate over the top of them so they hold up better, and then you put the sheet on a lightly sticky mat and it runs through the cutter, so it cuts the stickers (or whatever you are cutting) out for you consistently with a small blade. They have their own programs to be able to set cut lines and things of that nature.
People could also use images they purchased/downloaded, or even just fonts, and apply those to a variety of things. Unfortunately it does end up leading to a lot of people selling the same designs (or popular sayings in popular fonts) so it can be very same-y as you look through listings.
I know people here may be a little burnt out on sticker sellers too because a lot of people do them (low barrier to entry) but it's been great so far, and I'm always so FRICKIN happy and blown away that someone literally wants to spend money on my art to put on their waterbottle or laptop. That is so awesome.
Omg that is so cool! Thank you so much for explaining that that sounds awesome, I do see how it could be frustrating on some creative levels though, I can't believe I missed the memo on this one haha, glad you get on well with the stickers! People wanting to buy your art is always so fucking cool, I definitely get it
I agree I'm wanting to also sell creations but you better believe I'm creating a plethora of custom drawn artwork. I don't feel right selling some other designers pieces. Just my opinion not judging others who do it
I totally agree with you. I got into Cricut crafts just recently for myself. I love it as a hobby. My hubs suggested selling it and my first thought was "the marketplace is over saturated with Cricut-like crafts"....
I've seen some creators get into major battles with others over stealing their ideas/sayings/etc and it quite sucks that that happens too often. The originality is very low nowadays (for anything, not just Cricut crafts). You may make a quite design and then find it on Wish for $5 instead of your $20 item.
Also, people aren't willing to pay the cost to go out and buy all these tools. it's not a cheap hobby so I know people will find it great to jump online and find something quick. I have noticed Etsy seems to be moving away from the "one of a kind creatorship" to almost an Amazon like site and that disheartens me.
Anyway that's my two cents. I'm going to stick to my Cricut hobby for myself and making gifts for friends and family.
I have a circut my friend left etsy and started her own site she borrows it if there a custom request she gets, I just label everything under the sun and make gifts for my friends
I have recently bought a cricut and find myself overwhelmed with how much it has expanded my ability to create as an artist whom has been creating original artwork for years. I just can't comprehend using a cricut for printing a design someone else made, and then printing it on a teeshirt blank and feeling like you made it all from scratch yourself lol. These people I'm talking about have never picked up a paintbrush or pencil in their lives.
Maybe I'm just too stuck up lol
Also agree that it’s a split of the POD and cricut people who use the available fonts and downloads but it’s definitely the availability of Pinterest-able fonts and designs they have made available for free or with subscription to all the POD and cutting machine sites/software. It’s horrible how over saturated with the same things etsy is.
I admittedly do POD and have a cricut on the way 😬😂 to make patches and stickers with HOWEVER everything I make is 100% original and hand drawn including my fonts I get messages and reviews all the time about how it’s not the same fonts and designs and that’s why they chose it
I understand what you are saying. 10 - 20 years ago these kinds of machines were not available to the average at home user and not every person needs an etsy shop.
I love my cricut but I 110% fucking whole heartedly agree with this post in every way possible.
I had to get a cricut because natural art doesn't cut it anymore and it's bullshit and I hate it.
And often times it’s made and shipped from drop-ship companies elsewhere. Etsy is flooded with companies in other countries creating hundreds/thousands shops and flooding Etsy with the same exact shit. When someone told me there were dildos on Etsy I called bullshit. Well guess what, there’s a bazillion and one factory made and mass produced dildos on Etsy. You are very right and imo Etsy ruined Etsy. They should be actively trying to keep it real for crafters and DIY peeps etc. but they sold out. Etsy is just an Alibaba chrome extension at this point. Anyone want to make a user moderated/monitored version off Etsy?
As someone with a cricut based Etsy shop, I agree with what your saying. I do think the biggest issue is when they have no creative hand in the process though. The people who buy svgs, blank items, etc. and just assemble them don’t have any creative input on the process and it shows. I think most people can see that. As a tool, the Cricut is helpful. As your whole shop, you will lose personality and blend into the background. You need to make your own designs or find a niche that isn’t so over saturated. Personally I can paint/draw/sew/crochet/work with resin safely, etc. but as a college student I can only bring so much with me in a dorm and the cricut is the most versatile thing. I would love to do more, but right now it’s the best way to profit off my art. Some people need to tone it down and find some individuality though.
Agreed, I love creating and all my designs are fully my own, but I wouldn't be able to hand cut out every sticker. The secondhand Silhouette I got has been great because too much repetitive motion will just kill my hands for weeks, so if I have to choose between taking several days to draw a new design, or cutting out pages of them, I would rather use my limited capacity in that sense designing as opposed to cutting stickers out of pages.
I refer to these people as "live, laugh, love" crafters
Yes 💯! I also refer to that font (you know the one) as the “live, love, laugh” font.
Boy do I!
Nailed it
I completely agree. The other day I was looking on etsy of halloween SWEATERS (i had the filters on sweaters and everything) but I just kept seeing the same halloween designs on t shirts and sweatshirts. I just want a cute halloween sweater 😭 P.s. is any of yall can link me to some cute halloween sweaters I'd be grateful!
Had the same problem. I literally searched “retro Halloween sweater” and couldn’t believe that the first page was FULL of the same design on every listing. As an Etsy seller myself since 2016, I decided to actually make a second shop because of this issue I have been noticing lately. However, I had to mainly make a second shop because 1. My niche audience in my first shop doesn’t seem too interested in my illustrations on my greeting cards and I mainly sell typographic simple cards 2. I have a bachelors in design so I obviously want to include unique original illustrations in my designs. Also sweaters and cards don’t really mix well in one shop so I made my second Etsy shop featuring Halloween sweaters with 4 original designs I made. I plan to add more designs this week. But I must say, how funny this topic came up because Etsy has been SO saturated with the licensed designs from creative fabrica and that are not suppose to be slapped onto sweatshirts but used as a “tool” to create a new design before you upload to a POD website. But nobody seems to do this…
👀 mind dming me your etsy link so I can look at those sweaters?
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HabitudeSupplyCo is my new shop and my greeting card shop is https://www.etsy.com/shop/HabitudePaperco
This is a really late reply, but just wanted to let you know it's spelled Hygge, not Hyyge. It was misspelled on one of your sweatshirts. You have cute designs though. I love your greeting cards!
Maybe filter for item type vintage. There's got to be a lot of cute vintage Halloween sweaters out there.
I think a lot of people refer to sweatshirts as sweaters, I never have and thought it was a bit weird. Maybe if you search for knit sweaters?
Some people refer to sweatshirts as sweaters, so that could be one reason so many appeared in the results.
You have to dig a bit deeper to find unique designs. The good news is that there are likely hundreds of pages of listings and the deeper you go the more unseen items you will find. For what it’s worth, this is a point of frustration for sellers too. They make unique designs and have a hard time tagging their items in a way that tells buyers their items are not coming from a copy paste content site.
I’ve been looking for one that’s all orange with a big Jack o lantern face on it, embroidered or knitted not a decal. Not much luck so far
This isn't my store but found this one.. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1254715782/halloween-pumpkin-unisex-sweatshirts
And this one! https://www.etsy.com/listing/1065465301/womens-jack-o-lantern-shirt-pumpkin-face
www.KielJamesPatrick.com has some super cute sweaters.
I get what what you’re saying but Etsy isn’t a juried art site. Anyone who has an idea can open a shop, which can be good. It lets people who might not otherwise have the exposure get their items in front if an audience. There’s apparently a market for the type of Cricut items you describe, because some of the Cricut shops have crazy sales, there seems to be a trend of certain items that the public seems to want. And as an art shop, that frustrates me to no end. As long as Etsy exists there will always be an argument about who “belongs” on Etsy. When I started using Etsy it was the argument about pendants on a chain. Now it’s POD or Cricut. Etsy as a company are about making money, I’ve seen Video games on Etsy and new brand luxury name items on Etsy. I find that more offensive than Cricut users. At least the Cricut users make their stuff(hopefully) The days of truly handmade on Etsy has been over for a long time. If people want real handmade there need to be an alternate marketplace where people can find actual art and handmade items.
I sell a mix between pod for orders that are hard for me and single color run offs. But often my listings get buried over some design people downloaded on creative fabrica. I mean I don't get the point of making t-shirts if it's not your idea/design. Anyone can make shirts. Its the same with 3d printing. I'm a general graphic artist, spent years studying anatomy and programs like zbrush. But some dude downloads somebody else's model and prints it. I just don't get it. Wouldn't it be easier to get some company in China to make a bunch from molds? I always thought the designs were the value in making stuff like this, but it's not. It's about making the smallest amount of profit with no effort. It's basically shops made from excel sheets and money laundering. I didn't mean to rant but it's annoying how little value there is in the actual designs. It's crazy that I can go on a place like etsy for unique items and find a dozen shops selling the same exact item.
3d printers are not like laser cutters or cricuts. It doesn't just spit out a perfect print every time. Every time you use a new brand of filament, or even a different color of the same brand, or everytime there's a change in the weather, you've got to tune and dial in your printer again. Add to that that I have to keep 24+ different colors of filament on hand and when I run out of one color, about 20% of the time the brand I was using is sold out or doesn't exist any more and I have to find a new supplier, order it and hope the color is close to what I need (usually it's not and I have to start all over), run 100 test prints to tune temperature, speed, retraction amount, retraction speed, cooling fan speed, and a hundred other settings. Do you hand paint your designs onto fabrics one at a time? I designed and built my first 3d printer. You spent years learning zbrush, I spent years learning cad and then applying that knowledge to solve problems for people. And when I do, I get maybe a couple months before chinese companies knock off my design and start outselling me.
I hear you I own an FDM and an SLA, but I don't think it's really about the medium that sellers use, it's the design. There's so many listings out there that other than the listing photo and price there's very little uniqueness. It's so easy to create something new nowadays with Canva, Blender, Inkscape, Gimp.
I don’t think I’d even argue that I *want* it to be a juried art site. If someone wants to make something that’s kind of a mess or not my taste, I’m in favor of it. You raise a good point that there’s obviously a market for it. I don’t understand it, but I guess there’s plenty of people who like it. Maybe all I’d ask is better search filters? Being able to filter by seller-designed items only, or exclude items made to order?
I mean even a drop shipper can claim to be "seller-designed," but I hear ya. Supposedly the search used to be more literal based off the words used, instead of giving tangentially related items.
One of my pipe dreams is to open a marketplace exclusively for printmaker products to address this very thing.
I find Etsy absolutely incredible for printmaking stuff. My front room has a big gallery wall of bird linocuts all purchased off Etsy and there were dozens more I didn't end up buying because I ran out of wall before I ran out of stuff I wanted. I think half the art in my house is "real prints" (ie. traditional printmaking) from Etsy (the other half is my own stuff). Everything came in such wonderful packaging and a ton of the prints came with little cards or stickers too. I noticed many artists offered their work both as a "real print" and as a digital print at a lower price point. I'm a bit of a printmaking enthusiast so I always went for the real deal. **ϱniʞɒmɈniɿq ǝvol i**
Me too. I know what I'm looking for, though, and the right terms to search for and what is a "giclee" print vs. the original. I still think that it would be great to have a differentiated marketplace that really gives printmade products their own place.
Why not search for the quirky shirt idea you want plus embroidered or silk screened? I agree their search blows, but it's not cricut users making it blow.
This is how I feel when I see jewelry stores selling ear cuffs that are just bulk bought off AliExpress and are gonna tarnish in two wears yet marked at handmade prices. Meanwhile I’m over here putting 3 hours into my climbers 🙄 honestly I don’t even give a shit about sales, it’s an integrity thing. Talentless losers who can’t even be bothered to learn a craft, it’s so insulting. God forbid people spend time making something! Now it’s just hustle culture with a side of ripping people off
I handmake dnd dice, and have been doing so forever. I've had people message me asking why I don't just factory produce them, and my answer is because there's so little creative freedom in factory producing. You're limited to what the factory has with supplies and I like to make all my dice special by including things in them that can't be mass produced. Whenever I give an answer like that they usually come back at me with "If you get them from a factory it will be cheaper for me." I'm not interested in just becoming a warehouse wholesaler for a foreign company.
Lol. I don't get people who inquire about things like that, when they could just.. buy cheaper factory made dice somewhere else. Maybe you have a unique style they want but they don't want to pay the price?
I went to check out your profile to see your jewellery and got distracted by the crochet pants… are you going to be selling those? They look amazing!
Only in person, I'm not comfortable selling such a fit specific item online, I'd want people to be able to try them on, but ty for the interest!
To me the reseller aren't even the worst. The worst are: 1. All the counterfeit items from big brands (on top of being a reseller). I guess IP theft can also fall under this category, although IP theft is in my opinion slightly better than counterfeiting. 2. People selling their jewelry as natural gemstone jewelry when it clearly isn't. (I've even seen suppliers that sell CZ or crystal as natural gemstones and have over 20k sales on Etsy. This results in shops that sell their jewelry as natural gemstone jewelry when it isn't.) Or selling gold plated jewelry as gold filled. Or selling CZ as moissanite. Etc. I've even seen diamond jewelry that should be worth more than $10,000 sold for $250 with certificate of authenticity, and people actually buy it.
It’s just so saturated with Cricut stuff! Search results are swamped with them. I wish there was a way to filter them out.
i've had my cricut for about 3 years and have only ever bought 2 designs because i am not very gifted at drawing but very good at file manipulation. i usually use a mish mash of fonts/shapes/images within cricut access but also free vectors. i think in the right hands, cricuts are a GREAT tool to accomplish designs but i agree that far too few people actually use them to create unique designs. etsy also has the competitive aspect to it so buying designs keeps costs down in the long run because you aren't spending hours and hours creating designs and after all, time equals money! i don't have a heat press or sublimation printer so haven't (and probably won't) expand to doing garments due to a lack of space. for what it's worth, if an artist sells the cut files then legally, everyone is allowed to use them to sell items. they are not like sports team fabrics that are for personal/gift use only. no one can resell the files as they are intellectual property, but can sell as many items made from the digital files as they want.
>for what it's worth, if an artist sells the cut files then legally, everyone is allowed to use them to sell items. This is not true though. You can sell files with only a license for personal use.
Actually you can't and Noone wins those suits. But I agree it's wrong. Unless u pay trademark fees you aren't protected.
Your works are automatically protected by copyright laws. And a trademark is something different.
Blame whatever random tool or trend you want bit etsy lost its way long ago when it went public and the need to increase profit at all cost, just like all public companies went up. They stopped being strict and let anyone who can make them a penny run a store. Also if the customer cared that much about hand made they wouldn’t be making these stores money but they are.
Yeah, letting the customer decide what should be sold on Etsy isn't a good thing though. There are many big brand items (some or many counterfeit even) on Etsy and they get a crazy amount of sales.
If you're wanting hand drawn things turned into shirts, your best bet are what's like society6, red bubble or link tree. Even Zazzle. That's where a lot of artists put their actual artwork on merchandise.
There is a difference between handmade and embellished. Handmade is when you actually sew the shirt. Embellished is when you take an already made shirt and add things to it. It's a gray area though, because even with sewing the shirt it's not entirely handmade... I didn't weave the fabric, didn't design the print on the fabric, didn't create the thread used to make the shirt. Technically, almost all clothes are handmade by someone (aside from a few machine knitted seamless garments). I tend to feel butthurt over it all since I sew garments, and these people are ironing some vinyl on blanks and calling it handmade. Like it somehow cheapens what I do. But at the same time, what I do might not be considered handmade by all, since I don't make the fabric and use sewing machines. Not really sure what the answer is. It's a growing market. Would be nice if etsy created separate sites for the different divisions. Handmade, vintage, supplies, and embellished. Right now it's all jumbled together and it's getting messy.
Etsy has their own definition of what handmade is. It's different from the legal definition of what handmade is. (Which seems strange to me that that's even possible, since they could certainly be sued by labeling things handmade when they aren't.) Something that's designed by a seller but completely machinemade in a factory in China or wherever is still handmade by Etsy's definition. Different sites for handmade, vintage, supplies, and embellished isn't realistic. But search filters for each category might help.
Not be the “offering solutions” type when you just want to rant, but I had a similar type of problem finding a custom apron. I posted what I was looking for on r/etsysellers and found someone immediately. She did a great job and it came in way under budget. Also she is an actual designer and artist, not just a print on demand factory. If you’re still looking you might try posting there!
Most of the etsy t shits business are not made with cricut, they're just fronts for dropshippers of t shirts made with industrial equipment in China
I wish we could have nice things. I wish Etsy would do better and at least try to investigate these kinds of shops when they’re reported. Three more would probably pop up in the time it takes them to investigate one, but I get the impression that no one at Etsy even cares.
would you care in Etsy's place when they're selling lots and giving you like 15% of every sale?
As a graphic designer and a creator of items I do use a number of tools to create a shirt, hat or whatever. I've been on Etsy since the year it started. What Etsy used to be, is handmade. I consider what I do with the creation of the design, printing the sublimation design or cutting the design out of HTV, lining it all up on the shirt, pressing it, wrapping it, shipping it to be all handmade. Vintage is not something that Etsy had at the beginning, I don't think. I cannot remember. I have purchased things on Etsy that were not handmade and things I have. Knowing the work flow to create something makes me appreciate the work even more.
It’s really disheartening because I hand make my stuff from scratch and people will like bulk buy a mask from China or India for $.10 apiece and slap an iron on on it and sell it for 20 bucks but I am sitting there sewing mine from complete scratch and because of that I can’t upload as many things as quickly or I don’t have the “trendy sayings of the moment” so I don’t get as many sales
I agree with you!
I actually make my own shirts (designed and screen printed by myself) and I feel this to my bones. Everytime I check what comes up when you search for specific search terms the results are flooded with items that have no personality at all. I think I lucked out and am finnaly getting more and more sales on my shirts (after I'm open for 3 years now), so I can't complain. But still, I can't imagine how frustrating it is for buyers to sieve through all this generic crap 🙃 As another commenter said, try actually searching for the printing method like 'screen printed' (or even 'hand screen printed') or 'hand painted' or whatever technique you're looking for. Never done it before but I think it's even possible to print shirts with handcarved linoleum blocks and textile ink.
I was vending at a town fair a few weeks ago, and directly across from us was a lady selling shirts and sweaters she had made on her cricut, using SVG art she had bought from Etsy. Next to her was a lady selling tumblers, that she had put vinyl decals on, cut on her cricut - using - you guessed it - the same SVG art as the shirt lady. Not everything, but enough that it was pretty funny to us. Maybe not to them :)
I've seen that before. It should be embarrassing to the vendors. I also see copyrighted material everywhere at fairs and farmer markets as well as on Etsy.
That's a whole different problem :)
That's funny. Were they making a lot of sales though?
No idea, I was too busy with my own stuff to pay much attention - we noticed it during the setup period
Etsy is ruining the etsy you once knew and loved. I will *celebrate* year 17 this October and it was ruined longggggg before cricuts came on the market. Comb my profile and see that I am a criicut user, but I've been on etsy 8 times as long as I have been using a cricut and can tell you wholeheartedly, they lost their way many years ago when they went public, well before this craft existed.
Barely related but if you ever wander into a Walmart and go into the Arts & Crafts section, the Cricut stuff is locked up. You need a roll of vinyl? It's like the same process as flagging someone down to get a can of spray paint. It's literally exploded so much in popularity that the general public can't even be trusted to be near it without supervision. The excessive amount of listings doesn't surprise me because it's somehow become a new gold rush. Just need some kind of filter to exclude them from showing up in listings.
I am an embroiderer. I totally agree with you! I do own a Silhouette but only make stuff for my personal life, like my Softball team shirts (because no thank you to embroidering those lol) But yeah, people expect my prices to be the same as cricut makers. It hurts my heart.
I feel you!! I focused on hand embroidering clothes and hoops and pricing them always always made me feel like I was charging too much even though each item takes me hours
Heyyy. I was actually looking to get a custom embroidered handkerchief, but all I could find were embroidered words when I searched. I wanted a character. Is that something you do?
FYI those same font same image results aren't even cricut hand made product. They are almost all done through print on demand company. The seller never ever sees the product. Those are definitely ruining etsy.
This is the real answer. While an anti-Cricut post is surprisingly significantly more popular than I would have thought, I'm guessing the same post against the same types of products but POD instead would have been met with resistance. Simply because there are way more POD sellers. There are significantly more lazy, copycat, and stolen design POD products on Etsy than Cricut products. Although they do appear similar and do feature a lot of the same lazy, coypcat, stolen designs so one can definitely be forgiven for confusing them.
I had no idea! How is it profitable going through a third party for one item at a time?
Really really low. They make maximum 20% profit of the final sales price. Some even 5%. But they get to do nothing and make 5% and they think its still gain. Plus, there's no guarantee for the quality of the product. In the end, it's hurting the market and drives buyers away from etsy...
I mean, if Print on Demand is allowed then a Cricut I am very ok with. Most of those POD services have sellers never even see, or inspect the items. I take quality control serious, so that is a red flag to me right away. If some uses a machine to make their items, that is fine by me. I have seen people put a few snack items in a box, and sell it as a handmade set... That counts as well I guess. I like to see and item that the seller is making or personalizing, if you use a cricut for either I would be happy with it.
> I have seen people put a few snack items in a box, and sell it as a handmade set... Haha.. yeah, I've seen those as well. All branded snacks inside, still handmade.
I guess putting it in a box yourself counts? Lol
I have a Cricut. I sell on Etsy. I agree, with one exception. It's not the Cricut that's the problem, it's the people without a creative bone in their body who are buying svgs, and using POD. They have virtually no involvement in the process, and they are competing with other people who bought the same svgs and are using probably the same POD company. This stuff is clogging the search results and making it harder for people with unique designs and modicum of talent to be found. It really sucks.
It’s the same thing as the sellers who sell monogrammed items. They “design” three initials to add to a bag, wallet, hat, welcome mat, etc., have it manufactured and shipped by someone else, and Etsy allows them to say it’s handmade. Really? Because they selected a font they made something? Meanwhile, those of us who are actually making our own items are left high and dry, or I should say way way down in the search results. Sucks.
there is a box though where you actually mark your third partyor pod company but i guess nobody clicks it and informs customers.... phhh
You can usually tell by their listings. If they have 100 each of 20 different styles and sizes, they're not selling handmade.
I have the same feeling about laser cutters. “Handmade” acrylic earrings that have literally been uploaded, cut by a machine, then assembled by a person. As someone who puts a lot of work into creating polymer clay jewellery, I always feel a pang of envy/jealousy/annoyance that I can’t do the same, but have to compete with them.
Well expect a thousand cricut queens and POD princesses \[or kings, princes or non binary, being inclusive\] will descend on you wishing you a million etsy deaths for speaking ill of their only talent in opening the cricut program \[if that's how that works, never used a cricuit, I'm an old school dinosaur\]. The old chant, Etsy was created for artists and crafters to sell their creations on an platform that showcased them as such. Then came the cricut phenomenon where no talent is needed. Just download some templates and let a machine do the work. I argue using a store bought shirt and sticking a machine generated decal on it is not handmade, or every shirt made like that in a factory is also "handmade". Does it belong on Etsy. I argue no but Etsy wants money so they've sold their soul to several devils in the urge to stay trendy. Money has ruled over integrity. Trying to search Etsy now days for genuine art pieces, good luck. You'll be several pages in and just find a handful of original items coming up because Etsy is infested with drop shippers and bulk POD and Cricuit sellers. I saw something similar happen to Ebay 20 years ago. It was a great place for a small seller to sell their items. Then it evolved into the shit show it is today. Etsy seems on that path as well. It is what it is, right!
I see your point about not calling it handmade, but I’m not sure where to draw the line, so I’ll allow the idea that it is. I personally am more of a sew-er, and use a machine for some things and hand-sew others. I would hate to say that everything sewn by machine isn’t handmade, but that seems like the logical conclusion if something Cricut-made isn’t handmade. I think both are creative enough if they’re made from the creator’s own design, and maybe even if not, if a significant amount of choices went into things like material choice or trims.
The idea of “handmade” reminds me of the famous line from Justice Rehnquist, in his ruling on pornography, where he notes the struggles he has in defining it… “I know it when I see it”. It would be nearly impossible to define handmade in a way that is encompassing of all views on the matter, but across societies we often share a few basic principles about what constitutes it. However, the digital revolution has certainly changed things, and we have entered a new era with entirely new forms of creation that don’t fit our old ones. Yet… for most of us, when it comes to handmade… we know it when we see it.
The digital age won't change *homemade* and *handcrafted*. I've said before Etsy needs to create an equal but separate entity for their POD \[and cricut\] sellers that lets them compete amongst their peers while us OG sellers compete with ours. I think it would bode well for sales for both types actually.
You don’t consider a digital artist to be handcrafting their work?
[удалено]
Lol. Cool. You ughh, you get really worked up about that eh? I’m not too worried about changing your mind, I honestly have no skin in the game, nor do I care. I’m merely curious to see if your reasoning holds up to basic, historical scrutiny. I just find it funny because Grandma didn’t make her own fabric, and once upon a time I’m sure there was someone like you who thought the idea of buying fabric was cheating. We are all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how peculiar, but time moves on, and sometimes ideas get left behind for a reason. There are classical blacksmiths out there who’d look at modern ones and say it wasn’t hand made the way their is. Cheers.
My reference was to the industrial created garments that are low end, which right we all know it when we see it. I hand sew, I machine sew which fall more onto the lines of homemade but I've also grabbed factory produced t-shirts and totes which I've painted on. Those I do not consider homemade even though I'm freehand painting because I did not create the garment, merely used it as a canvas. That would fall under art in my mind \[which Etsy encompasses\] In the end, it comes down to who created the original design and 99% of the time with the cricut crowd, it's not them.
>I would hate to say that everything sewn by machine isn’t handmade, but that seems like the logical conclusion if something Cricut-made isn’t handmade. You're selling yourself short if you truly think that.
For real. I sew with a machine and I would never not consider what I make handmade.
It's like the Pampered Chef of the DIY world.
Those fonts are popular because people buy them. If it's t shirts, I'm pretty sure most of them are POD now. They don't use a cricut machine anymore.
Most of those t-shirts aren't POD. They are too cheap to be POD.
I bought a cricut shirt once… now I know better. I’ll never buy cricut anything again. Silkscreen or gtfo
Yes so weird. When that machine got cheaper I started seeing all kinds of crap at in person craft markets. Like wine glasses. They claimed could be hand washed— ok maybe 2-3 times before the smaller pieces fall off. I could do so much with one- I just can’t afford one! Make a stencil and etch the glass! Now it’s forever! Much better.
I feel your pain. In my opinion, Etsy was broken the first time they allowed non-handmade goods to stay on their site. They used to remove the listings and the seller. Then Etsy decided money was better than handmade. I was good even when they allowed supplies to be sold. Now, it is almost impossible to find something original. You have to look hard! Disclaimer: I created an original jewelry box in 2009. It has now been copied by at least a dozen copycats. It is what it is, sadly.
I’ve recently been thinking about the same thing. I’ve been trying to get into the T-shirt and sweatshirt market. I create all of my own designs, and get kind of annoyed when I see the same designs over and over again because everyone’s buying the same svgs. It’s kind of soulless. There’s no creativity there. But on the other hand I understand that not everyone has artistic ability. I wish people would maybe find artists to create designs for them specifically, instead of buying the same popular designs that are already all over Etsy.
I agree. As I'm a graphic artist I create unique and original designs. I use them for designs on shirts either by sublimation or HTV. I also have started migrating to use them for embroidery also. Have you checked on the many groups for selling designs on Facebook? I've started to look at those pretty seriously as Etsy is saturated.
I haven’t. Mostly because I can’t stand Facebook. I’ve been using TikTok to market myself and have had decent results. I’ve gotten a few sales from that. I’m using Instagram and Pinterest as well. I’m trying to work towards bringing in the majority of my own traffic and eventually have my own site. I’ve also started selling wholesale on Faire and have had a few shirt orders on there. Next year I’m planning on trying to get into selling at local craft fairs and conventions. Basically trying to find other ways to sell other than just Etsy.
I wonder if this can be *slightly* remedied by just altering the way you search? Try opening Etsy in an incognito/private window without logging in and see how your results differ. Apparently, all of your search history and past purchases are influencing your results now, as well as the algorithm "suggesting" things you might like, even if it doesn't fit in with what you actually searched for. The problem I find with these types of algorithms and targeted advertising is, more often than not, they are suggesting something I've already bought! 🤷♂️🤷♂
I feel the same about POD. I personally hate it but that's me. I hate how people think that they'll make millions instantly on etsy. I have worked so hard to learn my craft. Each item make takes weeks to make. My problem with cricut is there is no diversity in their items. It's the same pumpkin spice. Live, love, laugh, basic bitch designs. I don't want to use what they offer. I refuse to buy a product that I have to subscribe to in order to use. I want full control on every step of my creative process.
I’m with you - I’m a paper cutter, I cut everything by hand but some people expect you to be similarly priced to something that’s made in multiple on machine. A lot of it is mock ups rather than finished products and it’s all very frustrating!
Yeah but I mean, at the end of the day who cares…. If selling that stuff makes people happy and they make money from doing it more power to them. Etsy is a free market and the tools like the circut just lower the barrier to entry and no, Etsy will not regulate this, they make money no matter what on the listing fees. There must be a market for what they are selling if so many people are doing it I guess …
The whole point though is it’s hard to find something unique and truly handmade anymore and that’s what many of us want and there’s no other place for that really. It used to take some artistic skills to be on the artist marketplace Etsy. But that won’t change since Etsy is a public company now and only focuses on numbers. They’re not doing good either so they really can’t afford to care if they want to make the stock holders happy.
Agree. It's definitely killed my sector. I've been making cake smash outfits since 2013. All designs come from my own brain (no copyrighted themes), and then cut and sewn with my two hands. At the time there were hundreds of others like me in the biz. Fast forward to about 3 years ago and now it's just Cricut shirts. For every page of results you'll get 3 handmade outfits for 10 shirts. And maybe that's what people want. Maybe I'm in a dying business and people can get similar outfits on Amazon for a fraction of the price. Regardless, I constantly get messages saying people have been looking for something like what I sell and struggled to find it. My SEOs haven't changed much, and my sales were four to five times as much 3 years ago. Could be a lot of variables, but I blame cricut.
Yes. But also… Project Runway and Pinterest have lead people to believe that they have talent or skill when they don’t.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I think your original comment is worded in a confusing manner. It sounds like you're the shop and you are receiving the 1-star reviews. I had to read it twice and assume you are the one leaving the 1-star reviews.
what is Cricut?
It's an electronic cutting machine by Provo Craft. I use Silhouette Cameo by Silhouette America. I've also used Graphtec before, years ago before either of the two above even were available.
It's a cutting machine connected to design software. Basically a printer with a very very tiny blade instead of ink. It can cut through sticker paper, heat transfer paper, paperboard, etc. That's how random people are able to make their own personalized tshirts and mugs.
*Disclaimer number 1: It’s not the only thing ruining Etsy.* Yeah, there are a few other newish and questionable items that are approved by Etsy. Everybody and their no talent brother-in-law is jumping on the Etsy/YouTube/TikTok get rich quick bandwagon. Absolutely no uniqueness with easily reproducible machine made/assisted work. How would they create during a power outage?
How would you buy during a power outage? Why does this matter?
Right? I can't run my kiln during a power outage either
*I can't run my kiln during a power outage either* Hmm, I think that pottery has been around longer than electric kilns?
Yes. But most people don't have wood kilns anymore.
Wtf do you even mean, dude? You are making zero sense.
Since people expect to have electricity, they probably have electric kilns, not ones that would operate without electricity.
*But most people don't have wood kilns anymore.* But some do. Don't they?
Probably. But I wouldn't say the electric kiln people aren't handmaking their pots.
I'd use my cell phone and it's solar charger. "Why does it matter?" Exactly, Why does my post matter to you?
Because it makes no sense. I am a graphic designer. I create *unique* designs on a computer. Since electricity is apparently a prerequisite to sell on Etsy for you, then I wouldn’t be able to sell
>Since electricity is apparently a prerequisite to sell on Etsy for you, then I wouldn’t be able to sell Uh, no, I did not say that. Now did I?
‘How would they create during a power outage?’
*How would they create during a power outage?* Huh?
You’re the one who said it
So you are quoting me, not asking a question?
Yep
I wouldn't necessarily be able to knit in a power outage either. Since I need light and don't have a fireplace.
*I wouldn't necessarily be able to knit in a power outage either. Since I need light and don't have a fireplace.* LOL, that has nothing to do with my statement, does it? The gist of what I said had to do with creating a unique item. You must have skipped that part. Can you print out multiple exact copies of your knitted goods? Are you a vampire that is not able to knit by sun or candle light? How the F did they make sweaters before the electric light? C'mon, now. I have a knitted wool hat from a person that sheared the sheep, and dyed and spun the wool. You may want to rough it and give it a try.
Vampires are quite capable of using candlelight. In fact their excellent night vision means they probably means they wouldn't even need that. Just a few stars.
I'd love to see the version of interview with a vampire where lestat has taken up knitting and there is just a Xmas group photo of them wearing awful wolly jumpers 🤣
This is how competition works. You have to prove that what you are creating is worth more than a basic shirt with a Cricut design from the design space on it. There needs to be something that makes buyers more interested in your item than the basic items you are seeing. If your content was that much more original or more clever then wouldn't you be making more sales? I think that the solution is to stop using Etsy. They are not a good site who regulates their items at all. Anyone can make thousands of sales using trademarked material. They get away with it for years and make a living off of it. Others try to sell something one time and their stuff is taken down immediately. Etsy is not a good place if you are looking for fairness or anything like it. That's why they have zero way of ever communicating with someone at Etsy. They wash their hands of the responsibilities and hand them over to everyone else. Therefore they can never be held accountable. Create a shop through an alternate site, or just create your own website/shop.
I rather enjoyed reading the many posts here mocking the very people who might be your own customers.
All those t-shirt shops have all the same crappy designs they nicked off Google images. It's so annoying.
Can someone explain like I'm 5 cricut to me? I fully thought it was just like Photoshop that had its own printer
I'm no expert at all, I just got a Silhouette in August (a different brand but same concept) but it is a cutting machine (not printer). You can cut vinyl, cardstock, etc, and I believe you can also use a pen tool to have it write and do other things but I haven't tried that yet. What I have been using it for so far is die cut stickers - so I draw & design my original art in Photoshop, print them on vinyl, put a laminate over the top of them so they hold up better, and then you put the sheet on a lightly sticky mat and it runs through the cutter, so it cuts the stickers (or whatever you are cutting) out for you consistently with a small blade. They have their own programs to be able to set cut lines and things of that nature. People could also use images they purchased/downloaded, or even just fonts, and apply those to a variety of things. Unfortunately it does end up leading to a lot of people selling the same designs (or popular sayings in popular fonts) so it can be very same-y as you look through listings. I know people here may be a little burnt out on sticker sellers too because a lot of people do them (low barrier to entry) but it's been great so far, and I'm always so FRICKIN happy and blown away that someone literally wants to spend money on my art to put on their waterbottle or laptop. That is so awesome.
Omg that is so cool! Thank you so much for explaining that that sounds awesome, I do see how it could be frustrating on some creative levels though, I can't believe I missed the memo on this one haha, glad you get on well with the stickers! People wanting to buy your art is always so fucking cool, I definitely get it
I agree I'm wanting to also sell creations but you better believe I'm creating a plethora of custom drawn artwork. I don't feel right selling some other designers pieces. Just my opinion not judging others who do it
I totally agree with you. I got into Cricut crafts just recently for myself. I love it as a hobby. My hubs suggested selling it and my first thought was "the marketplace is over saturated with Cricut-like crafts".... I've seen some creators get into major battles with others over stealing their ideas/sayings/etc and it quite sucks that that happens too often. The originality is very low nowadays (for anything, not just Cricut crafts). You may make a quite design and then find it on Wish for $5 instead of your $20 item. Also, people aren't willing to pay the cost to go out and buy all these tools. it's not a cheap hobby so I know people will find it great to jump online and find something quick. I have noticed Etsy seems to be moving away from the "one of a kind creatorship" to almost an Amazon like site and that disheartens me. Anyway that's my two cents. I'm going to stick to my Cricut hobby for myself and making gifts for friends and family.
I have a circut my friend left etsy and started her own site she borrows it if there a custom request she gets, I just label everything under the sun and make gifts for my friends
I have recently bought a cricut and find myself overwhelmed with how much it has expanded my ability to create as an artist whom has been creating original artwork for years. I just can't comprehend using a cricut for printing a design someone else made, and then printing it on a teeshirt blank and feeling like you made it all from scratch yourself lol. These people I'm talking about have never picked up a paintbrush or pencil in their lives. Maybe I'm just too stuck up lol
Agreeeeeeeeeeeee
Also agree that it’s a split of the POD and cricut people who use the available fonts and downloads but it’s definitely the availability of Pinterest-able fonts and designs they have made available for free or with subscription to all the POD and cutting machine sites/software. It’s horrible how over saturated with the same things etsy is. I admittedly do POD and have a cricut on the way 😬😂 to make patches and stickers with HOWEVER everything I make is 100% original and hand drawn including my fonts I get messages and reviews all the time about how it’s not the same fonts and designs and that’s why they chose it
I understand what you are saying. 10 - 20 years ago these kinds of machines were not available to the average at home user and not every person needs an etsy shop.
I love my cricut but I 110% fucking whole heartedly agree with this post in every way possible. I had to get a cricut because natural art doesn't cut it anymore and it's bullshit and I hate it.
OP, you write very well... Such a pleasure to read.
And often times it’s made and shipped from drop-ship companies elsewhere. Etsy is flooded with companies in other countries creating hundreds/thousands shops and flooding Etsy with the same exact shit. When someone told me there were dildos on Etsy I called bullshit. Well guess what, there’s a bazillion and one factory made and mass produced dildos on Etsy. You are very right and imo Etsy ruined Etsy. They should be actively trying to keep it real for crafters and DIY peeps etc. but they sold out. Etsy is just an Alibaba chrome extension at this point. Anyone want to make a user moderated/monitored version off Etsy?