Photos courtesy of Linda Younkman, Abbie Kaman and Alaina Cherup
From hand-crafted jewelry to custom painted pallets, Dublin residents are embracing their talents and selling the products they love to make with the help of Etsy.
Etsy, the Brooklyn-headquartered company founded in 2005, specializes in recognizing creative entrepreneurial individuals and connecting them to the global market. Etsy invites people from all over the world to buy and sell creative and unique products through its website.
Dublin resident Linda Younkman has experience in sewing, quilting, crocheting, knitting and even purse-making. However, after seeing a neighbor make jewelry, Younkman’s daughter inspired her to master a new craft. Though she found it fun and easy to transition into jewelry-making, selling her products proved to be harder.
“Initially, I lacked confidence that my work was good enough for the world to see and buy,” says Younkman. “Confidence was achieved (through) local craft shows and repeat customers giving immediate feedback. At that point, Etsy seemed like the logical place to sell my work.”
Younkman, under the name Lindy’s Designs, now makes eclectic, bohemian-inspired jewelry using a variety of mixed mediums such as metal, fiber, leather, natural gemstones and a variety of beads. She has recently been interested in enameling, so she added a few enamel components to her Etsy shop for other do-it-yourself jewelry makers to use in their own creations.
Pallets and Paint, owned by Abbie Kaman
Another Etsy shop owner in Dublin is growing her business with the help of friends and family. Abbie Kaman is the owner of the Pallets and Paint Etsy shop. She specializes in hand-painted, reclaimed wooden signs, but also makes other home décor items.
Kaman made her first pallet as a Christmas gift for her mother, but the high-quality work attracted attention from friends. Word got around, and now, Kaman has converted her basement into a workshop and runs her Etsy business full time.
Enamel components for DIYers to use in their own jewelry
Kaman currently has six Dublin high school art students working for her, along with several other part-time employees to meet the demand her shop elicits. The holidays are even busier for Kaman, who recruits her family during the Christmas season. With her husband, Ron, and four kids to help, Kaman is thankful for her family’s continual patience and support.
“My shop handles approximately 2,500 to 3,000 orders a year, so what started as a one-woman show three years ago now takes a team effort to maintain our quality and to keep our turnaround time reasonable,” says Kaman.
Though Kaman customizes a lot of her orders, every piece she makes is truly one-of-a-kind. She mostly focuses on home décor items, especially for children’s rooms, but her police and firefighter flags have recently become popular as well.
Kaman plans to continue growing Pallets and Paint as a business, but wants to maintain the quality and hand-crafted nature of her products. She has set a goal to start selling through her own website in 2017.
“I pride myself on providing a unique, hand-crafted product that my customers will cherish for years to come,” says Kaman. “In the three years since I first opened up shop online, I have sold over 6,000 hand-painted signs. I am so thrilled that I have been able to make a career out of what was once a hobby.”
Another Etsy shop owner in Dublin is also crafting handmade wooden invitations. Alaina Cherup opened her Etsy shop, CheerUpCherup in 2008, just three years after Etsy debuted. Cheer Up Press specializes in letterpress and real wooden wedding invitations.
When Cherup began selling on Etsy, weddings were still seen as very traditional occasions that required traditional invitations. This was her inspiration to start designing and crafting beautiful invitations with a modern and unique touch.
“I was inspired to create invitations and save-the-dates that were fun and out of the box for couples that were bored of the same cookie cutter designs that were (once) so prevalent,” says Cherup.
Linda Younkman
Cherup works with couples to design invitations and save-the-dates that are specific to them. Though Cherup has her own artistic style, each piece she creates tells a different story because her clients are all so different. In the future, Cherup plans to expand her inventory to more everyday items that showcase her artistic abilities.
“I am planning to offer more pre-made items like calendars and wall prints,” says Cherup. “Currently most of my items are custom and geared toward couples looking for wedding invitations, but I’ve recently become more interested in art and making quality everyday goods,” says Cherup.
In addition to the new inventory, be on the lookout for Cherup’s upcoming letterpress classes, where she will teach the process of designing and pressing your own invitations. Though Etsy is mostly online, there are times when shop owners will set up at craft fairs and trunk shows. Visit the Etsy Local tab on the website to find upcoming local events featuring Etsy sellers.
Jenny Wise is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
