Attention Prisms Artists and Crafters: DC Fundraising Opportunity

Dear Prisms and Parents, The cogs and sprockets have begun to creak and turn towards this spring's trip to Washington, DC! Last week, we met as a class to brainstorm ideas as to how students can earn their $75 share of the trip's cost. Among the many interesting ideas that came up was that of students who wanted to sell crafts they had made, which raises the question of what forum they have to sell such things. In the name of supporting this line of fundraising, I will be opening and overseeing an online shop through Etsy, where Prisms will be able to sell their handmade crafts and earn money towards their share. Etsy is a site that facilitates sales for craftspeople of widely varying styles and crafts. The sellers range from professionals who use it as one part of their business to hobbyists. Each seller has their own simple storefront. For an example, I invite you to look at the yarn shop I run through Etsy. The site is highly searchable, so buyers do not have to go directly to a particular shop, but can search for a type of item by keyword from the front page and be led to any number of shops. When listing an item for sale, a seller writes up their own description of the item, uploads their own photo of it, decides their price and their shipping charge. Each item has its own page under the shop's storefront. While there is no subscription fee to set up or maintain a shop, Etsy does charge minimal fees for listing and sale: it costs $0.20 to list each item, and they also take a 3.5% fee for each completed sale (before shipping cost). It is the seller's responsibility to ship each item. Etsy also has a fairly comprehensive frequently asked questions section about selling which also may have your answer. Etsy tends to be a very positive-minded, supportive community which genuinely believes in the value of handcrafts. It is one of the warmer, fuzzier corners of the Internet, both figuratively and literally. 
 In terms of how this would work with students' crafts, Etsy allows people under 18 to sell, but the account must be in the name of and supervised by an adult, a role I would fill. In regards to privacy and safety, students do not need to be identified on the site, though they may choose to use initials or a first name in descriptions of items they've made. When a student wanted to list something, they would bring me the item and their written description of it. They will decide their own price, and, ideally, take their own digital photo of it, too. I would take care of shipping, and would set shipping prices to account for cost of postage and envelopes. Many students already have crafts that they would like to sell. I've heard talk about jewelry making and knitting. Some other ideas might be duct tape wallets or recycled notebooks with interesting covers – the range of saleable crafts is huge, and I would encourage anyone interested to take a look around Etsy to see what's there. This is a rich opportunity, not only to earn money towards the trip but to explore using the internet for business – trying out some of the design, writing and promotion aspects of it, which will be primarily in the domain of the collective of student sellers. If you have any questions about this idea, please feel free to contact me via email, grace (dot) mrowicki (at) gmail (dot)com. Sincerely, Grace Mrowicki, Prisms TA