Yesterday I wrote a blog post about my experience of living with a chronic illness. It also helps explain why I’m called Dizzy Miss James!
Please feel free to check it out;
Setting up my Folksy Shop helped me through my recovery, gain focus and confidence.
Have you got a story behind your shop name or why you became an Folksy Seller?
V x
My shop name is boring because I couldn’t think of anything arty! And I started the shop because I like making jewellery but rarely get a chance to wear it since I spend most of my days looking like an agricultural refugee in wellies and horrible smelly jeans. I’m painting an attractive picture of myself here but jewellery and animals are not a great, or safe, combination.
One thing I love about creativity is the way it brings people together, and gives people joy who may otherwise be suffering poor health, stress, or other bad circumstances in life. It can give people a reason to get up which I think is a wonderful gift 
I have been making and selling since I was 6 and that was sssssh…61 years ago. My mother always said , "Don’t moan about having no money…make something and sell it !"
At no point in my life has there ever been a moment when I wasn’t making something to sell.
I used to do craft fairs but the profits on those became so bad that often I was out of pocket. I started on the auction site and met someone who asked me if I had ever heard of Folksy…no?..anyway I just jumped in the deep end and listed something…I sat down and realised that for what was then probably about 12p I could show thousands of people my work against maybe 100 people at a craft fair, having paid from £12 - £40…depending on the venue. Now I am NOT a mathematician but a little light came on in my head showing me that sitting indoors painting and having breakfast in bed on a Saturday morning, was far and above better than driving the countryside for miles for little or no profit. I gave up the fairs just after I started my Folksy shop and don’t regret it for one minute…in fact (ha ha) I am going to watch neighbours on tv in a minute, while I paint. My shop is Gweddusart (pronounced Gwethisart) Gweddus is the Welsh word for “becoming” and I am Brenda Cumming…or B.Cumming…sorted…lol
I have crafted on and off for many years selling here and there via word of mouth and craft fairs.
I’m not getting any younger and time is precious so craft fair were beginning to take up too much time, for little or no profit.
I also wanted to cast my net further a field, I did some research and decided on a British based platform supporting British Crafters/Artists paying a British company my listing fee’s rather than a company in another country…
Also the community here is just wonderful
I agree Eileen…can’t be lugging stuff to and from craft fairs any more
I have suffered from depression for many years and found that getting back to knitting made me less likely to dwell on bad or sad things. It gives me a great lift to see family, friends and pets wearing the things I have hand knitted. It was those people that pushed, nagged and eventually convinced me to put my items up for sale. Selling has built my confidence and recently I was very lucky to be commissioned by a London Gallery to hand knit a pure cashmere cardigan using a vintage pattern. The cardigan was to play an integral part of an exhibtion. Though I may not have made many sales through Folksy, I love browsing the shops and admiring the talented crafters’ work.
Hi Victoria.
I’ve just read your blog post, and its so inspiring. I think being creative is the best medicine you can get.
I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and good ol’ OCD.
Nothing helps me more mentally then sitting at my craft desk creating away. The worries disappear, my OCD seems to vanish, and I feel so relaxed.
I opened my Folksy shop when I realised how much stuff I was making, and that it needed an outlet or else I would need a bigger house to stash it all.
Discovering people actually liked what I made, and even buy… Well I was over the moon. 
I’m off to look around your shop 
Karen 
Thank you for you kind words Karen it means a lot! Creativity helped me recover, I love nothing more than disappearing in my work.
Take care
V x
Hi all, I started selling on Folksy because, like many others, I was making more jewellery than I could possibly wear or give away! I was attracted to Folksy (as opposed to eBay) because it seemed to me that a more specialist site with a leaning towards handmade items might attract a more appreciative audience. I sell my stuff simply to finance my hobby, and if it does that, I’m happy.
Interesting to see the many other comments about craft fairs. They are promoted as the ideal place to sell handmade things but I’m not sure that’s true. As others have pointed out here, they take a great deal of time and effort with no guarantee of covering one’s costs. I took the advice of a close friend of mine who’d done craft fairs for many years and had concluded that many times they are not worth it.
Folksy has been the ideal site for me because I can fit it in around other commitments, without having to do craft fairs; and it’s also ideal for those who don’t want to go to all the trouble of setting up an individual website.
I love how you played with words to make your shop name!
ha ha stitching a rainbow…my user name is teabreaks…which is TEd And BREnda And KidS…get it?
I have always made things but usually just for myself and more lately for friends and relatives. People kept telling they would pay for what I made.
I suffer from depression and over the past year have got myself back to really good stable place. A lot of that is making time for sewing. It truly is my therapy.
I chose Folksy primarily because it was a British Crafters Forum but also beacause the costs are reasonable, there was a lot of advice available to read before opening a shop and it wasn’t a scary process.
That is so clever! Are some kind of a puzzle champion??
xx
It is a great thread, especially as I was often curious how people came up with their shop’s name…
Mine is pretty easy to figure out, but for me there is actually a big meaning behind it, I always loved all the colours and combining them together. As a child I used to put my crayons in rainbow order in the box, (not the usual light to dark) and I even play with them pretending they are getting married (green with orange, blue and pink, and the red would be the evil sister that plotted with black to get rid of pretty pink, lol)…
I always struggled to chose just one fabric, one yarn… So when I discovered patchwork I was over the moon, I could use ten fabrics in one quilt!
And then, having to many ideas, not enough money to buy fabric and make it… turning it into business was just natural course of action…
Why Folksy? I do not remember how I found it but I know I loved the idea of online crafty supermarket. Being part of the community but at the same time have my own shop, and it won’t ruin me because it only cost pennies to list. It is like a constant craft fair!
But it took me quite some time to grow to it, especially item’s description are hard for me.
xxx
Magdalena
For me it was a case of creating some “me time” around looking after my kids and I liked the idea Folksy and what it was aiming to do. It has really evolved for the better so I am happy to still be here.
@teabreaks thanks for explaining how to pronounce your shop name, I have learnt something today 
( sorry had it wrong in my head all this time!)
LOL Fatema…the joys of the Welsh language…lol
There were people on Etsy who were saying that Folksy being much smaller, shop gets found easier, and they have tons of sales.
Hi @DizzyMissJames - I too became a Folksy buyer to try to get more direct sales as I too have a chronic illness that has severely limited my life for the past 3 years. I have been selling to craft and art galleries for about 10 years, but if I can make a direct sale I get almost double per bird, meaning my energy is spread further and used more efficiently. I too have blogged about this and if anyone is interested here is a link to a poem that attempts to describe how my illness affects me : http://iknowpeoplewhohaverecoveredfromme.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/poem
I became a Folksy seller to help my son raise money for a charity very close to his heart.
He can no longer take part in walks/runs and was disappointed that he couldn’t fund raise.
I looked on the internet for reviews on all selling sites and Folksy won me over
Karen xx
I opened my shop last June as I’d always wanted to sell the things I made, but was a bit scared to at first. I’m a stay at home mum with two kids under two and I do it to fund my hobby and to help with the usual household stuff. I’ve always loved being creative, my mum taught me to knit and sew at a young age and even though it was terribly uncool, I still loved it.
I studied Architecture in Uni and I was miserable by mid 3rd year - my flatmate used to say that if I’d had a really rubbish day I’d go straight to my (then brand new) sewing machine and work on a new project! So now the same faithful sewing machine has a (semi) permanent place on my table! I think the important thing for me is that even if I didn’t sell, I’d still sew… you have to love what you do. It is also hugely important to us that it it me that looks after the kids 24/7 rather than being sent to childcare - I know some families don’t have that option but I’m very thankful we do and that I can, in my own small way, help. Ramble over haha! I love reading your stories, some of you are brave to carry on and not let things defeat you, it’s truly admirable x