April Winchell, author of Regretsy, hosted Club Etsy last night and it was an amazing turnout! The club night is usually about celebrating what people create and in a way, last night was about that too. It was also about poking fun at the ways we sometimes take ourselves and our ideas too seriously.

The most frequently asked question I get at our club nights is “how do I get my Etsy store noticed?”

One of April’s main points during her presentation was that while her website and book draw attention to people’s creations in a critical way, the response from people who embrace what is featured on her site often brings more attention to these artists and crafters than they might receive on their own. Personally, I’ve always been fascinated with counterculture and its ability to blur the line between low and high art.

April is no stranger to outsider culture herself. She hosted a radio show for several years, sharing unconventional music to her listeners that may never have been heard on a large scale. She genuinely appreciates what she points out as weird or terrible and in fact, her presentation included a slideshow of over 20 items featured on her site that now sit comfortably in her home.

If you haven’t picked up a copy of her book, we have several autographed ones for sale in the store! We even made April a gift in true Regretsy form. Just before we got to take a staff photo with her, April let me know that our gift to her had been “mysteriously stolen” during her book signing! While I wish we could have gotten a group photo with her wearing it, luckily, we snapped several photos of her right when I presented the very special gift, one of which you can see below.

Thanks again to April and everyone who made it out last night! We hope to see you at upcoming Club Etsy meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 6-8pm.

Last night we held our FIRST EVER sock monkey class at the Urban Craft Center! Each participant brought with them a pair of socks that were transformed into these kitschy little creatures. The studio space was full of creative energy and conversation as we worked into the evening. Everyone in the class went home with a new friend and the know-how to create their own sock monkey in the future! Be sure to join in on our next sock monkey making madness on August 25th from 5-9 pm!