The luxurious feel of her pieces comes from a combination of fine materials and clean design. Her jewelry can elevate an ensemble to make the ordinary extraordinary. Time and again, I’ve found that earrings, bracelets and necklaces that she’s given me have finished a look to perfection and garnered compliments wherever I’ve worn them.

You can see her full portfolio on Flickr. Cheers, Jane! Best of luck!

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I haven’t had nearly enough time this week to crochet. I spent the majority of the week managing a sudden flurry of interest in my jewelry (yay!). Left Bank designs will be arriving shortly at Renegade Handmade headquarters in Chicago! I’ve been a long-time fan Renegade Handmade, both the show and the store. My earrings have now found a home at their Wicker Park boutique to be displayed alongside some of my favorite artists (APAK!). They’ll also be for sale on their website; I’ll post an update when they’re available.

Closer to home, Coupa Cosas in Palo Alto will also be carrying a selection of Left Bank designs including earrings and pins. Coupa Cosas (which means “objects of desire”) is a little treasure. It’s filled with wonderful, handmade accessories of the highest calibre. I’m thrilled to have been asked to be included in their collection.

I’m looking forward to picking up the hook again this week to put the finishing touches on a couple of seasonal designs. Check back soon!

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# 5     Don’t trust labels and tags.

Like so many other things on the Internet, Etsy is an honor system. No one goes through and vets products before (or after) they are listed. Just because an item is marked “vintage”, “handmade” or “supplies” doesn’t necessarily mean that it is any (or all) of those things. Likewise, something tagged with “children” doesn’t mean it was made to any safety standard or should be given to small kids. Retain a healthy bit of skepticism when it comes to categorization; the labels are guides, not law.

# 4     Remember to read the fine print.

Etsy is inherently visual. We fall in love immediately with those gorgeous photos of items on the home page, but can fall out of love when the item arrives and looks nothing like what we imagined. Keep in mind that you’re buying the object, not the picture. That means taking the time to read all of the accompanying notes. How big is it? Looks can be deceiving. How will it ship? That gift box may not be included. How many do I get? What’s pictured may be a set, but the listing could be for a single item. Taking the time to read the seller’s notes can prevent surprises. If there are no notes or something is unclear, convo the seller or shop elsewhere.

# 3     Think about the total sale price before you get to the checkout.

No matter how excited you get looking at a listing, be sure that you think about your total cost before committing to buy. Some sellers include free shipping, but most do not. Be sure you look at shipping costs and terms. You’d hate to think that perfect gift will arrive in time for a special occasion, only to find out that it shipped ground and won’t be there until next week. Also, look for deals: some sellers offer discounts on shipping if you buy more than one item from their shop.

# 2      Take a few minutes to get to know the seller.

When you buy from an Etsy seller, keep in mind that you’re buying from the seller, not Etsy. Buying on Etsy is like buying at a craft fair or flea market; you can’t complain to the event company if an individual seller rips you off. The vast majority of Etsy sellers are reputable, and many go far above and beyond the customer service you’d expect from a retail store. But because you aren’t buying from a well-known retailer, it’s worth taking a few minutes to review feedback and ratings from other customers, look at how many past sales have been successfully transacted, and look at the seller’s other shops if they have them. This should give you a better picture of what the seller is like. Still not convinced? Check the forums or even hit Google to see if you can find more info. If this still doesn’t give you a feeling of trust, better move on.

and the #1 thing to remember….Always comparison shop!

My biggest shopping regret is always finding out that I could have gotten a better deal if I had done my homework. Avoid this buyer’s remorse by looking around for a bargain. Just because you think you’ve found that unique, one-of-a-kind item (especially when it comes to vintage items and supplies), it’s not worth abandoning your comparison shopping sense. Do a quick Etsy search to be sure that there aren’t other (better, cheaper) items out there that might meet your needs. Didn’t find anything? Maybe it’s worth Googling or looking through eBay. I’ve found both vintage items and supplies for less by simply comparison shopping.

Hope these tips help you become a more savvy Etsy buyer.

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11 August, 2009: I spoke with Brian Carr, SVP of Media at NameMedia this morning both via email and phone. Mr. Carr’s team is looking at the issue and is considering removing the “nofollow” tag for “trusted” bloggers. If you’re concerned about your content appearing on their site, I suggest you contact NameMedia via the email address below or through their page on GetSatisfaction. – Amy

I noticed recently that my blog posts and tweets are being aggressively slurped by domain name reseller NameMedia, under their “CreativeCrochet” domain. The site is ostensibly a content aggregator for crochet hobbyists, but nosing around a little further revealed that it is part of the NameMedia stable of domain names. Essentially, NameMedia buys targeted keyword domain names (like CreativeCrochet), aggregates content (pulls it from bloggers & tweeters), and builds up traffic to its site. Once the domain reaches critical mass, it’s sold.

What makes this so distasteful is that NameMedia is scraping blogs and tweets, but setting up all outgoing links to the “contributors” as “nofollow.” What does “nofollow” mean? It means that search engines won’t follow the links to the original authors of the content when they spider the site – basically robbing the original content creator of any page rank benefit. In short, CreativeCrochet improves their search engine ranking and site popularity while ensuring that the content sources remain obscure in search engines.

You may initially think that being slurped could provide some exposure for your site. The reality is that I haven’t seen a single click-through from CreativeCrochet as a referrer.

This is rather nasty business. As a veteran web developer, I was piqued to realize that my content was being scraped in this way. I am particularly annoyed because the CreativeCrochet site rebrands all of the content to imply consent (if not active participation or even payment). For example, my tweets show up under a heading marked “Creative Crochet Tweets”. Huh?

I tried to take the high road with this and sent an email to NameMedia on July 13 (more than 2 weeks ago) asking them to remove the “nofollow” tag in links to my blog. They have yet to respond or remove the tag.

Is your content being slurped? Here are two ways to respond:

1. Email inquiries@namemedia.com or call +1-781-839-2800 and register a complaint.
2. Block CreativeCrochet from scraping your posts by installing a plugin like Bad Behavior. UPDATE: Bad Behavior wasn’t able to block my posts from being slurped. I’ll update when I find another solution.

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