Handmade Korea Fair.... in 10 days!

As I proudly announced in a previous blog post, I will be participating at the end of July in HANDMADE KOREA FAIR, a large craft show held in the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center in downtown Seoul!

For the longest time Handmade Korea Fair was a distant project, something exciting and a little scary for sure, but that was relatively far in time. Now when I look at my calendar I realize.... it's in 10 days!

Getting ready

For the last few weeks, I have spent most of my awake time crafting Hanji paper items, in order to get ready for this Craft show. I had an ambitious target of 1,600 items, but I have to admit that I will most likely not reach that number in time for the Fair!.... I am now revising my plan, and aiming for a total of 1,100 items.

If you were to visit my apartment in Iksan you would see that I literally took over the living room, that is now my Hanji workshop! There is paper everywhere, supplies and tools on every free surface, and bins of hardware, paintbrushes and cardboard scraps all around the house! I have to take the time here to thank my husband and our four cats for their amazing patience.

Now that time is running out, I will have to prioritize and be as strategic as possible with my time and energy. There are so many things I would like to be making, but I have to make choices!.... It is no easy task for me.


New products in the HanjiNaty booth

In my booth at the Fair I want to make sure to offer an interesting selection of accessories and home decor items, and I especially want to focus on my patchwork collection. I have been crafting new square coasters (with ledge) to complement the pen holders and round coasters I am already offering to my customers.

I am also working on different sizes of hair pins, as my Korean customers often request smaller pins that would fit their style better. At the Fair people will now have the choice between 5 sizes of hair pins, from mini (3 cm) to jumbo (10 cm).


Where to find me

Handmade Korea Fair will be held in the B Hall of COEX, from July 23 (Thu) to July 25 (Sun). The Fair will be open to the public from 10am to 7 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday. The entrance fee is 10,000won.

Here is a map of the Fair. My booth is marked in blue (number A18) :

How to get to COEX : http://www.coex.co.kr/eng/visitors/directions-map-2

See you there!

Exclusive interview on the "Work Your Art" blog!

I am very proud to share here a link to an exclusive interview I gave to Debbie, the heart and head of the "Work Your Art" blog that specializes in marketing and promotion for selling crafts and arts online! It is a very well-done blog, filled with great information, tips, worksheets, etc.

You can read my interview here :
http://www.workyourart.com/interview/a-conversation-with-natalie-from-north-jeolla-province-south-korea/

Thank you very much, Debbie!

Your Online Tool box!

As an Etsy shop owner, I am discovering everyday new ways to promote my work and my shop.

Here is a non-exhausting (and non-pretentious) "Online Tool Box" that I have put together for all the Etsy shop owners out there! I will make sure to update it as soon as I hear of new tools, apps and websites that can help us all make our shops more successful !

Making and Promoting Treasuries                                                   

One of the great tools on the Etsy website are the treasuries. A treasury is a 16-item collection curated by Etsy members. It is a great way to showcase your work!

Here are some interesting tools that will help you make your treasuries faster and more efficiently, as well as promoting them on different platforms.

✔ Brittany's Best Treasury Box

The Treasury Box is an extension that can be installed on Google Chrome only. It is very useful to make treasuries, send group convos (to the shop owners featured in your treasury) and to save an image of any treasury on Etsy. It's free.
brittanysbest.com/treasurybox-chrome-extension/

✔ Shmetsy

Shmetsy offers three convenient tools : Shmetsy Sketchy (that allows you to save your treasuries as drafts), Treasury Maker (that allows you to create treasuries more quickly and efficiently) and Convos Sender (you can send convos to the shop owners featured in your treasury in one click). It's free.
shmetsy.com/tools.html

✔ Enhantsy
Enhantsy is a convenient extension that can be installed on your Internet browser and that offer different features to make treasuries and send convos much more easily. It used to be free, but now you have to pay about $3 a month to use it, after the 7-day free trial period.
enhantsy.com/

✔ Treasury Pin
Treasury Pin is a great tool that allows you to pin your treasuries onto Pinterest, with a customizing tool to pin collages of all the items in the treasury, rather than the first item only.
treasurypin.com/

Monitoring Traffic                                                                            

Another important aspect of our Etsy business is the monitoring of traffic. How many views and favorites do my items get? Where are the visitors from? How are my items positioned compared to the other shops' products?

✔ Heart-O-Matic
This tool gives you the detail of the hearts (favorites) your shop and your different items got. You can also access a complete list of the people who favorited your shop.
craftcult.com/heartomatic.php

✔ Are my Listings relevant?

You can check the relevancy of your tags and titles with this online tool.
tools4etsy.com/Wall-e/Relevancy/Keyword

✔ Are my Listings trending?

Are you items trending? You can find out with one click, using this tool.
tools4etsy.com/Wall-e/Trending

✔ Craft Count
You can take a look at lists of the top sellers on Etsy, and see how your shop is positioned compared to the best sellers out there.
craftcount.com

Improving SEO and Tags                                                                   

✔ Tag Wars
This very useful tool gives you a chance to compare different tags and see which one has the highest relevancy, popularity and probability rates. This is a great way to choose the best tags to be found in searches.
tools4etsy.com/TagWars

Boosting up your Blog or Website                                                         

There are some great tools out there to boost up your blog or website.

✔ Shop Widget
This tool will give you a chance to add a dynamic shop widget (with integrated slide show) onto your blog or website. Easy to use, and free!(You can see an example of the widget at the bottom of this page)
craftcult.com/shop_widget.php

✔ Etsy Mini
The Etsy mini is a direct gateway to your shop! You can generate your code and paste it in any webpage or blog HTML. Any change you make in your Etsy shop will be automatically updated in your Etsy mini. You can customize your Etsy mini to suit your needs.
etsy.com/your/mini


Managing your Business                                                                      

✔ Etsy Seller's Worksheet
You can download this convenient seller's worksheet that will help you keep track of your items and optimize your business.
mdmproofing.com/iym/products/etsy/sellers-worksheet/

Offering discounts and coupons                                                           

✔ Etsy on Sale

This website is dedicated uniquely to discounted and on-sale Etsy items. You can use it to promote your items that are on sale, but you will have to purchase credits in order to post on this website.

www.etsyonsale.com


Be seen and heard on social media platforms                                       

✔ Wanelo (wanelo.com)
Wanelo (that stands for Want - Love - Need) is a great site for Etsy shop owners to promote their items. Check it out, and claim your shop today! Someone might have already posted one of your items on Wanelo.

✔ Pinterest (pinterest.com)
It's next to impossible to avoid Pinterest when promoting your Etsy shop! Joining group boards is always an excellent idea to get your items out there.
✔ Facebook (facebook.com)
✔ Tumblr (tumblr.com)
✔ Twitter (twitter.com)

More apps and tools                                                                            

✔ More Etsy apps :
You can browse here to find more Etsy apps. You can arrange the different apps by popularity, newness  or alphabetical order to find what you need :
www.etsy.com/apps


Interesting reads                                                                                   

✔ 8 ways to keep your social media updates fresh :
http://socialmediatoday.com/salman-aslam/2059286/8-ways-keep-your-social-media-updates-fresh

HanjiNaty at the Jeonju Hanji Culture Festival 2014!

 

What a thrill to announce that Hanji Naty will be participating in the 18th Edition of the Jeonju Hanji Culture Festival !

The Festival will be held for four days, from May 3 to May 6, 2014, in the area surrounding the Hanji Industry Support Center in the city of Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do province.

In the past editions, the Hanji Festival was held from Thursday to Sunday; this year, the Festival has decided to make the event coincide with a nice 4-day weekend, made possible by the alignment of the stars and the national Holidays! Children's Day being on May 5 (Monday) and Buddha's birthday on May 6 (Tuesday), Korean citizens will enjoy a long weekend at the beginning of May, when the weather is usually the finest on the peninsula.

From Visitor to Seller

I have been an enthusiastic visitor of the Hanji Festival for many years. I would never miss it for the world! (You can read here my blog post on the 2013 Edition of the Festival). This year I have decided to take a leap of faith and take part in the Festival as a Hanji Seller! It is a gigantic challenge for me, but I am ready to do everything it takes to be successful !

In my booth I plan on selling a wide range of Hanji creations, including earrings, hair accessories, plates, boxes, chests, tissue cases, coasters, magnets, etc.

I am very curious and excited to see what the Korean visitors will think of my work, as it is quite unusual and different from the traditional Hanji crafts you can see in Korea. Will they like the bold colors and the daring designs? Will they find my Hanji jewelry and accessories attractive, or simply weird?

A foreign gal in a very Korean Festival

I won't lie : I'm pretty nervous about the whole adventure. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that I will be most likely the only non-Korean person having a seller's booth at the Festival this year and, quite possibly, ever! I expect to draw a lot of attention, and let's hope it will be for my craft and my creations rather than for my Western face!

One thing that worries me is the fact that my Korean language skills are not good enough to fully explain my crafts to my potential customers and visitors. I am also very concerned about the fact that Korean visitors might feel shy, embarrassed or even scared to approach my booth because they don't feel confident enough with their own English skills! I am hoping to have some help from dear Korean friends who could spend a little time with me in my booth and help me communicate better with my visitors and possible customers!

I am also expecting to be photographed and filmed quite a bit! As a foreigner in South Korea (especially when you are out of metropolitan centers such as Seoul or Busan) I am already used to have my picture taken when I attend any kind of festival or event... But I know that this time it will most likely be a bigger deal, and I can expect to end up in the newspaper or in a news spot on Korean TV!... I will make sure to wear my brightest smile (and a decent outfit!) for the four days of the Festival!

Getting ready for the big Weekend!

Ever since I received the confirmation that I will have my own booth at the Festival, I have been working quite hard to prepare this big 4-day event. I honestly don't know what to expect, and I want to be as well prepared as possible! In the next few weeks I will be sharing my process (and my progress!) with you! Don't worry : I'll make sure to keep you posted!

* * * * *

To learn more about the Festival :

★ Official Website (in Korean only) : 
http://jhanji.or.kr/

★ Korea Tourism Association page on the Festival : 
http://bit.ly/KaS1FB

★ Festival Facebook Event page : 
https://www.facebook.com/events/191179781002235/

Happy 1st Anniversary, HanjiNaty!

Almost a year ago, on February 24, 2013 I finally gathered enough courage to open my very own online shop, on the mega website Etsy.com.


Since the opening of my Hanji craft shop in 2013 a lot has happened!

Here's a recap of some amazing moments of the past year for me and my tiny boutique :


Slowly Building a Business

• I have sold 24 items from my Etsy boutique in the last twelve months;

• I made my very first sale the day of the shop opening, on February 24, 2013! The first sale I made was a set of four Hanji coasters;

• I made my first International sale on November 19, 2013! This sale was extremely meaningful to me because the lovely client who purchased one of my Hanji hair barrettes was in no way related to me. A real sale to a real stranger, it's a big deal!;

• So far, my Hanji creations have been shipped to England, France, Italy, Canada and the U.S.A.;

Crafting New Products

• In July  I started fooling around with cardboard scraps and stainless steel hair barrettes I found in a craft supply store in Seoul and I made my first Hanji barrettes;

• In October, I decided to experiment with tiny pieces of cardboard and strips of colorful Hanji paper and that's how my whole line of Hanji earrings was born! So far they've been my most popular items;

Being a part of the Etsy Community

• In September 2013 I decided to get more involved in the Etsy Community, in order to promote my shop in a more pro-active fashion. I join two dozens teams, mainly dedicated to promotional games and activities;

• In October, I was invited to join a promotion team called Strategic Promotion for Success Team (SPS Team). After accepting their invitation, I became more and more involved with the team and met some great artists and shop owners;

• Less than a month later I was offered to join the Leadership team of SPS Team. What a nice challenge! I accepted without hesitation;

• Since mid-November I am co-captain of the SPS Team!

• In February 2014 I created a brand new team, called "Planet Korea", for the Etsy shop owners and buyers who live in South Korea or simply love all things Korean!

• It is absolutely obvious that my involvement in Etsy teams has greatly increased the visibility of my shop, the number of visits and likes and, ultimately, the number of sales that I made. On top of that, I have met some awesome Etsy shop owners who are unbelievably creative, driven and motivated to succeed. I learn from them and with them every single day!

A special discount to celebrate the first anniversary of HanjiNaty!

• I am thrilled to offer you 20% OFF on all the items in the online shop to celebrate the first anniversary of HanjiNaty!

• Use the coupon code "1YEAR" at check-out to enjoy a nice 20% discount!

• The coupon is valid until February 28, 2014;

• Check the online shop now :