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New site, new Folksy

Folksy is having a significant makeover which we announced back in September, part of our desire to make Folksy the best place to buy and sell handmade work from UK designers and makers. The image shows a sneak peek of the new design template in draft form (it’s just a crop showing the new navigation, we’ll release more of the new design work in the coming days and weeks).

Below, we outline the new categories on the site and why we’re implementing them. We also point to a screencast (a video) of how you can edit your listings so they display in the new site, launching in mid November.

Changes to the categories

The new site designs have been created hand-in-hand with a thorough review of the navigation. In particular we’ve worked hard to optimise the site for buyers to browse your work more easily. We believe the new sections and categories are more intuitive for people and the filters (by price, colour and materials) enable people to create more manageable lists of items to explore and then buy.

Weddings is a new section and we have used rooms to organise your
work in the Home and Garden section. Cards benefit from events sub-categories (for example Birthdays and Anniversaries) and Supplies gets its own section split into commercial, handmade and also services, to cover off logos and banner work, which
felt odd previously mixed in with tangible, crafted work.

Some categories and items will be phased out. Oils are one area which we feel have been out of kilter with what Folksy is about. Oils, creams, gels, salves, scrubs and balms are primarily beauty and cosmetic items rather than recognised decorative crafts (whereas we believe soaps and “bath bombs” / “bubble bars” are).

Oils, creams, balms, salves or scrubs will be phased out and you will not be able to list them on the new site. Any currently listed will not be seen in the new categories but will still be
able to be found on the site (through search) and bought for the duration of the listing. If you want to edit your listing into something else during that time then of course you can.

New category list

Women:

• Accessories – Scarves, Hats, Hair clips, Fascinators, Belts, Handkerchiefs, Hair bands, Corsages, Pocket mirrors, Ear muffs, Charms, Badges, Gloves, Key rings, Everything else
• Bags & Cases – Bags, Purses, Glasses cases, Rucksacks, Satchels, Cases, Totes, Panniers, iPod cases, iPad sleeves, Mobile phone cases, Kindle cases, Toiletry bags, Laptop sleeves
• Clothing – Skirts, Dresses, Blouses, Petticoats, Jackets, Shirts, Trousers, T-shirts, Jumpers, Cardigans, Shoes, Socks, Costumes, Slippers, Ponchos, Shawls, Bras, Knickers, Corsets
• Jewellery – Necklaces, Bracelets, Rings, Earrings, Cuffs, Jewellery sets, Brooches, Everything else

Men:

• Accessories – Gloves, Hats, Belts, Key rings, Badges, Ties, Scarves, Handkerchiefs, Everything else
• Bags & Cases – Wallets, Glasses cases, Rucksacks, Satchels, Cases, Panniers, iPod cases, iPad sleeves, Mobile phone cases, Kindle cases, Toiletry bags, Laptop sleeves
• Clothing – Jackets, Shirts, Trousers, T-shirts, Vests, Jumpers, Cardigans, Shoes, Socks, Underwear, Costumes, Slippers
• Jewellery – Cufflinks, Earrings, Rings, Necklaces, Everything else

Babies & Children:

• Accessories – Hats, gloves & scarves, Bracelets, Necklaces, Hair accessories, Everything else
• Babycare – Bags, Cases, Bibs & cloths, Changing mats
• Cards & Invitations – Cards, Invitations
• Clothing & Shoes – Babygrows, Trousers, Skirts, T-shirts, Shoes, Dresses, Costumes, Socks & booties
• Nursery – Tables, Chairs, Lamps, Lampshades, Bookshelves, Toys, Mobiles, Bedding, Storage, Play mats, Everything else

Home & Garden:

• Bedroom & Bathroom – Soaps, Bath bombs, Throws, Bedding, Scented bags, Hot water bottle covers, Towels, Everything else
• Craft room & Workshop – Pin cushions, Knitting bags, Knitting needle rolls, Sewing needle cases, Craft storage, Everything else
• Kitchen & Dining – Candles, Tea towels, Napkins, Place mats, Cups & mugs, Bowls, Coasters, Candle holders, Cosies, Aprons, Doorstops, Magnets, Dishcloths, Trivets, Glasses, Everything else
• Office & Stationery – USB sticks, Notepads, Bookmarks, Calendars, Diaries, Envelopes, Gift wrap, Gift tags, Invitations, Journals, Notebooks, Place cards, Postcards, Stamps, Stickers, Writing paper, Paperweights, Everything else
• Laundry & Storage – Laundry bag, Peg bag, Ironing board cover, Everything else
• Living Room – Cushions, Blankets, Rugs, Clocks, Vases, Decorations, Bookends, Everything else
• Cards – Anniversary, Birthday, New home, New job, Sympathy, Art, Congratulations, Weddings
• Christmas – Decorations, Wreaths, Stockings
• Dolls & Collectables – Dolls, Puppets, Animals, Doll accessories, Bears
• Furniture & Lighting – Storage, Signs, Tables, Bookcases, Cabinets, Chairs, Shelves, Lamps, Lampshades, Everything else
• Garden & Pets – Garden furniture, Ornaments, Wildlife feeders, Planters & pots, Tools & equipment, Cat collars, Dog collars, Pet blankets & beds, Leads, Dog coats, Bunting, Pet toys, Everything else

Art & Prints:

• Fine art & Photography – Photographs, Drawings, Paintings, Illustrations Glass & Sculpture – Stone, Ceramic, Glass, Wood, Stained glass, Plastics, Polymer clay
• Mixed Media – Textile, Collage
• Printed Material – Comics, Zines
• Prints – Lino prints, Screen prints, Letterpress prints, Gocco prints, Woodcuts & engravings

Weddings:

• Accessories – Bouquets, Cake toppers, Everything else
• Clothing & Shoes – Shoes, Dresses, Garters, Everything else
• Hats & Hair accessories – Hats, Fascinators, Tiaras, Everything else
• Jewellery – Earrings, Necklaces, Bracelets
• Stationery – Invitations, Place cards

Supplies:

• Commercial – Buttons, Beads, Charms, Kits, Fabric, Felt, Yarn, Patterns
• Design Services – Printed material, Banners, Logos & avatars
• Handmade – Buttons, Beads, Charms, Kits, Fabric, Felt, Yarn, Patterns

What do you do now?

We’re rolling out a pre-launch interface to all Folksy designers and makers to allow you to edit your listings and re-categorise them. Don’t panic! We’ve created a one page batch re-categorisation process and also produced a screencast to show
you how to use this.

If you have a listing you’ll receive an email in the next few weeks inviting you to edit your listings. You’ll also be
notified this in the “your account” area of Folksy.

INSTRUCTIONS: This screencast gives a step-by-step guide to re-categorising your work when your account gets activated (the video is only 4 minutes long).

The screencast won’t be the most riveting 4 minutes of your day (unless you’re having a bad day), so as an antidote you might want to have a peak at the new Folksy magazine, Frankly. We hope you like it.

Best wishes from the Folksy team.

Anyway, the winner of the Robson and Mason Haberdashery voucher is … well actually it’s a tie between Daisie’s boob and
NiftyKnits’ Clanger:

NiftyKnits’ Clanger, a homage to Oliver Postgate, creator of many of the greatest childrens TV shows, who died last month.

Dasie’s breast or ‘boob’, which was inspired by news of Facebook taking down images of women breastfeeding

Nifty’s Morris Dancer was third and Lupin’s sampler fourth. Thank you all so much for taking part. Hope you enjoyed it. Was it good? Shall we do it again?

Folksy will round up the vouchers to

Laura from Robson and Mason (store :: blog) will be picking her favourite piece(s) to receive the books. You will be deciding who wins the

image by: tenioman

The News competition closes on the 9th – this Friday! Since the competition was launched on the 8th of Dec we’ve had lots of stories to go at. What have you chosen?

If you haven’t seen the competition until now you still have time to enter. Post your entry to the “Make the News” Flickr group with a description saying which story your design relates to. We’ll post these here on the blog on Friday (closes at midnight GMT) for people to vote on over the weekend. The vote will be in comments here, like the Folksy Angels comp. Additionally Laura from Robson and Mason will pick her favourite entry to receive a selection of craft books:

• Weekend Crochet for Babies by Sue Whiting (Amazon UK)
• Beautiful Crochet for Heads, Hands and Toes by Melody Griffiths (Amazon UK)
• Beautiful Knits for Heads, Hands and Toes by Alison Dupernex (Amazon UK)

And that was the news today, good day

Link to Comp

UPDATE. Sorry, we (I) made a mistake when posting this article. I said that the deadline was the 9th when in fact it is was the 7th (the 9th was the deadline for voting). I’m really sorry. Having said that it was the 9th in this article I feel compelled to extend it this new deadline, so you have until Fri, midnight, to submit. Apologies again for the cock-up.

I thought it may be worth mentioning things we’ve been doing to try to promote Folksy too. We’ve been working with a national charity to try to organise a competition for London Fashion Week at the end of February. The stumbling block is a space in London to showcase the work. We’ll find out this week if that is a goer. If we can’t do it for the Fashion Week then we’ll look at other dates later in the year. Upcycling charity stock for fashion has been a core practice amongst students for as long as there have been charity shops.

We got shortlisted by the new Channel 4 initiative 4IP for a project entitled “To Hell With Mattel” which was to be a national project to get people making things, a counter-cultural poke at our desire for cheap plastic imports. That would have been fun but didn’t make the final fund, mainly because we couldn’t have started in time for Christmas. It’s one for the future.

We also ran a small PR-y Christmas gift-a-thon to journalists. That was well received and we hope we’re now at least on the horizon of the writerly peeps. Upcoming mentions in Elle and Country Living amongst others, testify to this.

So, we’re busy and will have competitions and stuff in the pipeline to announce soon.

This post on The Storque prompted my interest. Obama mania crept into craft stuff. Sellers realised topical things, especially of the chosen one, would sell. I’m not sure that’s always going to be the case, but it would be fun to have a different take on the news, through craft (drawings, prints, simple made objects). So, let’s try and create the slowest news ever and make the news in craft form?

Laura, of the excellent haberdashers Robson and Mason has offered up