Etsy Made Local – Birmingham -Digbeth 2017
It has been two weeks since we held our third Etsy Made Local event at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, and now that the dust has settled and the team leaders have had copious quantities of tea to calm their nerves and bring them gently back down to Earth, we figured it’s about time to look back on a wonderful weekend and share some of the love.
Top Right – Cheeky Geeky – Bottom Left – Paper Ink Alchemy – Bottom Right – Mythillogical
The thing that makes an Etsy Made Local fair so different from any other craft fair is that it really is a community effort. Whilst Etsy sponsor the event with promotion, moral support and fun freebies for our visitors, the elbow grease and rolled up sleeves it takes to actually make the event happen belong to our lovely volunteers from the IDEAS Birmingham team (and any unwitting friends/partners/family members they manage to rope in).
Team captain Dayz from Etsy shop Cheeky Geeky and team leaders Lottie from Paper Ink Alchemy and myself- Jenny from Mythillogical, or the Three Amigos, as we took to calling ourselves this year, are the spreadsheet wielding, insurance form filling, logistic planning, social media promoting Ring Masters behind the joyful circus that is the IDEAS Birmingham event. We all juggle the event with the running of our Etsy shops, day jobs and lives in general, so when we say we appreciate the helping hands we’re offered, we sincerely mean it- and we’d like to take this opportunity to give them a shout out to express our gratitude.
Thank you to our customers – on behalf of ourselves and our vendors, we just wouldn’t have an event without you! Thank you for coming out in droves to support your local small businesses. The vibe this year was incredible and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Thank you to our Etsy sellers – you really all pulled out the stops and brought along such beautiful things, your stalls looked amazing and you did yourselves, the team and Etsy proud!
Left to Right – Zahra Inspired – Silly Old Sea Dog – Janice Fellows – Lottie Art
Thank you to Etsy – the opportunity to put on an event like this is just something the team leaders really relish. Each year our event has grown and improved, and we’re already planning next year! Special thanks to Ajeet for moral support by way of GIF challenges, to keep the humour and spirits high along the way.
Huge thanks to The Custard Factory – we love holding our event here each year. The Market Hall is a fantastic venue to showcase our amazing sellers, and we appreciate your help and support in making our event a successful reality every year.
Birmingham Urban Sketchers Group – sketches by Caroline Parkinson, Debbie Eyre and Tessa Dadley
Thank you to Caroline, Debbie and Tessa from Birmingham Urban Sketchers Group, for coming along and creating some gorgeous reportage pieces of our event. It really is a unique and special way to record our event, and we love your sketches!
A huge thank you to Gemma from Porcelain and Bone for manning our Etsy desk all weekend, keeping count of our many visitors and for wrestling with the A-Frame so bravely!
Many thanks also to Louise from Hafola for writing such a fantastic press release that ensured features in Birmingham Living and Style Birmingham, and of course thank you to both of these lovely publications for featuring us and our sellers!
Thank you to our brilliant bloggers Odds and Trends , the Bloglancer, Love and Lifestyle and Miss Smith Co. for visiting our market and writing such glowing posts about your experiences and our vendors.
Thank you to Rob from Rob Hunt Multimedia for our seller profile photo shoot. Also thanks to Boston Tea Party Birmingham for allowing us to host the shoot there, and for basically becoming team HQ for Etsy Made Local prep!
Left to Right – Eternal Embrace Art – Hobbz Design – JNM Designs – Turning By Design
Last, but not least, thank you to Rachel of Hobbz Designs and partner, Mandy of The Hollowbourne Hoard, Graham of Awesome Novelty Gifts, Cristina of Eternal Embrace Art and partner and the Custard Factory Security Guard for the help you all gave with moving tables!
As you can see- we have a lot of people to thank, so if we’ve missed you out, we’re sorry! It’s such a long list to keep track of! We are really grateful to everyone who helped us out in any and all of the different shapes and forms!
Etsy Made Local – Birmingham – Digbeth