Meet Your (Etsy) Maker: Whimsical Pottery by SCULPTUREinDESIGN
Since it was founded in 2005, Etsy has been the ultimate source for one-stop shopping for people who want to buy unique handmade goods and curated vintage finds. The Brooklyn-based site now boasts 24 million active shoppers who peruse 1.6 million online shops — raking in $2.39 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2015 alone.
In this new feature, we’ll dive deep into our favorite Etsy shops — beyond the product pics and shipping fees! — to meet the talented people who run them, and get an inside look at what it’s like to be a part of a cultural phenomenon that’s brought international recognition to even the most obscure of artisans.
Shop: SCULPTUREinDESIGN
Designers: Dima and Nadya Gurevich
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Opened: Aug. 10, 2013
What they sell: Handmade ceramic and porcelain planters, dinnerware, and art objects inspired by familiar sights and whimsical characters.
Yahoo Style loves: Funny Face Planters ($59.50 for 3), Porcelain Trinket Dish With Hands ($68.50), Pink Porcelain Dinnerware Set ($59).
Dima and Nadya Gurevich. (Photo: Courtesy)
What was your inspiration moment to start the shop?
At the end of our design studies [at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design & Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem], we decided to take a risk — to leave our previous jobs in security (very popular type of job among students) and to work together — to become independent product designers and to create our own designs. We had a million ideas in our heads and wanted to make them alive as fast as we could. When our first products started to come out of the kiln, we thought that Etsy would be a great platform to introduce ourselves and what we do to the people outside Israel. That was one of the first important steps in our business.
Did you have a moment you thought you might give up?
Actually, we still remember our first decline after the first takeoff. It was a difficult experience for us, as we thought that all our business is dying.
But even at the worst moments, we didn’t think about giving up. We thought and believed that we can start everything from the beginning anytime.
After a very short period of that “drop,” the situation started to get better and better. And from this experience, we learned that there will be always a takeoff after any decline. And it’s important to learn to be strong and patient in this kind of business.
The studio. (Photo: Courtesy)
What’s the weirdest or most memorable customization you’ve ever been asked to do?
The work with custom orders always gives us inspiration and makes us look at our designs from the new angle. Maybe the most unusual moment we had was when one of our customers asked to make stigmata on our porcelain hands bowl. When he received his custom piece, he was very pleased with it, and even ordered the same bowls with stigmata for his whole group of friends.
Another interesting case we had was when we received an order from Qatar. Unfortunately, Israel and Qatar have no diplomatic relations, and we couldn’t ship the order via Israel postal service. We contacted our friends in Russia and shipped the parcel to them, so they could forward it via their postal service. And this way, after a loooong trip, the special order got to its recipient.
When have you felt most competitive on Etsy?
On Etsy, you can see the information about other sellers’ sales. It’s good motivation when you see that another shop from your category has good sales at the time when you have a decline. In these moments, we start to work even more on our shop and products, and as a result, it always brings us to another takeoff.
How many products did you sell on your biggest day?
On a good day, we can sell tens of items, or even hundreds, if they are wholesale orders.
Which Etsy shops are you obsessed with?
There are many shops that inspire us with their unique design, creative images, or product descriptions. Just few of them: The Rain Room, Knobbly, and Herbivore Botanicals.
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