Thoughts on Etsy's Reviews

We received this brilliant review on our Etsy shop yesterday, and it got us thinking about customer reviews...

If you're not an Etsy seller you may not know how important customer reviews are to us. The obvious reason for this is that they help build customers' trust and might be the difference between someone who just discovered us in the Etsy ocean buying from ArtisIgnis or not, but the thing is... that's not what matters the most!

Really!

Don't get us wrong! Earning the trust of our customers is crucial and a vital part of ArtisIgnis shop. However we, as the ArtisIgnis team - the people behind the shop, we are just so blissfully happy whenever we get a stellar review that it slips our minds! We work very hard, have loads of fun, we're very passionate about our craft and our shop, and we take customer appreciation very seriously. "We aim to please" might have been our motto, if Mr. Grey didn't beat us to it! ;)

Many hours are spent brainstorming about our pieces, but also about packaging, writing thank you notes, making little gifts (yes, even our gifts are handmade!) to send with the piece someone just purchased, designing our leaflets and trying to find out what else can we do to make you happy!

When you are happy, we're happy! When you're happy, you leave us wonderful reviews, and when you do that... We're ecstatically happy about it! We celebrate!!!
These reviews mean we are doing it right, there's a sense of accomplishment that comes with them, there's this feeling of success that comes over us because that's when we feel that we truly made it! 

Late last year, Etsy updated their review system. Until then we were very proud that over 75% of our customers were happy enough with our pieces and our service to leave us a great review. Most of them were outstanding and left us teary-eyed. With Etsy's new review system we're dropping that ratio fast! We're almost at 50% and we've been racking our brains to figure out why this is happening.

Our pieces only tend to improve with time and experience and we're keeping up with our standard for customer service as we always did. We answer messages and comments as fast as we can and we strive to leave no-one without a reply. We work to the best of our abilities to communicate well, to create those special custom orders we get and we really appreciate all our customers. We haven't changed, so... What's different?!

Etsy. That's what's different! 

The new Etsy review system makes it harder for customers to leave a review, it prevents them from leaving a review until the "estimated delivery date" and the notification that their order is now eligible for review is barely visible. We think this is a very successful recipe for failing at getting everybody's purchases reviewed! It makes it easy to forget all about it if you can only write a review a week or so after you received the purchased piece!

We have had customers asking us how to leave a review, so just FYI: You can leave a review by going to Your Account -> Purchases & Reviews and finding the order you want to leave a review for. Also, here's the link to the Etsy Help page about Reviews: How do I use Etsy's review system?




So, to you, who have left us brilliant reviews on our Etsy shop, who took the time to write them and thought we're worthy of them: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how big a deal it is for us, and we fail at explaining how perfectly wonderful we feel when we read them. All we can say is... Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

If, however, Etsy's review trap caught your words and prevented you from expressing yourself when you chose to, or made you forget a review, go get them now! Check out the status of your Purchases & Reviews, recapture the feeling of opening that package and unwrapping that piece and spill your heart out! We're sure we are not the only sellers out there who get a jolt of joy when we receive a review!

What do you think about Etsy's new review system? Post a comment with your thoughts and opinions.

Video! Floral Celtic Moon Hair Stick by ArtisIgnis

We love sharing our work with you and we found that videos make it all the more real, and absolutely show off the beauty of the carving and of the pyrography work.

We give you this video we made a while ago, of our first Floral Celtic Moon Hair Stick, hand carved by Pedro and hand wood burned by Cris. We'd love to know what you think. Should we make more videos?!

The one on the video sold really fast, but you can find a new one in our Etsy shop: ArtisIgnis Shop.

Tendinitis and a Work In Progress

Hello there!

We believe everybody is creative, in one way or another, however some people pursue that creativity much more than other, and those are the ones usually regarded as "creative". There's this quote found all over the web that we love:

 "Being creative is not a hobby it is a way of life". We find this to be very true for us! It is exactly how we think. We are naturally creative, we have this need, this urge to make things, to use our hands and to be creative. Anything can trigger this: a sound, a smell, a picture, a movie or a tv show, something we see on the street or on a garden... 

Anything and everything can get the creative juices flowing and our mind starts racing with ideas and designs and things-to-do and we have to write it down or sketch it before it vanishes in the mists of memory. Sometimes, we even stop whatever we were doing and start working on the new idea. We have to! It's right there!

However, life has a way of stopping us on our tracks, sometimes, and that is just what happened to us this week... 

As you know, Pedro does all the carving and Cris does the wood burning. It's been a while since Pedro started experiencing some pain in his right hand when carving. We though it could be attributed to the long hours of carving, or to the fact that he had been carving hard woods more often, but with time it became more evident that something was not right. We decided we needed further advice and Pedro went to the doctor. It turns out he has a severe tendinitis on the thumb of his right hand. This is the finger that pushes the knife through the wood and the one with the hardest work. By doctor's orders he should not carve, he must not carve. Heck! That hand should be in full rest for a complete and as-speedy-as-possible recovery!

So... Pedro will try to stop those creative juices from taking over and he'll rest that pretty hand of his, or else!... Cris will nag him until he does! 

LOL

In the meantime, Cris has started woodburning a new box. She has been strongly attracted by mandalas, finding them both beautiful and mesmerizing. Mandalas are timeless masterpieces, very rich with tradition and symbolism. Each mandala is unique and incredibly versatile since they convey different meanings, depending only of the creator and the observer.

It has been a while since Cris wanted to wood burn a mandala and now the opportunity presented itself. This box measures roughly 8 inches (20 cm) wide, by 4 inches (10 cm) tall. We started working on it several nights ago, but the pyrography work it self only started last night. Here are some photos of the work in progress:

This photo was taken just after transferring the design onto the wood.

Here's the first teaser photo we published on Facebook.

"Let the wood burning begin!"

After two and a half hours of work we decided it was time to go to sleep... This is how it looked then.

We're looking forward to keep working on this box. Follow each step of the way as it happens on Facebook, as it it much easier to post there on the go, than here! ;)

The story behind our hair toys... * A história dos nossos ganchos

Hear ye! Hear ye! Learn the story of how it all begun and how one insignificant decision someone made over two decades ago gave origin to ArtisIgnis!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Some 20 years ago (or more!), Cris' mother gifted her with a hair pin that she bought on a sidewalk stand, somewhere we can't remember after all these years. This hair pin was the inspiration behind our wood burned hair pins: it was pretty, functional, had a strong hold on the bun, it endured over 20 years of abuse and it provided with a small "canvas" where Cris could burn to her heart's desire!

Mind you, it's quite rare to see a hair stick, pin or fork in Portuguese heads! When we started making them, many of our women friends had no idea what they were or how to wear them! Cris' mother is a well educated woman, who worked most of her life in a big international computers company where she came in contact with many different people from many different countries, hence her knowledge of hair toys!

Portuguese weather provides us with very warm summers and, while she was a student, Cris was always sticking pencils in her hair to hold it up in a bun, whenever she forgot her faithful hair fork. So Mum, once again, found her some African hair sticks, the kind that is common in any crafts fair nowadays, and are much more suitable to carry in a student's pencil case!

All these years gone by and from an ordinary conversation a brainstorming session emerged and - with a little help from our friend Google - this is what made us think of making hair sticks too.

We've been having fun wood burning several different designs, and lately we're playing with watercolors and adding splashes of color to our hair pins!

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Ouvi! Ouvi! Aqui se conta a história de como tudo começou e de como uma insignificante decisão tomada por alguém há mais de duas décadas deu origem à ArtisIgnis!

Ouvi! Ouvi!

Há cerca de 20 anos (ou mais!) a mãe da Cris ofereceu-lhe um gancho de cabelo que comprou numa banca de rua algures, já não nos lembramos onde passados estes anos todos. Este gancho de cabelo foi a inspiração por trás dos nossos gancho pirogravados: era bonito, funcional, segurava muito bem o cabelo, resistiu a mais de 20 anos de abuso e fornecia uma pequena "tela" onde a Cris podia queimar o que o seu coração desejasse!

De salientar que é bastante raro ver um gancho deste tipo nas cabeças portuguesas! Quando começámos a fazê-los, muitas das nossas amigas não sabiam o que eram, para que serviam ou como os usar! A mãe da Cris é uma senhora bem formada, que trabalhou a maior parte da sua vida numa grande empresa internacional de computadores onde entrou em contacto com muitas pessoas diferentes e de diferentes nacionalidades, daí o seu conhecimento deste tipo de acessórios!

O clima português oferece-nos verões bem quentes e a Cris, enquanto estudante, andava sempre a espetar lápis no cabelo para segurar um coque em cima, quando se esquecia do seu fiel gancho. Então a Mãe, mais uma vez, encontrou-lhe uns ganchos (pauzinhos) africanos, do tipo que se encontram normalmente em qualquer feira de artesanato hoje em dia, e que são muito mais fáceis de transportar num estojo de lápis!

Todos estes anos depois e uma conversa normal transformou-se numa sessão de brainstorming, e - com uma ajudinha do nosso amigo Google - foi isto que nos fez pensar em fazer também estes alfinetes de cabelo.

Tem sido muito divertido pirogravar vários desenhos diferentes nos ganchos e, recentemente começámos a brincar com aguarelas e a adicionar rasgos de cor aos nossos ganchos!

Dawning * Primórdios

In the dawn of ArtisIgnis we had lots of ideas and little notion of how we were going to pull it off. We were just so excited about working together! We just wanted to make beautiful things together and sell them so that we could continue to make more beautiful things! Oh, it would be grand! We talked for hours on end, compiled a huge Ideas List, and we had a lot of fun creating our visual image.

Opening up an Etsy shop was as easy as 1-2-3... Writing the texts to go in it took us a while longer! Between the About Page, the Policies, doing research for worldwide shipping costs and writing all of this down in a clear, concise way while keeping our day-jobs and maintaining our homes (and our sanity!), probably a couple of weeks went flying by!

At first we started out creating burned designs on cork coasters. Portuguese cork is one of the best in the world and it's an abundant raw material in our country. Traditionally, it was used in the most various utensils of daily life, but its use has been falling by the wayside due to the demand for new and cheaper materials, modern but not really eco-friendly. You can still find those in our shop, since they are great as a pretty original house warming gift or hostess gift. Cork is a beautiful, natural material, that absorbs heat and humidity extremely well, and we can even personalize them and make the gift even more special!

These cork coasters would be the starting point to make wood-burned wall art and wood-burned boxes and wood burned hair pins... And that's when things took an abrupt turn in our shop!

Pedro carved a few hair pin blanks for Cris to wood burn, some in Linden wood, others in Alder wood. We were experimenting, so we wanted to see how the different wood types reacted to the pyrograph pen. We had so much fun choosing the designs to wood burn on them! And a lot of doubts too... Is it pretty enough? Is it meaningful? Is it whimsical? We guess they were all that and more, because people stated buying them soon after we listed them on our Etsy shop!

The game changing event happened next, when we brainstormed ideas of hand carved hair sticks. Coming up with ideas is really not a big issue with the two of us... When we get into a brainstorming frenzy, glistening eyes locked in one another, we're like a couple of kids dreaming of Wonderland! Then we have to come down to earth and decide which ideas are just plain insane, which are to store for later in a Ideas To Do List, and which are to make right away!

We decided to try our hands at  making hair sticks, by incorporating something Pedro had hand carved before: Ivy leafs. We tried to imagine what it would look like if we were to take a branch from a wild Ivy and strip it from all but one leaf. Sketch in hand, Pedro went into the work shop and hand carved his first hair stick!...
Oh, wow! It was beautiful!!!

That's it! We were hooked! And we weren't alone in it! Ivy leaf hair sticks were flying off our shop faster than Pedro could carve them! Some never even made it to the shop!
Soon, we started playing with this idea and added another leaf to the stick. When we found out how gorgeous these look paired up in a bun, we started offering them up for sale in pairs.
They are a huge success, which makes us very, very happy. From that point onward, we have incorporated Celtic Knots designs in our hair sticks, we branched out into hair pins and hair forks and we plan on taking it one step at a time, always moving forward, always trying to learn more, innovate and delight our customers.

As it is obvious just from the three photos in this post, our photographic skills have also improved a lot... But that's a learning curve we'll talk about in another post!

See ya soon!

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Na aurora da ArtisIgnis tínhamos muitas idéias e pouca noção de como iríamos faze-las resultar. Estávamos tão animados por irmos trabalhar juntos! Só queríamos fazer coisas bonitas juntos e vendê-las para que podermos continuar a fazer mais coisas bonitas! Oh, seria maravilhoso! Conversámos por horas a fio, compilamos uma enorme  Lista de Ideias, e  divertimo-nos imenso a criar a nossa imagem visual.

Abrir uma loja no Etsy foi tão fácil como 1-2-3... Escrever os textos para ela demorou um bocadinho mais! Entre a página Sobre, as Politicas da loja, fazer a pesquisa dos custos de envio para todo o mundo e escrever tudo isto de uma forma clara e concisa, enquanto mantínhamos os nossos empregos "normais", as nossas casas (e a nossa sanidade!), provavelmente passaram-se um par de semanas!

No início começámos por criar bases de cortiça para copos, com designs pirogravados. A cortiça portuguesa é uma das melhores do mundo e é uma matéria prima abundante no nosso país. Tradicionalmente usada nos mais diversos utensílios do quotidiano, o seu uso tem vindo a cair no esquecimento devido à entrada em cena de outros materiais, modernos mas pouco ecológicos. Ainda as pode encontrar na nossa loja, visto que são um presente bonito e original para quem inaugura uma casa nova ou para oferecer à sua anfitriã. A cortiça é um belo material natural, que absorve o calor e a humidade extremamente bem, e até podemos personalizar as suas bases para copos e tornar o presente ainda mais especial!

Estas bases para copos seriam o ponto de partida para fazermos quadros pirogravados, e caixas pirogravadas, e ganchos de cabelo pirogravados... E foi aí que, de repente, as coisas na nossa loja mudaram!

O Pedro esculpiu uns quantos ganchos em branco para a Cris pirogravar, alguns em madeira de tília, outros em amieiro. Estávamos a fazer experiências, por isso queríamos ver como as madeiras diferentes reagiam à ponta do pirógrafo. Divertimo-nos tanto a escolher os desenhos para queimar nos ganchos! E tivémos muitas dúvidas também... Seria bonito o suficiente? Tem significado? É fantasioso? Parece-nos que sim, eram tudo isso e mais ainda, porque começaram a ser comprados assim que entraram na nossa Loja no Etsy!

O acontecimento que mudou tudo veio a seguir, quando pensámos em designs de ganchos de cabelo esculpidos à mão. Ter ideias não é realmente um grande problema para nós os dois... Quando entramos na excitação da troca de ideias, de olhos brilhantes fixos um no outro, somos como um par de crianças a sonhar com o País das Maravilhas! Depois, temos que descer à terra e decidir quais das ideias são pura loucura, quais devemos guardar para mais tarde na Lista de Ideias a Concretizar, e quais são as que vamos fazer de imediato!

Decidimos que a nossa primeira experiência com ganchos de cabelos esculpidos, seria feita incorporando algo que o Pedro já tinha esculpido antes: Folhas de Hera. Tentámos imaginar como seria o aspecto de um ramo de hera a que tivéssemos arrancado todas as folhas, excepto uma. De esboço nas mãos, o Pedro entrou na oficina e esculpiu o seu primeiro alfinete de cabelo!...
Oh, uau! Era lindo!!!

E pronto! Estávamos apanhadinhos! E não éramos os únicos! Os Ganchos de Cabelo Hera voavam da nossa loja mais depressa do que o Pedro os conseguia esculpir! Alguns nem chegaram a entrar na loja!
Em breve, começámos a explorar esta ideia e juntámos mais uma folha ao gancho. Quando descobrimos que espetar dois ganchos destes num coque ficava lindo, começámos a pô-los à venda aos pares.
São um grande sucesso, o que nos faz mesmo muito felizes. Desde aí, o nosso trabalho tem vindo a evoluir, incorporámos designs de Nós Celtas nos nossos ganchos, abrimos o leque de ganchos ao esculpirmos ganchos com dois ou mais dentes e planeamos continuar a dar um passo de cada vez, sempre em frente, sempre tentando aprender mais, inovar e deliciar as nossas clientes.

Como é óbvio só pelas fotos neste post, as nossas habilidades fotográficas também melhoraram imenso... Mas essa é uma curva de aprendizagem de que falaremos noutro post!

Até breve!

Us and the Environment * Nós e o Ambiente

We believe in real handmade. We believe in sustainability. We believe our planet is our home and every little bit we can do care for it will add up and make a difference. We believe in a better way, a natural way. That's why...

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Nós acreditamos no que é realmente feito à mão. Nós acreditamos na sustentabilidade. Nós acreditamos que o nosso planeta é a nossa casa e que qualquer pequena coisa que possamos fazer para cuidar dele, vai somar-se a tantas outras pequenas coisas e fazer a diferença. Nós acreditamos modo de vida melhor, mais natural. É por isso que...