Yanni creates amazing jewelry, beads and items for the home using maps, stamps, vintage books and found objects in her creations. A self-confessed free spirit, Yanni originally started her Etsy store because she was inspired by her enormous collection of 'bits and pieces', collected since childhood. Yanni puts these things that would normally end up as trash to good use. It was interesting to read about the lengthy process of creating these pieces. You can read about it on Yanni's blog.
"We are slowly changing people’s mindset about their trash and are now reconsidering reusing and recycling stuff they no longer use."
Here are just a few of my favourite things from the Etsy store:
More from Yanni:
1) How does your art practice fit in to your life?
My life and my art co-exist, they are interwoven. Even if everyday life gets a big chunk of my time, I just try to enjoy it as much as possible. I do my best to be productive in both my art and family life.
2) Where does everything come together? I shared a space with my husband but more often than not, my stuff tends to occupy more space and even the dining table does not get spared sometimes. I am so glad though that one lady boarder vacated her room last week and I had to beg my hubby to let me use it. He had no choice but to agree knowing I couldn’t keep my clutter in my own table.
3) Do you have any specific goals for your Etsy site or art practice? Are you reaching your goals? What are your short term and long term goals?
I opened my shop on April 19th but was only able to list items on the 29th. I had my fist sale on May 2nd and I was so thrilled, the buyer from the Netherlands bought 5 items at once. That gave me a good reason to think that it was not a bad idea joining Etsy after all. I was hesitant at first considering the volume of sellers and the variety of items especially jewelry which comprises majority of my listings. It was a good start so I set a goal of a sale day but so far I’m falling pretty far short and I’m a bit frustrated but looking at the bright side of life, my goal for this month seems reachable. I want to achieve my 20th sale this month and if it goes beyond that, I would be very happy.
I also must have at least have 100 items in my shop by June 30 and I’m trying, I have 61 listings so far. My ultimate goal is for my shop to be profitable. Sometimes selling recycled items is quite hard. Some peek at my shop and shrug thinking, oh I can do that. It happens quite a lot in my Flickr where people ask how I came up with my stuff. I usually end up sharing the details. Perhaps too shy to say, why not buy from my Etsy instead hehe. It’s actually great because we are slowly changing people’s mindset about their trash and are now reconsidering reusing and recycling stuff they no longer use.
4) What would be your super power if you could have one?
It's a draw between the ability to time travel and the power to Heal . It would be sweet traveling though time and doing the stuff other people were doing in different eras. How I love daydreaming about ancient times. But, it would also be really awesome to be able to heal the sick and uplift the weary. Oh well, but I would also want to Fly.
5) Recommend a good book and movie
A good book would be Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It’s an Enchanting story that transports you through a tale of love, danger and adventure.
A movie I love and would recommend is Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind - An interesting look at life and love!
6) Where do you live in the world? What do you like most about it?
I live in Baguio City, Philippines, known as the “City of Pines” (pine trees dominate the landscape). It is also commonly referred to as “The Summer Capital of the Philippines”, where the climate is temperate. Much cooler than the rest of the country – a perfect getaway up in the Cordillera Mountain Range.
You can see more of Yanni's Creations on her Flickr page.
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