Name of your website?Colors of Silk
Your name?
Sharon Lewis
Your Location (city, etc)
Columbus
Please give us a short summary of your website?
My website sells hand painted silk scarves, pillows, sarongs, and wraps. Every item on my ecrater site is individually hand painted by me and there are no mass produced items sold on my site.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I wanted to reach a larger market and the ecrater site made it very easy to set up a free online store, with shopping cart and templates already built in. I can take Paypal and Google checkout. Pictures are very easy to load on ecrater and I do not have to pay any fees to use the ecrater site.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I tried selling on etsy back in 2006 and 2007 but it was not very successful for me. On etsy, you have to pay to list every item and it is only good for 4 months. After that, you have to relist again.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I already had the name Colors of Silk when I started selling my scarves locally before going on the internet. I love using lots of pretty colors and they show up really nice on silk.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Every item on my site is hand painted by me and nothing is mass-produced or made in a factory. I make all of my scarves, sarongs, pillows, and wraps in my home studio in Columbus. I can take credit cards through Paypal and Google checkout. The prices listed on my ecrater store include shipping by US Priority mail in the continental US. Customers do not have to pay extra hor shipping as long as they live in the continental US. I also ship to Alaksa, Hawaii, Canada, and US territories at additional costs. I also ship overseas, but any overseas customer would have to contact me via email in order to get the exact shipping costs. I mainly use FedEx for overseas shipping because they are very reliable.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To be able to sell my hand painted silks to a larger market and to make a good second income from my ecrater store.I would like to be able to make enough money to pay off my condo. I also hope that more people can appreciate hand crafted work and buy more items from artisans than buying mass-produced items.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Silk painting is very labor intensive, but I enjoy every minute in my studio. I put a lot of effort into all of my silk items. The dyes that I use in my silks are somewhat expensive but they are made in France and are of the highest quality.I havde been able to do custom work for people in my home town and from out of state.I had some scarves on consignment at 2 galleries in Michigan and they sold very well. One of the owners had to close her shop back in 2006 and the other owner still has her gallery in Pullman Michigan, but she is no longer taking consignment artists.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
It would be nice to have a small retail shop and studio in a nice part of town where people appreciate hand made items. I would also do more outdoor art fairs.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I would enlist my sister and some other family members to help me out in my business.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Increase in postage and silk painting supplies, slow economy, figuring out what colors people like the most.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Getting orders out to people during the holiday season. Working when I am not feeling good, lack of money to buy supplies.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Advertising on places like Merchant Circle, mailing out postcards with my website on it. Emailing previous customers and including the link to my ecrater store.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
well I can't really say, since I haven't had this website for long. I did get a big custom pillow order from a man in Florida in the early spring this year.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I only had my site up for 7 months. I will keep it as long as I can until I decide not to make hand painted silks anymore.
What is your website address?
Colors of Silk
