Join Artizan Made! A fun group of creatives!

Interested in Joining Artizan Made?

We are a marketing collective of handmade shops from around the world. Most of our members are studio artists who make their own products, fair traders or vintage dealers.  Each applicant is evaluated based on the products they bring into the mix, their professionalism and their aesthetic. Our main focuses are on home décor, eco fashion and handmade supplies. Our members are not hobbyists. They seek to make a living from their studios or support communities making handmade products.

Artizan Made’s mission is to promote and support its membership.

Each member has a profile on the site and is promoted through our blog and social media sites, with Facebook as our primary place.

Learn more about our story on the About page.

The Market

Our marketplace was launched in 2016 as a way to showcase our member products in a searchable manner. We import 50 member products and assign them to categories in the Market so that they show up in many different ways (function, color, materials, provenance, etc.)  Many of our members have shops on Etsy while others use Shopify, Big Cartel or other platforms.

Shoppers can explore the Market based on their interests and we can also pull these collections on to our blog and to other pages on our site.  Example:  We have random products from the Red Category showing up at the bottom of this page.  Every time the page is refreshed, new products show up.

The Market furthers our goal in promoting our members. Instead of selling through our site, we link over to the member sites and customers can deal directly with that shop owner.

How to Apply

If you have not been approved as a member yet, use our Contact Page to tell us your story:

State why you would like to join us and include a list of your site and main social media links.

Describe what you do and what your long term goals are with your business.

Note: Do NOT pay for anything until you have been approved!  Our members are considered based on how their products will fit in with the overall aesthetic that includes quality, function, environmental impact and originality. 

 

Pricing

There are three fees: A one-time set up fee for $125, a yearly subscription membership via PayPal for $12.50/month or $130/year (save $20 when you pay yearly), and a yearly fee of $25/year for 50 products in the Market.

 


Set-Up Fee:

This is a one-time fee of $125 to help cover the the time it takes me to get a new member up on the site. This includes setting up the member profile and importing the 50 items to the market. It normally takes me about 10 hours to get each new member represented on the site.    Pay Here  (Click!)

 


Membership Fee:

This helps pay for the costs of running the site and any marketing we do.

There are two options: Either $130/year or $12.50/month.  Choose one.  Save $20/year with the yearly rate.  Both are subscription plans through PayPal.  You do not have to have a PayPal account to sign up as they will accept any major credit card.

Sign up for the yearly rate, $130/year.  (Click!)

                     OR

Sign up for the monthly rate, $12.50/month.  (Click!)

 


Market Fee:

This is a nominal fee of $25/year for 50 products in the Market.  Each product may have up to five images that are imported and these all contribute to increasing the cost of our hosting fees.  A few members who have a wide range of products have wanted to have 100 products in the Market, so they pay $50/year by subscribing twice to this Market Fee.  50 items gives plenty of visibility for most of our members.

Pay $25 for 50 Market Items  (Click!)

 


 

I will send out a welcome letter with instructions on what I need for the Profile and Market items once payment has been made.

 

Struggling financially?  We have set up the Amiga Fund to help potential members pay for their first year of fees.  Follow the instructions on that page or contact for more info.

 




Common Questions

What is a Collective?

A collective or a cooperative is generally made up of a group of people who pool resources together in order to achieve something they might not be able to do as well on their own. In the United States, we see this often with food co-ops or shared buildings for living spaces. Artisan co-ops have a long history of sharing both production and retail spaces. Artizan Made does this online and can help reach a wider audience through its site and social media.  Members contribute to the cost through their membership payments.

 

Can I cancel my membership?

Yes, at any time. If you have a monthly subscription, just unsubscribe through your PayPal account. If you have a yearly one, your products will be up until your year is up, unless you want them off before that for any reason.  This goes both ways.  If a member consistently receives complaints from customers and becomes a problem for the community, I have the option to terminate the membership at any time.   (No refunds.)

 

How do I import my products?

Etsy and most other sites have an option to download your products to a CSV file. This is like an excel file with columns for the products texts, images, and other info. We adjust that to fit with what we need on Artizan Made and then I use an importer to pull them in.  If your hosting site does not do csv downloads, you will have to load each product yourself.  You will have complete access to your products and can change or update them at any time. You may request a new import if what you have on Artizan Made feels outdated but will have to pay for the time involved, $25/hour.  Most of our members have a defined look so do not need to do updates often.

The most time consuming part of the import involves assigning Artizan Made’s categories to each item. There are around 250 categories and each item will fit in around 10 categories. For example, a pair of earrings might be in these categories: To Wear, Jewelry, Earrings, Gemstone, Silver, Boho, Blue, For Women, Provenance, Europe, and Italy.  They will also show up on searches and in our blog posts.

 

How often do I have to change my products?

That is totally up to you. If you have a signature style that does not change much over time, you may be able to keep the same products for a long time. Each item that is linking back to another shop will have text saying something like “This is an example of something I have had in the past. Visit my shop to see what is currently available.” Most people will find something similar that they like.

You can change your products manually at any time.

 

Can I sell Made to Order items?

Yes! If you like to work directly with customers and take special orders from them, you can use your items to show examples of what you have done in the past.  Those items should also link over to your shop, ideally to a page where you explain how you work with special orders.

Make sure that your text is clear. Let customers know how much time it will take to make something, what limitations you have, how much shipping will cost, and so on.

 

What is the marketing strategy?

Our website is our mother ship and it is listed on other directories and networking opportunities.  We are active on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.  I promote two members a day on Instagram and Facebook, linking to their sites and to their member profile.  We have a group board on Pinterest that members can post to. I do paid promotions and will do more advertising as more memberships come in.  As of September 2023, we have 45 members with a goal of growing to around 250 members.

 

How are we a collective?

This question is one of the most asked. The membership payments allow us to pay for this site, to advertise and to create a community of makers who share a commitment to high quality ethical handmade products.

I have two driving quotes that bounce around in my head:

“Together we can do great things!”

and

“Not all that is handmade should be made.”

As a group, we have a wider reach than our members have on their own. By showcasing studio artists with fair traders and vintage dealers, we can expose people to products that they might not normally look for. We help educate potential buyers about the importance of the handmade lifestyle, about the materials and techniques used and about the people we represent. We are an international community hoping to offer beauty and meaning through our products while forging new friendships in far off places.

The second quote refers to all of the junk that is made, even by the handmade community. We are a throw-away society and we are killing the planet. We can live with less “stuff” and choose to buy well-made goods that last and that have a story. Most of our members make a concerted effort to engage in sustainable practices by upcycling materials, by re-using shipping supplies and by growing their own food.

We have a private group on Facebook where our members can interact and I would like to have monthly zoom meetings (haven’t been able to get that together yet…)  Another goal is to help relieve the stress of marketing and spending so much time online. So, we are a passive collective in the sense that once a member is set up on our site, they do not have to do anything unless they want to. Those who choose to interact with each other enjoy our group tremendously as there are so many wonderful people.

Finally, I have found that it’s important to have a sense of humor and to make the best of what we have. We do have a lot of problems in this world, but we also have so much to be grateful for, so much to enjoy, so much to share! This is the fun side of a collective.

-Rachel Biel, Founder

 

An Autonomous Collective Explained:

If you are not familiar with the story of King Arthur, here is a short summary: The Legend

 

 

Some random items from our Red Category