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A Whole New World
Listed under: Interviews
Published: Friday, January 02, 2009
The internet offers those with something to sell a multitude of ways in which to do it. Michelle Ryan, creator of craft resource NezumiWorld.com, shares her approach
I wanted a site that really stands out.
A lot of the sites out there are really polished and I didn't want that – I wanted it to clearly belong to a person, have an individual feel. I design and code it myself and didn't want something plain. It's actually quite difficult to keep the site looking rough and ready – it's possibly easier to create something a bit cleaner. I came up with the design partly to prove a point to my brother. The worse thing you can put on a website is flashing GIFs so I put them on to annoy him but when I took them off people started getting in touch to ask for them back. The site's going to be updated soon but I want to keep the punky look – I think it needs that.
I've had the site about six years and I'm looking to grow it.
The site was originally supposed to be lots of different crafts – recycled is my main focus and I get a lot of feedback from people on those items. They're the ones that attract most interest. I try to update the site every month – I put a lot of time into it to keep it fresh. I also to make sure that all the links work; that's the most frustrating thing when you go on a site so I try to make sure that that all works.
It's what I do – it's what I earn a living from.
But it's also an extension of me so it's a mixture of motivations. I have some patterns for sale on the site which do quite well. I sell things outside for the site too – mainly crocheted jewellery and hard copies of the patterns. I want to keep the element of fun for people using the site and I want to enjoy doing it. It's the same with the blog part of the site – it's more personal.
People write whole pages of emails to me.
I hear from all ages – lots of people in their 20s and degree students who want advice. They keep in touch beyond their first enquiry too which is great. There's so much going on online; Ravelry, for example, is such a great place to meet other crafters and designers from all over the world. I often chat to designers from other countries. In the case of crochet, there are a lot of Eastern Europeans introducing beautiful crochet into wedding gowns. Crafters around the world are seeing that and talking about it. It's exciting what's going on. The internet makes it so easy to communicate. Plus there are lots of forums – you can always find something that you specialise in.
To find out more visit http://www.nezumiworld.com
A lot of the sites out there are really polished and I didn't want that – I wanted it to clearly belong to a person, have an individual feel. I design and code it myself and didn't want something plain. It's actually quite difficult to keep the site looking rough and ready – it's possibly easier to create something a bit cleaner. I came up with the design partly to prove a point to my brother. The worse thing you can put on a website is flashing GIFs so I put them on to annoy him but when I took them off people started getting in touch to ask for them back. The site's going to be updated soon but I want to keep the punky look – I think it needs that.
I've had the site about six years and I'm looking to grow it.
The site was originally supposed to be lots of different crafts – recycled is my main focus and I get a lot of feedback from people on those items. They're the ones that attract most interest. I try to update the site every month – I put a lot of time into it to keep it fresh. I also to make sure that all the links work; that's the most frustrating thing when you go on a site so I try to make sure that that all works.
It's what I do – it's what I earn a living from.
But it's also an extension of me so it's a mixture of motivations. I have some patterns for sale on the site which do quite well. I sell things outside for the site too – mainly crocheted jewellery and hard copies of the patterns. I want to keep the element of fun for people using the site and I want to enjoy doing it. It's the same with the blog part of the site – it's more personal.
People write whole pages of emails to me.
I hear from all ages – lots of people in their 20s and degree students who want advice. They keep in touch beyond their first enquiry too which is great. There's so much going on online; Ravelry, for example, is such a great place to meet other crafters and designers from all over the world. I often chat to designers from other countries. In the case of crochet, there are a lot of Eastern Europeans introducing beautiful crochet into wedding gowns. Crafters around the world are seeing that and talking about it. It's exciting what's going on. The internet makes it so easy to communicate. Plus there are lots of forums – you can always find something that you specialise in.
To find out more visit http://www.nezumiworld.com
