Odd Fox Armory

A place to post build updates, test photos, and new product ideas for my Etsy store/business. Ask all the questions you’d like! (He/They)

[vaspider]

Queer Creator Roundup

Hey! I post a lot about the queer merch I make, and with good reason, because, you know, I have a mortgage.

But I know there are a lot of other queer creators out there, so drop the link to your RedBubble, Society6, etc here and let’s get some eyeballs on your stuff! 

[knitmeapony]

Hey, I make props and medals and write ‘official documentation’ for these things over on my etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/knitmeapony

Want the medal that a bean sidhe won for her contributions to the Eternal Battle?  Want a historical overview of an award a faerie duchess gave to one of her subjects?  Want a steampunk or themed medallion custom created, with supporting documentation and museum mounting? I can do that.

[oddfoxarmory]

I make hainmail jewelry and dicebags! My Etsy is in desperate, and I mean DESPERATE, need of an overhaul with new stock and pictures, but my pride bracelets are on there! In two styles!! I can also make ace, pan, bi, trans, poly, and probably more! Just let me know in the notes, or send me a message or email about what you want!

OddFoxArmory.Etsy.Com

[email protected]

[vaspider]

So in all seriousness...

… if you don’t want the stuff you buy on Etsy to become more expensive, start making the kind of noise about Etsy’s fee changes that y’all made about Patreon’s fee changes. 

Sooner or later, those costs become customer costs, one way or the other. :/ 

Make some noise, because this is ridiculous. Etsy isn’t giving us anything new: for the new features not only will we be getting hit with these raised transaction fees but we’ll also be required to pay a subscription fee. So what we’re getting for these increased fees?

Nothing. Just more fees. No more features, just more costs. 

(And yes, I am looking into alternatives, but omfg, make some noise on social media, please. Patreon backed down from their ridiculous fee grab with enough user pressure.)

[fabulousfidgets]

Please everybody listen to this. I try to keep my prices as low as I can but with these fees I’m going to have to start increasing process or find somewhere else and lose alot of my customer base.

Please make some noise and help out small business owners on Etsy by protesting these fee hikes.

[autisticrevolution-deactivated2]

Oppose the fee hikes! Support autistic businesses!

[madionspock]

Also the fact lies that it isn’t even just fees on the actual product you’re selling, it’s also on the shipping cost. So say I know exactly to the penny how much a package will cost to ship, so I charge the customer that much. Etsy now is taking a percentage of that fee away. So either I have to overcharge knowingly for shipping, passing that cost down to customers right off the bat, or I have to make up for the lost currency. Small businesses and artists who even just make some extra cash off of Etsy can not always easily afford the cost of buying and hosting their own separate E-commerce business. People who have built up followings on Etsy can’t force customers to move to other platforms. The entire situation is poo and people who want cool merchandise for the reasonable prices artists are currently able to offer need to make noise.

[vaspider]

And Etsy calculates that for some of us, too. So they’ll calculate it. And then add 5% to it? Do they charge the customer (like when they do sales tax for us) or just us? Am I gonna have to add a handling fee to cover the shipping upcharge?

Though honestly, the processing fee hike is… it’s terrible.

For those of us who do this full time, we already live in the literal margins of what we make. Etsy deciding to just snatch 1.5% of what I make out of my hands without offering me anything in return is… that shit adds up. I already only make - at BEST - maybe 40% of every dollar that a customer pays me, once you account for all costs.

Let’s assume I have an amazing year and we do 30K in revenue. Etsy’s fee hike means they’ve taken an additional $450 out of my hands. Which, in this assumed scenario, they’re taking that out of the hands of someone whose profit, that is, the money that’s really mine (assuming I owe no income tax, heh), 12K?

That’s … it’s brutal.

Oh yeah, and:

This ain’t about shit but making Josh the CEO, talking down to us peon sellers in that awful video, richer.

Fuuuuuck that.

[vaspider]

Added: the hashtag I’ve seen so far on Twitter is #etsyfees.

[vaspider]

In any case, please update your bookmarks - find us at www.nerdykeppie.com! Whether or not we break up with Etsy, you can always find us there.

[buildingbooks]

How do we make noise? Seriously I would love to but where do I complain? I also have serious concerns that these new “premium paid” options are basically Etsy saying “If you don’t go premium, we wont give you any exposure.” You know, basically like Facebook did with business pages.

[gatzbookbinding]

That right there, that @buildingbooks says, is exactly my concern. Will I be losing customers if I don’t pay the extra? They make it sound like you get extra tools, but I am worried, very worried, we will have to pay if we are serious about it.

[oddfoxarmory]

Building up stock for pride week!

[oddfoxarmory]

I traded whirly-birds for selfies at ZOEcon 2018 earlier this month! Goofy selfies coming soon!

[oddfoxarmory]

Forgive me for the crappy phone pics! It’s really hard to tell here, but the pendant is rose quartz. It’s a really beautiful pink in person. And yes, the chain is a helix. Yes, it’s really awesome.

[oddfoxarmory]

I love silver. Forgive my photography, I’m still a novice. But the necklace is amazing. I wish you could see the pendant in person! The rough geode on the inside glimmers under any light, and the agate has amazing depth and detail. This necklace wont be for sale, as it’s destined to be a gift for my sister-in law, but if you love it as much as I do, and have the pocketbook to match an heirloom quality necklace send me a message or email me at [email protected]

[oddfoxarmory]

The product that started it all! These are my scale flower hairbands, now available at OddFoxArmor.Etsy.Com I love these. My fiancé has been wearing one or asking me to fix the one she just stepped on since I first used ugly wire to stitch a flower onto her favorite kind of hairband. Since then, literally hundreds of hours have gone into deciding which hairbands are the best for longer-term daily wear. These are by far the most comfortable I’ve ever found. You’re welcome.

[oddfoxarmory]

The color! The dice! The... bags! Colored dice bags now available from my Etsy, OddFoxArmory.Etsy.com There’s only a few colors for now, but if you don’t see your favorite you can always email me to ask about custom orders.

[oddfoxarmory]

Today’s task: separating a bunch of 18g 1/4” rings from last year’s Christmas project into individual colors. At the time, I thought I’d never want to use them again, so they all got dumped into a little spice container to be used as a desk ornament. I’ll use a bunch of these to make a hacky-sack for my cousin, and the rest will be used to test the idea of making chainmail fidgets. What is it about Christmas that calls for weird ring sizes?

[oddfoxarmory]

Pride!!! I made these bracelets during pride week! They’ve been my most popular product so far, despite my inability to take a decent picture of them. The flag was a color test and advertising piece, but it actually sold at Ware Fair! I can always make another, after all.

[oddfoxarmory]

The bag that started it all. I made my personal dice bag six years ago. It has been kicked, beaten, used as an improvised bludgeoning weapon, and generally been to hell an back. I haven’t even changed out the drawstring on it. No matter how good my products get, I’ll never give up old faithful.

[oddfoxarmory]

Progress pics of my latest silver necklace! It was a pain to re-learn the basics of ring welding, but I struggled through. The photos, in order, are

-My set up(welder offscreen to the right), got to be able to watch bad movies while I work! It’s a long process! To the left you can also see the badass pendant I found for this necklace.

-Two hours in(quarter for reference), it seriously takes forever, but the first inch is always the hardest.

-just past halfway! (Probably ten hours in)

Ring welding is not easy, but the end result is 100% worth it. Pictures of the final product to come!

[oddfoxarmory]

My first booth! Central Washington University’s Ware Fair was a ton of fun, and a great way to kick off the business! Shout out to The Cozy Vixen for joining me, it would have been super lonely without Vulpes!