Etsy Seller Interview with Andrew of TheArtOfTurning

How TheArtOfTurning got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Hello, My name is Andrew, and I am the owner of The Art of Turning shop on Etsy as well as the website and gallery at ArtOfTurning.com. My specialty is hand-turned wooden home decor and other practical wood-turned goods. I got into woodturning after my lovely wife gifted me a wood lathe for Christmas some years ago. I had been admiring some wood-turned art on the internet and learning a little bit about it, and all of a sudden, a wood lathe appeared under the Christmas tree! Woodturning is only a part-time deal for me right now. I do most of my selling at in-person fine art shows, so a lot of things I create never end up in my Etsy shop. Some pieces just can’t be appreciated through a screen. However, I do reserve quite a few special pieces to list in the Art of Turning Etsy shop. Items that I feel will make great gifts and pieces that the average Etsy shopper would like to display or use in their home Everything I offer is designed, cut, turned, sanded, and finished by me right here in New Hampshire. I create pieces for approximately six months out of the year, as my workspace is in my garage and unheated in the wintertime.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

Almost everything I sell is one of a kind, and I don’t particularly like making production pieces to sell in bulk, which makes having a favorite quite hard as inventory is changing all the time. However, one of my favorite items is the "mystery pen," where I choose a one-of-a kind wood-turned pen from my inventory for the customer. These are my favorites, not only because it’s fun for me, but also because it is super fun for the customer and an easy way for them to pick out gifts. This is especially true for those gifting to employees or groups. They can order a bunch of wood pens at once, and each one will be unique. All my pens receive glowing reviews both in person and on Etsy. Everyone loves them.

As the mystery pens are one of the few repeatable items I carry, my other favorite wood-turned pieces to list are wood bowls. They’re all unique, made from different species of wood, and have unique grain patterns, inclusions, bark, coloration, etc. Plus, they’re useful!

Bowls are my current number one seller as they make very unique gifts and fit almost any home décor: from super modern minimalist to rustic farmhouse, from regular non-themed home décor to country, lake, or mountainside cabins. Everyone enjoys the warmth of a wooden bowl in their hands.

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

After opening my shop and getting a few handfuls of listings posted, I think it was about a week before my first order came in. It was for a wood-turned pen and also turned into my first 5-star review. I think I had one sale and one 5-star review for the following two or three weeks before orders started coming in on a more regular basis. As far as attracting customers, I utilize blogs, social media, and SEO on and off Etsy pages to bring traffic to my shop.

Managing TheArtOfTurning

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

It’s a one-man show over here. From design and creation in my woodshop to taking photos, uploading, writing titles, descriptions, tags, and promotion... It’s all me, and I don’t mind it one bit. I love the hustle! Shipping and fulfillment are handled by me as well. I pack my woodturnings and ship them using Etsy’s built-in shipping center for labels. It’s quite straightforward. On my busiest day to date, I packed and shipped over 300 wood home décor pieces. These came in the form of several multi-quantity orders, the largest of which was 75 pieces.

The future of TheArtOfTurning 

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

I’m looking forward to expanding my offerings in the future. Currently, living in New Hampshire with an unheated workspace, I’m only able to create wood-turned goods for about 6 months out of the year (May–October). Once I find a suitable heated workshop or raise enough capital to build one, I will expand and offer two or even three times as many pieces as I currently do.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

It takes time and effort; don’t believe all the snap-shot videos that’ll tell you "how easy it is". While some entrepreneurs find instant success, most do not, and it takes a lot of hard work. So, keep plugging away!

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: $1,000-$1,500

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 60%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 3.1 %