Where are you from and tell us a little about yourself?
We are a team of two, and we live in the beautiful city of Heidelberg, in Germany.
We love to create outstanding art yarns which we sell in our Etsy shop.
Apart from spinning, we enjoy science fiction, yoga, fantasy role playing games, and yarn bombing. Last year, both of us took up archery, and we are looking forward to better weather and more practice.
Why did you start your Etsy shop?
In 2006, a friend of ours taught us how to spin. It was no special wish of ours or anything, it just kind of happened. So there we were, endowed with a new ability, producing yarn rapidly. Somewhere along the way we noticed we didn’t know what to do with all the yarn, since neither of us knew how to knit. We relearned crocheting, and we learned how to knit, and we had fun. We both liked spinning better than knitting or crocheting, though, so we had to come up with something that would enable us to spin many yarns without them piling up in our stash. We learned about Etsy from a fellow spinner – and there was our solution! We registered on March 3rd in 2008, and we opened the shop on March 21st. Our customers have confirmed we did the right thing.
How did you come up with your Etsy shop name?
We thought very hard. 😉 We wanted our name to reflect both our rather open-minded or unusual approach to spinning, and we wanted it to contain some reference to spinning itself. We also thought it nice if the name consisted of two parts, each of them reflecting one of us. Well, and then we thought really hard – et voilá! Weird & Twisted was born!
What is your favorite item in your shop and why?
Weird’s current favorite is Egyptian Blessing. It’s a corespun art yarn (the fiber is spun around a core thread, resulting in a unique texture) in blues and yellow, a little black and a little white. It contains many different fiber types, such as different kinds of wool, linen, bamboo, and alpaca fiber, which enhance the wonderful texture even more. It’s not only a unique yarn, but it corresponds to a blessing Weird is quite fond of. If you’d like to know more, you can find the story on our blog: http://weirdandtwisted.blogspot.com/2011/01/egyptian-blessing.html
Twisted’s fav at the moment definitely is Bubbles. It has such beautiful light colors, its structure is light and silky and all summery. And I really long for summer, while we’re still in a long and cold winter here in Germany. And I like the turquoise pompoms and the fact that the yarn glows in the dark.
If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your “creativity”, what would that be, and why?
We can pick only one?! 😉 To be honest, we both have more hobbies and are interested on more things than we have time for, so this is a very hard question.
Weird used to study opera singing, and though she also likes to draw and to make things with her own hands, singing would probably the one thing she’d choose to express herself if she had to.
Twisted loves to draw, to design and to do all kinds of DIY-stuff – the newest addition is bow making and fletching arrows. But if I had to choose just one, I think I’d stick with drawing as it helps to ease my mind and I do it almost all the time and couldn’t stop.
Why should people buy handmade?
If you buy a handmade item, you buy an item that has seen lots of love. It was assembled carefully, it was crafted with joy and care, finished and packed with pride. It is unique. And when you buy handmade, you help spread the love, even if it sound kind of kitschy: You support people who love what they’re doing and you yourself get a unique item that is made just for you and that you’ll prize more than a machine-made thing.
Any advice on selling things handmade?
Take GREAT photos! If you’ve already done some research on selling advice, you might be tired of hearing this, but it is essential. Keep the background clean and simple, and shoot your item from different angles.
Provide excellent customer service! Answer questions if you get any, be polite and try to make your customers happy. If you have wonderful items, that’s good, and people will buy at least once – but if you also provide good service, people will come back for more.
Promote! In order to successfully sell your items, you have to be known. Just filling the shop is usually not enough. Hang around the forums, join a few teams, chat with people – and think about a facebook page and twitter account.
Apart from creating beautiful pieces, what else do you do?
Weird studies Archaeology and is very interested in gender studies. She enjoys comic books/graphic novels, fairy tales, and a lot more than she can make time for – but don’t we all? 😉
Twisted, on the other hand, is about to take her first steps into self-employment. Having gathered much experience over the last years, she will share her knowledge about social media with young businesses.
Do you have plans for expansion?
Twisted’s about to launch a new shop, completely different from Weird & Twisted. But *shhhh*!
Any other sites you can be found on?
Apart from our blog and Facebook page, not yet. By the way, here are the links 😉
