Featured Trade-a-Holic Seller: BySamantha

 Our featured Trade-a-Holic seller this week is Samantha from BySamantha. I had a chance to interview her the other night to find out why she does what she does. This is what she said:

Q: It's pretty obvious what your shop name means but why did you choose to use that particular name?

A.  I first opened a shop selling elastic hair ties and had writer's block on the name. And my friend said "why not just By Samantha"? and it just kind of stuck!

Q: Your shop has been open for only a year, were you doing this kind of thing before you opened your shop? and if so for how long?

A: I've never designed anything before I opened Etsy. My first designs were actually created on Microsoft Paint! So I've come a long way since then and have learned more about design than I ever thought I would.

Q: How did you go from hair ties to digital art?

A. I remember I first got the idea when I saw tons of prints with state silhouettes on Etsy and I remember thinking "Hey! I can do that!" So I started experimenting with design and came up with a few simple designs. I enjoyed it so much that I just took off with it.



Q: Do you have any formal training in design?

A: I have zero training whatsoever. But I'm hoping to change that :) My goal for the next couple of years is to take some classes on graphic design and typography so I can hopefully learn some new tricks!

Q: How do you come up with ideas for your designs?

A:  A lot of my designs are inspired by nature. One of my personal favorites is the Butterfly Specimen Poster, which I really designed for myself to hang in my home... I was just so happy with the result that I wanted to share. Some of my other designs are inspired by my love of silhouettes and simplicity.




Q: Where do you see yourself (and your shop) 5 years from now? 10 years?

A:  I would love to think that 5 years from now I'll have Etsy still going strong and hard but you never know... If you asked me a year ago what I thought I'd be doing in 5 years, I would have never ever guessed anything along this path. I'm expecting the unexpected.


Thank you Samantha and here's wishing you lots of sales and good luck with your future plans!

Visit Samantha at BySamantha on Etsy and don't forget, if you also sell on Etsy come join us at the Trade-a-Holics team.