Sometime in the last month, I read a blog post about these changes, and the blogger was a store owner who had not been dropped. I would name the blog so you could read the article, but I have no idea which blog it was. She wrote that while it was bad for store owners who had such short notice to open another store somewhere, it had been a nice ride while it lasted because Craftsy didn't charge transaction fees. Craftsy didn't have to let people open stores on their site, and there are a lot of people who have become well-known because of their Craftsy exposure, so it's not all bad.
There was talk in quilting discussion forums about the reasons behind this change, which all boiled down to money. Craftsy, after all, was building a site so they could make money. In 2017, NBC bought Craftsy and began to restructure then, changing to a subscription service in 2018, but the big change came in December 2018 when they dropped so many stores. Their official response was that (paraphrased) Craftsy had gotten too big to oversee quality and copyright in the stores. You can read another post about that here. Several other store owners mentioned in the comments that they have opened stores at Shopify and Wordpress.
I didn't buy a subscription because I would rather not be charged a monthly fee and not get to keep anything if I stopped the subscription. I loved their vidoes. They were well made, and I usually watched the video over and over for several months before mastering a technique. I don't think I could have made pants that fit without that Craftsy video.
I was especially disappointed in this new change, of course, as I enjoyed browsing the stores, and buying a pattern here and there. The best part of that for me was visiting the blogs of the pattern creator (if they have a blog) to see how they made their quilts and their overall style. It helped me decide if I could make their pattern on Craftsy before buying it. I'll really miss that. Someone else suggested downloading your patterns and I haven't done that yet, but will do it today. Currently,Craftsy now Bluprint, says that the patterns will still be there in our account.
What I didn't realize though is that these store owners have links all over the web bringing buyers to their patterns on Craftsy. Thank you to The Joyful Quilter for pointing that out. All those links are now broken. She linked to a post made by Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and mentioned that this will affect the income of Cynthia and thousands of other designers who have been depending on their Craftsy store. Cynthia has stores at Payhip and Etsy, but some other designers haven't gotten a new shop up yet.
So what can we do to help? Pin, link, or heart the patterns or items of your favorite Craftsy store owners, or former owners that you come across. If I understand correctly (and I am not internet savvy enough to know much), the more links to something, the higher it comes up in a search. So if people follow a dead link to a Craftsy store, they should have at least a name to search for. I'm not a big fan of Pinterest, mainly because I see something on it and never can find where it came from, but I'll pin all I can if it will help these people who have just lost a chunk of their annual income.
Cynthia, of Cynthia Brunz Designs, has a pattern I never get tired of seeing. I love pinwheels, and I really love the optical illusion here. When focusing on the blue center, it really does seem to spin, especially if you have double vision like me. She has graciously allowed me to post it here. This quilt pattern, named Spin, was dropped from Craftsy, and it was one of her best sellers. Please don't pin it from my blog though; go to her blog, Quilting is More Fun than Housework to pin. She has other patterns you'll like too.
Best wishes and a big thank you to all the designers who have generously shared their patterns for free on Craftsy too. I hope you all find a new venue so you can continue to flourish.
There was talk in quilting discussion forums about the reasons behind this change, which all boiled down to money. Craftsy, after all, was building a site so they could make money. In 2017, NBC bought Craftsy and began to restructure then, changing to a subscription service in 2018, but the big change came in December 2018 when they dropped so many stores. Their official response was that (paraphrased) Craftsy had gotten too big to oversee quality and copyright in the stores. You can read another post about that here. Several other store owners mentioned in the comments that they have opened stores at Shopify and Wordpress.
I didn't buy a subscription because I would rather not be charged a monthly fee and not get to keep anything if I stopped the subscription. I loved their vidoes. They were well made, and I usually watched the video over and over for several months before mastering a technique. I don't think I could have made pants that fit without that Craftsy video.
I was especially disappointed in this new change, of course, as I enjoyed browsing the stores, and buying a pattern here and there. The best part of that for me was visiting the blogs of the pattern creator (if they have a blog) to see how they made their quilts and their overall style. It helped me decide if I could make their pattern on Craftsy before buying it. I'll really miss that. Someone else suggested downloading your patterns and I haven't done that yet, but will do it today. Currently,
What I didn't realize though is that these store owners have links all over the web bringing buyers to their patterns on Craftsy. Thank you to The Joyful Quilter for pointing that out. All those links are now broken. She linked to a post made by Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and mentioned that this will affect the income of Cynthia and thousands of other designers who have been depending on their Craftsy store. Cynthia has stores at Payhip and Etsy, but some other designers haven't gotten a new shop up yet.
So what can we do to help? Pin, link, or heart the patterns or items of your favorite Craftsy store owners, or former owners that you come across. If I understand correctly (and I am not internet savvy enough to know much), the more links to something, the higher it comes up in a search. So if people follow a dead link to a Craftsy store, they should have at least a name to search for. I'm not a big fan of Pinterest, mainly because I see something on it and never can find where it came from, but I'll pin all I can if it will help these people who have just lost a chunk of their annual income.
Cynthia, of Cynthia Brunz Designs, has a pattern I never get tired of seeing. I love pinwheels, and I really love the optical illusion here. When focusing on the blue center, it really does seem to spin, especially if you have double vision like me. She has graciously allowed me to post it here. This quilt pattern, named Spin, was dropped from Craftsy, and it was one of her best sellers. Please don't pin it from my blog though; go to her blog, Quilting is More Fun than Housework to pin. She has other patterns you'll like too.
Best wishes and a big thank you to all the designers who have generously shared their patterns for free on Craftsy too. I hope you all find a new venue so you can continue to flourish.
Very informative. I've only made two patterns from my Craftsy downloads, one I also included the link to her web site along with the Craftsy link. The other, I don't think she had one. But I'll add that link if I can find it.
ReplyDeleteGood deal!
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