I am pleased to announce that Handmade Seller magazine has acquired Artisan Ave.
I’ve collaborated with Kristin and Jessica over the last year. I watched as they came out of their beta and expanded to welcome artisans across the United States. They had a great vision to help artisan businesses build referral traffic to their own sites or marketplaces. It’s a great way to have shoppers find local artisans. They spent many hours working with artisan businesses to create a solution they needed. They worked through the challenging and tricky details of getting a platform up and running. None of this is easy, and I admired how much love and effort they pored into this project.
It’s very common to create and run different businesses over your working years. But sometimes you realize that the end of your journey with a business has arrived. Then what do you do? For Handmade Seller, I also have a vision for helping artisan businesses. We currently do that through our magazine, our podcasts, and our monthly articles. This year, we are also starting the process of organizing even more artisans in our industry to participate in National Handmade Day.
I approached Kristin and Jessica to talk about my new initiatives. I was particularly excited to work with them as we work to elevate handmade in the eyes of the consumer as part of National Handmade Day. In our conversation, it became clear that a great outcome for them would be to sell the business to Handmade Seller.
Here is what they had to share about their journey:
“As artisans and co-founders of Artisan Ave, our journey in creating this platform has been nothing short of inspiring. We’re thrilled to announce that Artisan Ave has been acquired by Handmade Seller Magazine, a company with exciting plans to expand its reach and impact. Knowing that the platform will continue to support and empower the handmade community fills us with immense pride. We can’t wait to see the incredible growth and innovation ahead for Artisan Ave under its new leadership!”
Happy making – Kristin and Jessica
What happens next?
Artisan Ave started as a business directory that supported US Handmade businesses only. I have expanded the platform to include artisan businesses from Canada as well. Several wonderful artisan businesses from Canada have already registered. More countries will be coming later this year. Shoppers from anywhere can create an account and save links to their favorite artisan shops on the platform. Artisans can create a free account and become part of our directory.
Our focus for the platform will also shift from getting the early artisans on board to promoting those already on the platform. The directory is still early stage, and we are working to build critical mass. Therefore, if we pick your shop for promotion, this will be done for free at this time. In the future we will create new offerings and probably bundle with our magazine subscriptions. Just not yet, as we are not ready for this. We encourage artisans to apply for our free apprentice tier to get started.
I am so grateful to Kristin and Jessica for trusting Handmade Seller to take Artisan Ave forward.
Thank you for being part of this journey!
