How mesART puts its rice paper catalog on Pinterest, one design at a time

mesART is a small art studio in Istanbul that designs rice paper for decoupage, furniture makeovers and mixed media. The catalog runs past 1,000 designs: vintage roses and shabby chic lace, stained glass peacocks, steampunk couples, Alice in Wonderland tea parties, Mediterranean coastal towns and enchanted forest mushroom houses. Most designs come in a range of sizes, up to A1. At 23.4 by 33.1 inches, an A1 sheet is big enough for a dresser top or a door panel, and many designs also come in a self-adhesive version that sticks without glue.

Crafters with an image of their own can order custom rice paper, printed at the exact size the project needs. US prices include import duties, so nothing extra is due at the door, and every order ships with a small surprise gift tucked inside.

Nobody buys a sheet of rice paper for its own sake. There is a dresser waiting to be redone, a tray, a set of kitchen cabinets or a canvas. Those projects usually start as ideas long before anyone searches Etsy for paper, and a lot of that idea-gathering happens on Pinterest.

For mesART that means a big catalog to show in a second place. Every pin needs a good image, a title and a description, and the Etsy titles were written for a different job. A typical one reads "Rice Paper for Decoupage | Big Size Options | Mulberry Washi Sheet | Mediterranean Coastal Town". It works in Etsy search, where shoppers compare sizes and materials. As a pin title, it says more than a pin needs to. Rewriting that by hand for every design, and keeping the pins going out, is a lot of typing for a small studio.

The studio connected its Pinterest account to Alura and builds pins in the Create tab with Pin Listings, which takes one listing or a whole batch at once. For each batch it picks which listing photos to use and how to lay them out. Most of mesART's pins use the Pinterest ratio, which formats each photo into the tall 2:3 shape that suits the Pinterest feed.

For the words, the studio picks Optimized for Pinterest with AI. Alura reads each listing and writes the pin's title, description and alt text, so the mulberry paper, the size options and the uses for the design come from the listing itself. Every pin links back to its Etsy listing.

The finished pins go into the Queue. There, any pin can be checked, edited, reordered or deleted before it posts. The queue works through them on a schedule set in Settings: pins per day, posting days and time slots, in the studio's own timezone. A batch that shouldn't wait can go out straight away with Publish now.

Alura can also fill the queue on its own, with Smart Pins and Pin New Listings. mesART picks the listings for each batch itself.

Put an Etsy title next to its pin and the difference is clear. The Etsy title stacks the product, the sizes, the paper type and the design, separated by bars. The pin title keeps the design and the craft and lets the rest go.

The Halloween pin shows how much can go. The Etsy title names the witch, the broom, the full moon, the haunted house and the cauldron. The pin keeps the witch and the broom and adds that the paper comes in large sizes, which is enough for someone planning a seasonal project to stop and look.

The descriptions fill in the uses. The Mediterranean pin offers "seaside charm to furniture and decor". The Istanbul pin suggests "furniture, scrapbooking, and collage". Most end with "See details on Etsy", and the link opens the listing, where every size and price is laid out.

The Etsy listings stay exactly as they were. The pins are a second way in, written for someone who is still deciding what to make.

mesART's advice for other craft supply sellers is to translate sizes into projects. A4 and A1 can mean little to buyers, especially in the US. Give the inches next to the paper size, and say what a sheet will cover, like a dresser top or a door panel. And when someone still isn't sure, answer quickly. The studio usually replies to size questions within a few hours.