How OriginalBunchkins titles each figurine for the person it's for

Joan has been making Bunchkins since 1990. The first ones were choir dolls built on wine and Coke bottles. Today each figurine starts as a body shaped freehand from wire and toilet paper. Fabric is draped over it, sealed with gesso, then hand painted. A single piece can take about nine hours, and every one is signed, dated and numbered. They're light enough to hang on a tree, and they all have the same big cheeks, on the face and on the bottom.

Joan designed her ornaments to stay light and not fade or yellow, and she adds new designs every year so collectors can keep growing their sets. Personalization is free: the buyer says what to paint, where to put it and in which color. Custom pieces take about two weeks.

Most of the catalog is made for one kind of person. There's an occupational therapist demonstrating a reacher, a dental hygienist, a pilot, a policeman, a girl in field hockey gear, a bride-to-be holding up a ring box. There are folk figures from around the world: Saint Lucia, the German Christkind, Icelandic Yule Lads like Pottaskefill the Pot Scraper. Then pumpkins, turkeys and Easter bunnies for the holidays.

The people who buy these are usually looking for a gift for someone in particular, and they search that way: an OT ornament for a therapist friend, a hockey cake topper for a daughter's team party. Many of the older titles opened with "Handmade" or "Handcrafted". That's true of everything in the shop, so the word that set each piece apart often came later.

Joan works through the catalog in Alura's listing editor. Each listing gets a score out of 100 with separate grades for photos, video, title, description and tags, which shows where the most work is.

The editor's AI buttons give her a first draft of a title or description, and nothing goes to Etsy until she clicks Publish changes. The new titles follow one pattern: who or what the figurine is, then that it's an ornament or cake topper, then the material and often the height. The rewritten descriptions open with a short paragraph that says what the piece is and who would want it, and Joan's own details about how it's made follow underneath.

Alt text was the other big job. Every photo gets a short written description that screen readers read aloud, and with a catalog this size, the AI drafts those too.

The same figurines go to Pinterest, where people plan holiday tables and look for gift ideas. Joan's boards follow the shop: Thanksgiving table decorations, Easter table decorations, baby shower cake toppers, angel figurines, Around The World Folkart Figurines.

Two of Alura's Pinterest automations do the posting. Pin New Listings picks up each new ornament the day after it goes live and shares its photos to a group board of handmade gift ideas. Smart Pins fills a queue from the rest of the catalog, mostly choosing the listings with the most Etsy views, and avoids reusing a photo pinned in the past week. Pins post on the schedule Joan set in the queue.

The pin text is written by AI for Pinterest from each listing. The ice skater goes out as "Ice Skater Christmas Ornament & Cake Topper, 6-Inch Decor". A Yule Lad goes out as "Icelandic Yule Lad Ornament - Pottaskefill Figurine".

A shopper looking for a hockey ornament or a Canadian Christmas ornament now sees those words at the start of the title, followed by what it is and, often, how tall it is. In the rewritten titles the word "handmade" moved out of the way, since every piece in the shop is. On several of them the description now opens by saying who the piece suits, so the answer is there before the shopper scrolls. Here are a few of the rewrites, all live on Etsy.

Collectors come back when there's something new to add. Design a few new pieces each year, and sign and number every one, so a collection has a history buyers can follow.

And keep getting better. The first Bunchkins had curly hair glued on, no ears and none of the cheeks they're known for now. Look at your early work honestly and change what you'd change.