Etsy Seller Interview with Wolfram of PaperwolfsShop

How PaperwolfsShop got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Paperwolf’s Shop is the place where you can buy original and high-quality paper sculptures, which you assemble yourself. Since 2010, I've been designing polygonal sculptures (mostly animals since I’m fascinated by all animals and their elegance) and offering them in a great range of colors.

I discovered Etsy around 2012 or 2013. Through this platform, I’m able to reach people around the world. Paperwolf began as a hobby but grew quickly to a second profession (besides being a professional computer animator and 3D artist).

I only design what I love myself. And obviously, I’m not alone with the love of geometric animal sculptures since my business has been stable for more than 10 years now. Lots of other designers have been inspired or tried to copy my work in the last decade.

All sculptures begin as a sketch, followed by a virtual 3D model. Once I’m happy with the shape, I transform it into flat shapes, which I cut with my cutting plotter from colorful dyed paper.

My dear customers choose an animal and a color, and once the order comes in, I get started and ship it out just a day or two after.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

It took me years to create THE animal that my shop name refers to: The Paper Wolf.

But it was worth the wait-the Wolf is one of my most lively, beautiful paper sculptures and I still love it very much. It’s also one of my best sellers.

Also very popular is my little fox, which comes out of the wall:

My first sculptures were either free-standing or just heads on the wall—like real-life trophies. But even though my animals were made of paper, I still had the feeling that sometimes they were cut-off heads. So I invented the wall-sculpture which "plays with the medium wall" and looks as if it’s just about to leave the place.

Another innovative concept was my Flight of Birds:

It consists of five birds, each with another wing position. If you photographed each bird and put them together as a video, you’d have an infinity flight cycle! This sculpture, by the way, is the fusion of my two professions: computer animator and paper designer. 

One of the cutest animals in my shop is the sweet Koala, which I offer in four different color schemes:

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

When I started on Etsy, I already had around 1-2 years of experience from a German handmade-platform called DaWanda. There, it took some months until the first sale, and some 1-2 years until my brand was established and a few magazines had published articles about me and my inventions.

Starting on Etsy was just a matter of getting known internationally, and I don’t remember that it took very long until customers found my shop.

I tried several marketing strategies, from buying Facebook Ads, investing in advertisements directly on Etsy, and collaborating with influencers. But all I learned was that it’s a waste of money. What really helped me was the honest and voluntary word-of-mouth. Whenever a blogger or influencer wrote about Paperwolf (most times without telling me), I had more sales. and often only find out where the visitors came through Etsy’s analytics tools.

So I don’t do any advertisements anymore. Just let it run and offer the best, fastest, and most personal customer service you can dream of. I’m there for my customers. I care about every single paper sculpture and put love into every design.

Managing PaperwolfsShop

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

Paperwolf is a single-person business. I invented, developed, and ran it all by myself. I work from home in my little crowded creative workroom.

For organizing and fulfillment, I have Billbee. I can export CSV files for tax declaration. It has an API connection to German Post and DHL, so I can buy and print shipping labels easily. Apart from that, here and there, I use Excel for organization.

The future of PaperwolfsShop 

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

Actually, I just continued like before. Each new idea that pops up in my head will eventually be brought to real life. I love my customers. I love my work and my designs. That will be the motor in the future.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

The best advice I can give up-and-coming creators is to be patient! It takes a certain amount of serendipity and a few good recommendations to get ahead, but if your work is beautiful and it makes you happy, then you are bound to be discovered, sooner or later.

And don't try to find out what "the market needs" and make a product out of this. My biggest success was whenever I created something I really loved. The animals I loved most grew to be best-sellers (like the Fox and the Flight of Birds). Probably because if you do what you like and you're best at, customers see it's authentic and made with love.