Etsy Seller Interview with Karl and Sarah of RareEarthWoodworks

How RareEarthWoodworks 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?

We specialize in the creation of metaphysical gifts, tools, and supplies for serious spiritual practitioners of most any faith.

Rare Earth Designs creates sacred art and tools from the land sanctuary of Karl Feret and Sarah Heartsong called Erosia. Erosia is 13 acres of land situated at the base of the Olympic Peninsula in the rainy Pacific Northwest. We are a teeny, tiny cottage industry working mostly with wood.

Rare Earth Design's current incarnation is a blending of the original spiritual woodworking business of Karl Feret with his partner Sarah Heartsong's art and services. Rare Earth was subsumed under the corporate umbrella of Heartsong Healing Arts on January 1, 2020, but Karl opened it on Etsy in 2013 because it was a unique opportunity to establish the business in a marketplace dedicated to small producers and artisans. He’d previously sold on eBay and recognized the limitations and direction in which that market was going. Etsy proved to be just the place for Rare Earth Designs to thrive.

Favorite items

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

Favorite products? That’s like asking me about my favorite child! No. not going to do it. They are all unique and serve different purposes. How can I possibly compare? That’s like setting our products up to compete with each other—that’s not how we "roll." We aren’t "into" competition. We’re "into" lifting each of us as well as each of our products that we intuit we are to carry. We are not like "traditional" US-based capitalist businesses, nor do we want to be.

Now, if you’d asked me, "What products are people really into now that are "hot sellers"?" You’d have gotten a very different answer from me. Your question is actually what I think is wrong with Etsy right now. But that’s me not answering you, and I do want you to feature some of our products.

So, I’m going to answer my question.

People are very much into the boards, the wands, and the altar boxes we make right now on Etsy. Our boards are solid hardwoods and are not stained or dyed; they are simply shellacked and hand-polished, showing off the fine, heirloom quality of our art and the natural beauty of the wood it’s made of. There are a number of them, and we’re designing new ones regularly. Here’s a link to one of the most popular pendulum boards:

Also, Karl is super talented on the lathe and is considered a master wand maker in our community. His wands are in high demand, and we make them out of all kinds of woods. People can ask for custom wands, too, made per their directions with the wood of their choice. He’s also creating wands where he engraves magical symbols on their sides, which are dearly sought out by ceremonial mages.

Sarah creates a whole series of travel shrines highlighting deities and spiritual concepts from faiths all over the world that we call "Altar Boxes." These are also customizable to make them right for you and your particular tradition or belief system, and one can choose between 4 sizes and pick the color of the stain and the velvet to put on the offering shelf that folds down. One of the most popular designs for altar boxes is that of Hecate (Hekate), the Greek goddess of the crossroads. Here is the listing for that altar box.

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?

It took about 24 hours to get the first sale, but Karl had already been doing eBay for a long time by then. He knew how to write up descriptions and take good pictures. and both are very important. We attract customers to our shop by doing events where we talk to people, hand out cards, let them see our products in person, and connect with them. (We did a lot more of these before the pandemic.) We also post regularly to Instagram and Facebook when we are creating something interesting and keep our shop updated with our news (approximately every quarter).

Managing RareEarthWoodworks

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?

Sarah and Karl’s partnership opened up a unique possibility to offer both sacred toolmaking and spiritual services, including the opportunity for others to manifest their visioned art or tool with the support and guidance of professional priestly artisans who do this as their livelihoods. Sarah acts primarily as the office manager and creates certain pieces of art within her purview, and Karl manages the shop, although he still takes pictures and creates listings for the products he’s responsible for. We both help pack boxes, usually at the end of a busy day of creating our work.

Caring for the land and the earth is important to us at Rare Earth Designs. In the production of our art, we reuse old things whenever possible, such as upcycling old wooden bowls to use as our hoops for the drums. We locally source and buy our supplies from thrift stores as much as possible when creating our art. We use shellac instead of petroleum-based wood sealants, and we make our own all-natural wood balm for polishing and sealing our wooden products.

We handle shipping and "fulfillment" from our office space, which we created with a computer and a shipping corner with all the supplies we need. We use mostly USPS for shipping and keep a stock of their various envelopes and boxes on hand to have them on hand when we need them. We reuse a lot of our packing material and have stashed away bubble wrap and other shipping supplies. With the two of us, we check in most every morning to be in touch with what’s happening in our shop and where we need to focus our time.

The future of RareEarthWoodworks 

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

This year we started 2022 again with the vision of adding a much larger permanent shop building and camping spots to our 13 acres of wooded land, where we produce our wooden spiritual tools and gifts. Last year, we had to halt plans when the price of lumber went through the roof, making funding harder. We really want to make our own base boxes "in house" and need to have a bigger space to be able to expand our ability to create larger items.

Advice for new sellers

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

Have a unique product, and refrain from competing with others on Etsy. Do your own thing and don’t duplicate! If you like something, they will tweak it and truly make it your own. Also, make sure to be responsive to the messages customers send. We have built into our day a time when we check messages and chat with people who have questions. Also, be clear about who you are on Etsy and what your "brand" is, and lean into it. Use fonts and pictures that reflect that identity and fill in the "about your shop" portion of the Etsy platform.