featured in REGRETSY mixed emotions

regretsy?
Those who cant...
c r i t i c i z e

I made my first treasury on recycled artists, and had so much fun surfing
along the artists of etsy.com , I was truly amazed at the diversity and
creativity of the artists!! I found bracelets made from coke cans as
shown here and lots of colorful joyful art. I barely could wait to do
another treasury for etsy.


Since etsy has added Treasury East and given a broader opportunity
for sellers to do Treasury's , I had been lucky enough to be featured
nearly weekly in a Treasury. It is and has always been an honour to
me to be featured. It is free advertising , true, but it means that
someone has taken the time and felt that your item was worthy of
being displayed.

After going out with a friend for a few drinks on a warm spring evening,
I came home to my laptop to check my etsy. My mailbox was full of
thanks and warm regards for the treasury that I had created, I sold
an item while I was gone, then I opened a mail that simply said

Were you aware?
Did you know that your one of your phones made it to the Regretsy website? http://www.regretsy.com

I miss read regretsy to read registry . I was excited, life felt good ,
my hard hard work was paying off. I thought incorrectly that my
phone was featured in something relating to etsy, a good thing.
I clicked the link which lead to the May site for the most recent post here





There is my phone, and WOW 62 comments! my heart beat
with excitement. The first comment , was horrible, did I read
it right? the next and the next weird , confusing. My face felt
hot, I slowly disengaged from my body, everything felt unreal.
I read posts such as :
It’s looks like the beaded curtain and the telephone got into

a fight and the telephone lost.

another wrote
Liberace called from beyond. He wants his telephone back

These I found cleaver and even funny but I was confused

at the cruelty and rawness of some of the remarks such as

Way to ruin a vintage phone. I don’t give a shit if 22

hours were invested to fuck it up, but it’s worthless now!

The mink really did it in. lol

Next time, if you want to fuck things up

, use a hammer. Guaranteed it won’t take 22 hours.
This comment positively hurt to the core and

A fingerless epileptic could produce finer work in less time.
How, I wondered could everyone hate my phone? One of my
phones had recently made it to a Treasury. When My Art gallery
was open, a notable collector added one of my Candy phones
along with a suitcase and bike) to his large outstanding collection
of OUTSIDER artists. I was confused and humiliated. Then I forged
on and realized that the comments where being rated, as it stands
to date the number one rated comment is from

LeeLooDallas : Someone use this to call 9-1-1.
and then This is the phone you use to call
Liza Minnelli in an emergency.

these two number one rated comments I find funny , cleaver
and given the overall intended spirit of the site in good humor.
However, so many of the comments are, as others feel hurtful,
mean spirited and even hateful.

Shortly after I was featured I received an inbox at etsy from an
unknown buyer which reads
I'm sorry they posted one of your creations
on that site. The author of the blog and the
book Regretsy (recently published) does noting
to contribute but spends her time trolling Etsy to
find items to bash. Check out her facebook page
(especially the "Flounce" page. I am a shopper,
but posted a message about the mean-spirited culture
the "author" endorses. She is hateful. Instead of
celebrating the good on Etsy, she seeks out items
to make fun of, and all under the shield that she
is promoting charities (hardly).

People say it is a good thing because she is bringing
traffic to their Web sites. In fact, weird people have
been purposefully posting crud just to get on to her
Web site. I left a comment about the mean-spirited
nature of the comments and was blasted by hateful remarks.
They act like bullying teenage girls. They harassed me
for taking up for Etsy sellers and set me crude and
vicious private messages. I copied them all and
will be sending them to her book agent. Not very good pr!

Anyhow, saw your blog and I would just ignore it.
They waste so much time blasting people left and
right that they are all over someone else now.
The best thing is to ignore them. After all, what
they are doing is not imaginative and gets old
petty quick. It will crash soon when people
get bored with it

Take care,
Laurie Charnigo


In an attempt to receive feedback from other etsy sellers,
I posted in a forum
Familiar with the site regretsy? any victims?
what are your thoughts?
I received what I was looking for, good feedback.
The two most helpful
came from



Honestly I wouldn't sweat it. Sure it can be cruel, but
honestly the site gets so much traffic it's going to drive
traffic to your site. And it's instant free advertising.
It may hurt for a while, but try to keep your head up and
look on the bright side. You can look at from either side
of the coin. And really it's best to ignore it and move on.
Some folks who were on the site made it into the Regretsy
book with permission and are continuing to get free advertising
out of the entire thing. So try to take the good with the bad.
I feel for you but try not to let it get you down. Hugs.

While on the other side I received
Regretsy's climate is to be hateful and mean and top each
other in the hate.

You will not find any nice comments there, so please
don't let it ruin your day, there's art to be made!

Hummm, useful. The hurt was subsiding slowly. The night this happened to me,
I slept like crap, all the doubts that so many artists are
plagued with haunted me once again. I'm no good, give it up, you are kidding
yourself, you are a fool for devoting your life to art
and on and on it went. The Book the ARTISTS WAY , was life
changing for me.
I am 51 years old or young, whatever... my life has been
devoted to ART. Minored in it in Collage, ran two art
Galleries have exhibited threw out the US and even In Europe
when asked at a cocktail party "what do you do?"?
I reply "I'm an artist" it is who I am.

I could not help but feel genuine mixed emotions, I watched
my hits or views on my
phone go up daily, today now nearly 1500 views.
That's great on one hand.
People are seeing my work! I have to keep telling myself that
not everyone hates it or thinks its junk as Regretsy has implied.
I once said, its not my quote, but I certainly have repeated it enough
That notoriety is the best publicity!

We think of Van Gogh and other great artists who were
misunderstood and ridiculed.
I can hear them now at Regresty"'Well, you are no Van Gogh"
"No?" I can ask. "I very well might be" I will hit the bottle of
now legal Absinthe, look for the green fairy,
keep my ears in place and forge ahead with paint brush,glitter in hand
and tackle another phone.