Provided below are my personal observations of these websites based off of user-friendliness & variety of products. Since most websites host several sellers, I will not be able to rate by craftsmanship. So, in the future I will be "spotlighting" several stores/artists that is found to be outstanding.
I hope this information is helpful!
ETSY - www.etsy.com
I do like the layout of their site and they have been around long enough to become the definition of user friendly when it comes to homemade sellers. In a since, they pretty much wrote the book.
There were 633,600 products under "crochet homemade" & 105,655 products under "crochet baby hats" when using the search bar. That is a lot of variety - but is it too much? I believe this is going to be one of the best sites for finding unique props - such as fringe blankets, crochet baskets, etc. Also, if you are looking for a very specific item than this may also be your spot - for example - "red crochet baby hat with black stripes" came up with 40 products. Now, not all of them were exactly what I was looking for, but there were several options that I could have went with.
Not in all cases, but some of the products do seem to be a little higher in price than some of the other sites. I don't know if that is because etsy charges the seller, so they pass it on, or if it's just to help stand out in quality among a sea of other sellers. However, then you do find the exception to that rule. Like the seller is trying to get noticed by being the most cost effective option. So, it really can work both ways.
ART FIRE - www.artfire.com
The sellers page is pretty standard. But it does have how many products sold the seller has had as well as a starred rating system, location, and how long the seller has been associated with art fire.
There were over 420 crochet baby hat products alone - that is not near the amount of some other sites, but a good variety all the same. Not only that, but this site has some of the lowest pricing I have ran into yet! This site has free posts for products, and the sellers seem to pass that savings on to the buyer.
Since their are so quite a few posts on this site, it may take a minute to go through them - but from what I seen, it would be well worth the time. In some ways I wish they would market this site more. Until I went looking for it, I didn't know it existed. However, in some ways, maybe that is better - keep it smaller? I have mixed feelings about that topic and will save it for another day - lol. I do know this however, I am really glad to have run across this little gem!
I CRAFT GIFTS - www.icraftgifts.com
The products listed were again, pretty reasonably priced according to craftsmanship. However, there were only 194 products that compiled when searching "crochet". This is dramatically lower than some other sites. Also, some of my personal favorite products were not products but patterns for sale. Since I know how to crochet, this is not an issue for myself. It may be easy enough to buy the pattern (generally low in cost) if you had someone local that you work with, but if you don't, you may be out of luck.
I do however love how their product pages are made - with a rather large picture of the product. And one thing I LOVED about their sellers page, they include how many postings they have but also how many sold items they have had on the site.
SHOP HANDMADE - www.shophandmade.com
When I searched "crochet" it came up with 4,707 products and found 319 products under "crochet baby hat". There is some really good work to be found here. I found some hats I had not seen yet - such as some Disney characters and some different takes on the popular owl hats.
The prices on the products are comparable to other sites and from what I can tell has some really good quality pieces.
The seller pages do leave quite a bit to be desired. They do list all their products and a place for them to type a note to the reader, but it is missing some information that most other sites have.
MADE IT MYSELF - www.madeitmyself.com
When looking at their crochet products I had two observations. You can tell that some of the sellers are just starting out and others are more advanced in their detail. This will really be the case in any mass seller homemade product site. However, the other observation is that everything seems to be priced pretty fairly with that in mind.
I also really like how their seller pages are set up. You can read a full bio of your seller if you wish. Some of course are more in-depth than others, but I like the format. It also gives you their general information such as their location, overall rating, and how long they have been with the site.
There are not as many options on this site compared to the larger seller sites, for example, etsy, but it's no "mom & pop" sized seller site either. In fact, again, I wish they would market it more because there really are quite a few products available. Overall I like this site.
SILK FAIR - www.silkfair.com
With that being said, there were a couple of options I did like with this site. One is the quick preview option for the products - you can scroll over the product and do a quick add into the cart if so desired. Another was the filter options. After your initial search, you could narrow down your search with various criteria.
About the same number of products as I Craft Gifts, there was about 200 products available when searching "crochet". Overall, I didn't feel there was as big of a variety of products that could be used towards photo shoots, but there were a few gems hidden in the mix.
The seller pages were pretty standard. Nothing really caught my attention one way or the other in that regard.
FOLKSY - www.folksy.com
Based out of England, again, this may not be the fastest or cheapest shipping option. In fact, it depends on the seller whether or not they will ship to the USA.
The website layout is pretty user friendly. You can search by department (which not everything may be crocheted) or you can use the search bar located on the upper left of the screen.
It does list items even if they are not "available". I see both sides of this - on one hand it is great for ideas and to know that you could buy it at another date, but on the other, it does not fill the "immediate satisfaction" that we love so much. Also, if you need the product for a shoot in a couple of weeks, if it's not ready to ship, most likely that will not happen. And if it was possible, it would most likely increase costs for rush shipping.
However, I do believe the websites can be great for crochet ideas if you have the time to browse through the products.
Other sites that did not quite make the list for what I was looking for:
www.ecrater.com
en.dawanda.com
www.craftisart.com
Please keep in mind these are my opinions based on buying crochet items - especially geared towards photography. If you would like more research into reviews of some of these sites, you may visit www.handmade-marketplace-review.toptenreviews.com/.
As always, thank you for reading.
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