TAFA's New Marketplace!

www.TAFAMARKET.com

TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List now has almost 300 members.  About half of those have shops on Etsy.  All of the Etsy shops are listed on this blog in this catalog of shops, so those of you who visit us here, have immediate access to these shops.  But, we are a part of the larger TAFA and are excited about all of the things that are happening there!  Our main site, www.tafalist.com, hosts our member profiles.  There, you can find where we are on the web:  our websites, shops on Etsy and elsewhere, blogs, and social media links.  We knew that we would eventually grow out of this platform and that time has come.

So, we have been fundraising for a new site on IndieGoGo!

Fund a new website for TAFA.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....  (ha, ha!), we have been working on how this new site should function.  There is a lot of info on the indiegogo site, so if you are a reader and want to know more, go there.  In short, several members are meeting on a special think tank group on facebook, looking and discussing at all kinds of complex issues.

I felt that we needed something visual to look at, where we could get a better idea of how our products would look on the new site.  We set up a temporary market on Wordpress and the result is absolutely gorgeous!  This platform is limited on what we can do, but there are several categories that showcase our main types of products with a list of tags that also help group the items in different ways.  

Here, for example is a screen shot of the Accessories page:

Most of these items just happen to be made by our Team members here on Etsy!  The images are all linked to the product's shopping cart.  If you hover over them, you can see at a glance where that cart is hosted, on Etsy or elsewhere.  

We hope that you will explore this site, shop if you see something you like, and spread the word.  We don't know yet what we will do with this site in the interim.  We have seven more days left to the fundraiser.  We have raised $3,000 out of the $5,000 goal.  Enough to launch the core part of the site.  We would love to be able to launch the whole thing at once, but if we cannot raise the other 2K, then we will have to do it in parts.  Right now, TAFA is all over the place and this site will help us bring everything together in one cohesive hub.  One thing we know for sure:  TAFA rocks and it will become a major destination for anyone who is interested in textiles and fiber art.

If you like what you see, give us your vote of confidence with a donation.  Go to IndieGoGo and donate what you can.  Any amount is appreciated!  For those of you who have a business and can afford it, we have an ad special:  a $215 donation gets you 18 months of advertising!  (Less than $12 a month!)

The TAFA Market has a great handmade supplies page!

Need help with your website or with graphic design?  TAFA member Aynex Designs set the TAFA Market up for us.  She can help you make your web presence gorgeous and professional!  Visit her site.