To see more Etsy Treasuries, visit Art From Art – The Best of Etsy Treasuries
Officially, Treasuries were created to help buyers shop on Etsy.com. Both Shoppers and Shop Owners can save their Favorite items in a personal gallery of “treasures.” The Treasury is a more advanced format for selecting 16 items under a title, and posting it under Treasury. Treasury is “An ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery.”
In the colossal international market that is Etsy.com, daily treasuries are listed by volume of views, with the most viewed treasuries at the top of the list. On January 3, 2015, the Treasury at the top of the list at 10:32 pm Omaha time is NOVELTIES WEDDING FASHION by Artist. 6401 views, posted 5 hours ago. In the wide wild world of Etsy, the only rule is that every item on sale must be either Handmade, Vintage, or a Craft Supply like painting tools, kits, patterns, glass beads and tutorials. Etsy is a “one million member strong seller community.” It sees itself as a force of “creative entrepreneurship.”
In any Online format, there are always the things envisioned by the designers and the things created by the users. This is clearly so with Treasuries on Etsy.com. Treasury teams have formed, not to sell items and promote shops, but to pursue a new art form – Curation. I belong to two teams in this category. The Achromatics and Sublime.
The Achromatics is “Dedicated to sharing and promoting art in the achromatic colors of black, white and/or gray.” Who can join? “Artists, collectors, art enthusiasts, treasury curators, anyone is welcome to join who has a passion for black, white and/or gray art. This is a relaxed team with only one requirement: please share, post and promote art and treasuries that are achromatic, thank you.”
The 299 achromatics members are “Worldwide” – Weirton, London, Pune, Kylv, Kew Gardens, Los Angeles, Miri, Monterrey, Ukraine, Istanbul, Austin, Turkey, Medicine Hat, Beacon, Savagealice, Tampere, Riga, Vancouver, Reading, Swansea, Leek, Ljubljana, Bursa, Exeter, Roma, Oldsmar, Tel Aviv, Manchester, Boston. OMG, this is only page 1 of 9.
I remember my first Treasury. I went through the websites of all the non-US members and Favorited architecture, then put together two exhibits of 16 items each with a theme about living structures around the world. In black and white. I was stunned to see how beautiful and powerful these collections looked. After posting the Treasuries on the team listing, I received Comments about my curation – its attributes and personal responses. I was thrilled. Nicole Fekari, the team Captain, warned me – “these can be addictive.” Right. Some people work cross word puzzles or solve Sudoku logic puzzles. For me, it is Treasury. At this writing my Favorites gallery has 3547 incredibly beautiful and provoking items and images. These images function like subconscious memory that I associate through when curating a Treasury.
Here is my other team, Sublime – “sublime is a virtual gallery for artistically curated treasuries. it’s also a supportive community of curators who inspire each other. we encourage creative expression in our members by embracing artistic differences and providing each other with supportive feedback.” 92 members, Worldwide.
Here is my most recent curation. Theme – Association: A Subliminal Treasury Game.
Directions: Start with an image in the upper left corner, move through Favorites looking for images that you associate to the key image.
Curate the images by ordering them, subtracting and adding other images.
What underlying unity surfaces from your unconscious?
Etsy Treasury January 3, 2015.
I am not sure how it works, but the process of curation seems to hone and stimulate my art making.
March 21, 2015 – One of my Treasuries, Inside the Box of Perception, is included in the February Apertif selections in Art from Art – The Best of Etsy Treasuries. You will need to scroll way down the Exhibit to find Cynthia’s 2/8/2015 entry.