Last year, I had the opportunity to attend (as press) the inaugural installment of an event organized by Etsy Wholesale called Open Call. The Open Call 2015 was a one-day event at Etsy Headquarters that gave a select group of both new and seasoned Etsy artists and designers the opportunity to pitch their lines face-to-face to a select group of retail partners, including Nordstrom, The Land of Nod, and Clementine. Thirty artists and designers were selected to participate in Open Call 2015, including Paper & Clay, Simply Curated, Evermore Paper Co., Earth Cadets, La Familia Green, and so many more. Well, I’m super excited to help share the news that Open Call is back for 2016! And stationery folks, there’s some SUPER exciting news: Paper Source is one of this year’s retail partners!

The entire roster of retail partners for Etsy Open Call 2016 is seriously impressive. Along with Paper Source, buyers from Giggle, Macy’s, Whole Foods Market and the Shop of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum will attend Open Call 2016. All of the retail partners are committed to buying product from the Open Call 2016 designers, as well as offering constructive feedback to designers on their product lines.

Evermore Paper Co. from Open Call 2015

Fernweh Woodworking from Open Call 2015

Open Call 2016 will kick off at Etsy’s Brooklyn headquarters on Monday, August 22 with educational workshops for participating designers, followed by panel discussions led by internal experts from Etsy’s Manufacturing, Wholesale and Seller Development teams. On Tuesday, August 23, designers will pitch their lines to the Retail Partners and select independent boutiques from around the country. A few lucky designers will even win “Golden” purchase orders (“Golden POs”) from the Retail Partners and have their lines picked up by that retailer for the holiday shopping season! HGTV Magazine’s Lifestyle Director, Jodi Kahn, will also award one seller with the “Designer to Watch” title and feature their designs on hgtvmagonline.com.

It’s seriously such a great opportunity for any independent designers and artists, but especially those of you in the stationery community! Applications are due by July 14, so you’ll need to act fast! Designers can apply to the Etsy Open Call 2016 program right here and then share product images via Instagram and Twitter tagging the retailer they’re interested in and using the #EtsyOpenCall hashtag. You can read more about Etsy Open Call 2016 here and read interviews with last year’s sellers on the Etsy Wholesale blog here and here.

Good luck everyone!