Sheena Williams walked around the Wakarusa music festival with a small collection of her handmade feather earrings.

She had never tried to sell her jewelry before and she nervously ventured around the festival, hoping to sell at least a few pairs. To her surprise, she sold them all.

After the last pair had been purchased, girls continued to ask her where they could buy more. She had never thought of mass-producing her earrings, but as soon as she got home from the festival she created Happy Monday by sheefree, her very own shop on Etsy.

Etsy.com is an online marketplace where people can sell their handmade or vintage items. The website is eclectic, offering everything from vintage wedding dresses to handmade chopsticks.

Williams, a pre-nutritional sciences junior, has made her own little niche in the Etsy.com world with Happy Monday. She sells her colorful, handmade feather earrings for $10 a pair through her account. She said getting her products online wasn’t the difficult part; it was naming the Etsy shop.

“I honestly had no clue what to name it,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be another stereotypical name about feathers, such as Bird of a Feather.”

She settled on Happy Monday because she was listening to “Monday Morning” by Fleetwood Mac, and typically, people do not like Mondays. But she felt that if people had something good to wake up to, such as a package from Etsy on Monday mornings, then they would be happier throughout the day.

Williams said she had never considered seriously selling her earrings before she opened the Etsy shop, but after the small successes at music festivals like Wakarusa and the Electric Forest Music Festival last summer, she decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

“Many of the girls who looked at my earrings asked for my Etsy account, but I didn’t have one to suggest,” she said. Williams said the continued demand convinced her to invest in an online account.

She said on average she sells two to three pairs of earrings a month on Etsy.com, while continuing to sell at local festivals. She actually sells more earrings at festivals than she does on Etsy, but both are great ways to share her earrings with others, Williams said.

“I’ve sold over 70 pairs between the three festivals I went to,” she said.

Williams said being able to sell her homemade jewelry isn’t the only plus side to her earrings. She also enjoys trading them at festivals.

“A lot of people bring handmade products and so I get to trade my earrings for other people’s art,” she said.

Williams also said that by selling the earrings at the festivals, she has earned back the money for the festival tickets, plus more.

Williams waits tables as her main source of income. She said that making the jewelry and selling it on Etsy is mostly just for fun.

“I think it’s neat that someone is enjoying jewelry that I handmade by myself,” Williams said.

She encourages other crafty students to show off their own work on Etsy.

“If you have a creative idea of your own, do it,” Williams said. “Take pictures of [your product], describe it well, do a little research on how to price it and voila.”

Williams said she enjoys the experience of selling her own products online, from creating the earrings to seeing who buys them.

“It is so fun to wake up to an email saying that someone in Hawaii has bought your product,” she said.