A New Place to Buy and Sell Beading Patterns

Craftsy, the online craft course site, has added a platform for buying and selling beading patterns and tutorials. Currently in beta, the new pattern marketplace allows anyone to post PDF patterns for sale. There currently is no fee to list and Craftsy does not take a commission; sellers do, however, need a business (or similar) level PayPal account.

If you're a beader looking for patterns, you can browse the marketplace for both paid and free patterns. When you purchase a pattern (or grab a free one), it's saved in your personal pattern library on Craftsy, where you can download it anytime. You can even share a photo of your finished project on the pattern download page.

By the way: Pattern sellers, called Designers on Craftsy, also have their own stores on the site. For an example, see JayceePatterns.

Overall I think the pattern marketplace looks promising. It gives us a new place to shop that's dedicated to projects, and is less costly for sellers that listing on Etsy. However, (as far as I can tell) it's not juried, which means that lower quality patterns could find their way into the marketplace. Be sure to carefully inspect a pattern's photos and description before making a purchase.

If you've purchased any patterns on Craftsy, or if you're a Craftsy Designer, I'd love to hear about your experience in a comment.