great idea, and I’m thinking through how to make this happen. Right now, the site is sorta “fraud-proof” because people just give things away. Here, in the GF owners’ forum, we’ve built up a lot of trust, but Levitada is open to others… Maybe I’ll make a new “category” on Levitada just for the gift cards, and since all the “exchanges” happen over private communication, those wanting to pay-pal purchase the gift cards can maybe agree to PM each other here in the forum to exchange pay-pal email account info, etc. Stay tuned. I’ll post back after giving this some thought and setting something up - suggestions are welcome 
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First of all thank you so much for putting this together.
Totally awesome as is but I’d love to see a category to give, trade, barter related services. For instance I can 3d print and cnc small wood items but sometimes need someone with a HD or industrial sewing machine.
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Joined and bookmarked - thanks for setting this up!!!
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done! I took a guess at sub-categories, so please chime in with more suggestions.
oh, and once you offer the service, I’d love to request a 3D print of an “action figure” of a coworker - we call him “Leather Man” b/c he rides his motorcycle to work everyday (yes, even all winter long in the rain - makes for interesting “wet spot” rain, leather chaps, etc.), so we want an action figure of him in his motorcycle-leathers, long gray ponytail, etc. 
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Great idea - the UI looks fantastic as well, so easy to use.
I hope it takes off internationally not just in the US.
How do you expect delivery to work? Maybe worth adding expected delivery cost and/or pick-up only, etc.
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thx - I’ll take credit for the name of the site and the little logo. I’m very proud of the green little sphere with the shadow. I made it in Inkscape. Great Inkscape tutorials by this guy on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxcbUX4J6rk… my little sphere is a much simplified version! I also picked out the font in the logo all by myself.
My ui design skills generally suck, so really the credit for the site design goes to Sharetribe.com. I didn’t write any of the code. Their product is quite easy to use, and I agree it has a great ui!
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That’s pretty tricky. In the FAQ I explain that the “giver” and the “receiver” need to work that out between them.
I too hope that the site takes off far and wide, but I think the real “magic” will happen if local communities get artists and charities together into little pockets of critical-mass.
I’m planning on contacting local arts groups here in Olympia, WA in the hopes that we’ll get tons of artists donating stuff, so that lots of local charities can “shop” for donations and if all is local, then it will be easy to make hand-offs. You can’t spit in Olympia without hitting 87 painters, 30 quilters, 22 jewelry makers, and 3 polymer clay artists, so I have high hopes that these groups will want to swap materials with each other and will see Levitada as a useful tool for doing that.
My really big dream, though, is to get everyone in Olympia who is an artist of any kind (that’s the entire population down here) to commit to donate at least one work of art to one local charity a year. What a lot of good we could do… but, don’t get me started. I’m still drafting that email to the leader of our local arts council.
Thanks so much to all here who are showing great support for the site. If you want to help get a local critical-mass pocket o’ magic happening in your own local community, feel free to distribute, print, etc. one of the flyers below:
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This is so exciting and fun… I can hardly wait to try it out! Thank you so much for doing this and for making the site so easily navigable and user friendly. 
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Awesome idea, and just in time for me to clean up my craft room! Thanks!
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I just felt a disturbance in the forum! 
… It grows stronger 
Great idea! Very generous of you!
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My aunt is an opera singer and music teacher. At her suggestion, I just added a set of categories for “lessons” and “performances” under the “Service” category suggested by markevans36301.
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Thanks for the site.
I just confirmed my email, Thanks.
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Signed up and email confirmed. Great idea, congrats!!
Very cool! I’m an OLY artist, but I haven’t really connected with any local orgs. I’m a bit of a hermit and definitely an introvert. Because of this, when I do donate work/supplies/etc., it’s usually to causes or orgs that I know (or those that reach out to me). I’d love to have a way to connect with local groups.
I’ll make that commitment, right here and now. In fact, I’m kind of kicking myself… just committed to donating a ton of my older masks and costume pieces to a clown camp down in CA. If I’d thought about that a little longer, I would have offered to donate some to POSC as well.
Last but not least, would you consider adding “leather” to the materials section?
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Yeah! I feel bad that I didn’t know that 'til yesterday. I clicked on your avatar and went to your site - GORGEOUS work! As for the “hermit” thing - me too. It’s going to take a lot of work for me to reach out to local groups, hoping I’ll be able to do most of that online (will take the plunge and make a FB pg), but I’m bracing myself for possibly having to meet face to face with real people. Dammit, Jim, I’m a Software Engineer - not a Salesman!
Thanks! Please post just one thing on Levitada marked “for charity only”. I’m really looking forward to getting some real artists like yourself, with really beautiful stuff to post a few items. My little polymer clay things are, well, not “great art”.
fyi - there’s an Olympia Art League I recently joined (http://olympiaartleague.com/). My plan is to contact their leadership who seem to be much more people-oriented and PR-capable than myself. Hopefully, if I can get them to feel the Levitada Love, I can stay in my comfort zone of doing the tech work and let them deal with “people”.
Done! The “categories” are a work in progress, so suggestions are always welcome
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What? No “Death Fabric”? 
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you joke, but today is SPAM day in the office and we had moderately serious discussions about using SPAM as an art medium, making sculptures out of it… so, try as you might, it will be difficult for anyone on this forum to “out-weird” the people I work with.
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For your work?! I would give you your own page! 
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Site is very out of date (I’m honestly a bit embarrassed by it right now) but thank you!
LOL, yes. The struggle is real.
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understood - but your “old and embarrassing” stuff is miles above what I hope to be able to do someday. I hope Levitada serves as a place for those very things - the items I give to my mom who just loves all my “rejects” (she’s my MOM!). My coworkers used to get the “rejects” too, and I sell the better stuff on Etsy.
Of course, now with this forum as a potential audience for my “rejects” I want to give away only my best stuff, because even my best stuff is shamefully pathetic compared to the artistry here. but, on the bright side, you are all an inspiration for me to keep at it, to get better.
it is not about
making great art ~ it’s about
art making life great
[I keep repeating that to myself!]
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