Ruminations on Why We Craft
I've joined several Facebook crafting groups lately, and one of the more frequent topics is some iteration of "how much should I charge for X?"
This morning's variation was a photo of a particular handcraft (fair disclosure: of a particularly vintage style that I don't personally find attractive) with the question "Will these sell?"
Before I knew it, I found myself writing an essay. I have preserved and polished it here:
"Will I don't know if "will they sell?" may not be exactly the right question. Perhaps a better one is "will they sell at a price that justifies both the materials and time?"
In my personal experience, pretty much Nothing hand-made sells at a profit-making price for the vast majority of us rubes who show up at a craft fair or three each year and just want to make people happy with our cute / useful / clever and amusing wares.
I walked through one of those crafting co-op shops last week, and it was full of everything from (beautiful) pot holders to (terrifying) crocheted dolls to customizable birth-announcement plushies, plus the expected share of antiques and memorabilia. Most of it was priced to "compete with China:" $15 screen-printed T-shirts, $10 crochet items, $5 machine-embroidered zipper pouches. Even the lady re-selling zipper pulls and similar notions was probably spending far more time packaging and labeling her wares than the $2.50 price justified.
I sincerely doubt that one handcraft booth out of 10 was making back its booth fee on an average month. And if we want to be really mean and talk about *profit,* I'll bet there aren't any.
I follow one lady on Facebook who seems to be managing to sell a steady stream of small, hand-made plushies (from her own patterns) at prices upwards of $75/each. I applaud her, and I want her to teach a master-class on how to gather the sort of following that understands that "handmade" = "expensive" because Time Isn't Free.
But on the other hand, when I examine my own motives for crafting, they aren't profit-oriented. I just love to craft! Thankfully I am not in a position where I need my crafting to contribute to our income; I really don't even need it to pay for itself. My husband, bless him, understands that crafting is far cheaper than therapy. And so do I, even as I occasionally throw a few items out there in the hopes I can make back a little something.
(And I am sorry, fellow crafters who Do need to make a profit: people like me don't help when we drive down the prices people are willing to pay by selling at a loss!)
If I Did need to contribute to our income, I would have to either chose a completely different craft - one that could be turned out in large quantities for low materials cost with very little actual Time - or I would have to go spend a good deal of time learning about marketing and figuring out how to recruit and advertise to a population that understands a hand-made plush takes at least 3 hours, and should therefore cost at least $75.
To sum up, there's every chance you will move a few of your lovingly created tissue box covers. Someone will love them. They probably won't love them so much they will pay what they cost you in terms of time. But maybe that doesn't need to matter to you. Maybe you just want to make people happy. Be honest about that, and then Go for it!
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(Above photo is my rendition of Choly Knight's Dragonite pattern)
There's a frequent poster - we'll call her Gladys - on one of my other FB groups that focuses on hand-made plush toys from a particular pattern maker. She obviously loves to sew plushies. She does several of them a month. But - please excuse the judgement here, but I just can't seem to help it - they look Awful. And not in that cute "distressed," "vintage," or "ugly/cute" way, either. They're often made from quilting cotton or other random fabrics instead of fleece, minky, or fur. They bulge where they shouldn't, don't stretch where they should, and the stitching often shows. The appliqued features are poorly cut and messily hand-stitched. By any objective standard, not to mention the standard of others who post their creations on this page, they are absolutely "cringe" (to use the my tween's vernacular.)
I am pretty sure Gladys doesn't know this. I think there's also a pretty good chance Gladys doesn't care. And I can't figure out whether to feel sad for her - "oh look, here's someone who thinks she's really good at something but actually is terrible" - or really, really, respectful - "oh look, here's someone who is really enjoying herself with a craft that she loves and the fact that her end product kinda sucks just doesn't bother her, even if she's noticed it. She's doing it for the love of crafting!"
I'm not sure that Gladys and I are actually from the same planet. I am a perfectionist with high personal standards. I'm an engineer who can't always turn off that calculating side of the brain that says "Why did you agree to 'sell' your acquaintance a hand-made plush that took you 3 hours for $15 again?" And it's easy for me to forget for a while the reason I actually craft.
Years ago I became attracted to the beautiful line art that I soon learned was produced from the "Zentangle" method. Zentangle is, first and foremost, a process-oriented art method rather than a results-oriented one. It's all about the lines, drawn carefully and deliberately, one stroke at a time. Of course people do create beautiful and impressive art using this method (I have myself!), but with its mantra of "No Mistakes," the artwork at the end is deliberately secondary. I believe there's wisdom in this approach.
Don't get me wrong: I believe in absolute truth, objective standards of beauty, externally-evaluated craftsmanship, and always doing one's best.
But crafting IS, even for me, mostly about the process. A process in which we exercise our roles as little-c creators as an expression of our Imago Dei.
At this point, my essay is not only getting long, it's getting reasonably repetitive. I wrote extensively on a similar subject on my "Philosophy" post more than 10 years ago.
I hope Gladys will forgive my judgement. I have a different skill set and a different standard, but I think we probably have the same fundamental reason for crafting: it's fun. It's relaxing. And creation Feels right. At root, it's a way to get in touch with our God-given creative natures. And that's always worth doing.
My rendition of Rustic Horseshoe's "Charismatic Cat"
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