DIY Revolution makes the Times

I am part of the whole "craft scene" I guess. Although recently I decided to work more on art and will hopefully merge back into comics because that's what I really enjoy doing.

I really liked making stuff and selling it would help pay a few bills...but it's really difficult to make a living off of it. I crocheted hats, stuffed animals, and accessories. A hat would take about 4 hours to make. I know most people would crochet a hat in less than an hour...but I would make each one different, and I would invent these complicated stitches that looked cool, but took forever to stitch...and I used the second smallest stitch so that they were actually warm. So basically I would try to sell a hat for an average of $60. I was competing with people who were selling hats for $20. Mine were higher quality, i didn't cheat and use ultra bulky yarn, I learned how to create an invisible seam, I wove in my ends like I should.. but I guess most of the people who were buying crafts don't fit the $60 hat income bracket (or I don't know how to find those people, i'm pretty bad at schmoozing). And I can't blame them. I make less than $20,000 a year, I certainly wouldn't spend that much.

Another thing I couldn't bring myself to do was make my stuff trendy or "copy" other peoples styles to make sales. And I couldn't last at making multiples of stuff, i did that for a little while. It would probably be more profitable to work in a factory at that point (for me anyways).

The crafters that I truly respect are the ones who create their items all from recycled goods...or completely from scratch...because then they aren't really supporting the man so to speak. I mean how can you call it a revolution when you purchase most of your goods from Joanne fabrics? That seems like such a hell-hole place to work, you know they probably treat their workers fairly shitty. Plus all of their supplies are mass produced.

I think one thing that bothers me is that there are a lot of people making these crappy, cheap novelty items...they bought all of their materials at a big chain craft store...and then they are saying that this is helping to stop global warming? uh...what kind of fucking non-sense is that? If anything it encourages people to consume even more than before because it's under this guise that it's handmade and supposedly better.

Another thing that I think most crafters don't factor in is all of the time they have to dedicate just to sell all of their junk. The crafters who don't have to work a day job are probably doing the work of two or three people for the wage of one person.

I love that there are so many venues that help crafters out...but yeah, if i can't make it into something that is going to sustain me I don't like doing it enough to do it that much. I think that it's good that people are critiquing the scene too because maybe people will consider making fewer, higher quality purchases all around.

ugh, sorry this is so long-winded and rambly.

I dunno. I don't really have any problem with people getting paid for their skills and efforts and being able to supplement their income with a craft or trade they're talented at. I don't really see a negative to most of the DIY crafts transactions, and don't see what's all that different about it than say, running a DIY record label and asking a reasonable amount of money to compensate the band's efforts, time and expenses.

I do forsee potential risks that could arise--when do the "DIY" crafters start asking their underemployed friends to turn out tchotckes for sub-minimum wage, if that hasn't happened already, for example. Still, for the most part, if I give a friend or individual through etsy $20 for an artisan product they made by hand, and that can help them to sustain themselves using their particular talents instead of say, working a counter job, I don't really feel conflicted about it. I'd agree with you, Anne, that the "community" seems more interested in commerce than community-building, but I don't have too much of a problem with one-on-one commerce with people whose creative output I appreciate and want to support.

Obviously, the problem is not with people making money doing what they love, and I think watusi's hats are a perfect example: I adore them. The problem only arises when crafting is packaged as revolution. As politics. As feminism. As anything different from standard consumerism. It isn't. It's cuter, and I too like it better, but it's a more palatable form of capitalism.