Linda Sue commented, what to do with the things one makes?
That is the $64K question. (Or, just $64.)
Like most of the makers I know, I am bad (as in non-starting) at taking things I make to market. This reflects, I think, that makers operate more in play mode than production mode. We are not things, and the things we make are not exactly "things" either, to be translated into money. (And/or, also, we may just be socially awkward AF, with no sense of our worth.)
I was talking about this with Emmler (cashier at work). She said she's crap at selling: if people even ask to buy her stuff, she just gives it to them.
I hear this a lot, and I do it too.
Some of that's lovely: play-making is a gift to be shared freely.
BUT... we are not living in a gift-economy, and most people I know who make things are povvos (word for poor people from the 'I'm Rich, Your Poor' TikTokker, ShabazSays--his riff on the Hermes bag is sharp). They never recover their materials costs, much less get anything for their time.
To some extent, this freedom from the marketplace is good, or okay. But NOT to romanticize it—it can grind ya down and take away the urge or the ability to play, especially if we're alone in the sandbox.
Work-play-making in isolation is a big poverty.
The Internet can help with this--a place to share.
[ALSO: Linda Sue comments that mass-produced items from China gutted the craft market—so, no matter how entrepreneurial you might be, the market just wasn’t there. I saw that happen to other artist friends too]
ANYWAY, I had answered Linda Sue that I'm going to give some things I make back to the thrift store (where the materials most likely came from).
And . . . I had my first sale! I'd put this doll-on-a-dino ornament out in BOOK's, and Emmler told me that the next day a customer brought it to the cash register and was showing it to her, saying how cool it was! I was so chuffed.
I was doubly glad because I'd priced it high, for the store––two bucks! (most trinkets on the Toy Bridge in the background are 49 cents)––and I'd thought someone might just pocket it.
I've always liked to mix toys and objects in with BOOK's.
Breastfeeding mother in Spirituality/Religion section. (Looks Peruvian? I don't know.)
BELOW: hand-carved marionette. The customer in the background is a regular. She used to complain that I was putting things in the wrong place; but one time she was looking for The Hobbit, and I had just unpacked a brand new copy. I went in the back and got it for her, and she hasn't sniped at me since.
From 1973, Where Do Babies Come From? by Margaret Sheffield, illus. Sheila Bewley. It's simplified science for kids, with artistic illustrations—the sort of book my parents would have shared with us if they'd had it ten years earlier--I was raised by the typical white, middle class liberals who I complain about--and I super appreciate too!
Education was my father's religion, and his highest values flowed from the First Amendment.
We now know, for instance, that a tiny Chagallesque horse does not have to be present for conception to occur.
And, below, intercourse is not the only delivery system to make babies anymore.
Or--even then. "Women have often had to be resourceful and innovative when it comes to getting pregnant. Artificial insemination goes back centuries. "
Lesbians at the time, for example were using "self-made" methods (turkey basters! or, more likely, smaller syringes) to conceive at home with donated sperm from gay men friends. "The 'turkey-baster era' of self-insemination dates to around the 1970s." [Via "Busting myths about turkey-baster babies"]
But yeah—it wasn't until 1978, five years after this book was published, that the first IVF live birth occurred in England, with the birth of Louise Brown.
Dolly the sheep wasn't cloned for almost 20 years after that--in 1996.
But cloning humans is a bad idea (because, science ("serious genetic malformation")), and no matter what sci-fi method gets the sperm to the egg, you still need that biological source material to kick off new life.
And now, I’m off to work while we have a lull in the snow storms--one last night, another much bigger one to follow this afternoon--"HISTORIC WINTER STORM WILL LIKELY LEAD TO IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL BY WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND EARLY THURSDAY".
If so, we'll close for a snow day tomorrow. I'd like that!
animal skins folded over- dolly headed dinosaur. Price tags say everything...If you're a povvo.
ReplyDeleteI pounded out a zillion felted objects, mostly characters of fantasy, and sold every last one , before China got into the game and mass produced felted things. My prices were very reasonable, I made a few thousand dollars in all. Starting when Bush the shrub was president and the frustration level hit the ceiling. I pounded it out in wool.I had an outlet in which to sell them. Now I just have a corner in the basement stacked with unused wool, no where to go. Yes, DONATE!
LINDA SUE: oh, yeah—great point—mass production in China ! Gutted the craft making market—how could I forget that factor? I know other artists that undermined too—sometimes entirely.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t that one of Shabaz’s best? “Povvos are too busy worrying about scurvy…”
the time old question of selling the stuff you make. i've made stuff in the past and sold it (beadwork) but never had any confidence when i sold it. either i felt it should have been priced higher or i priced it too low.
ReplyDeletemost people truly do not appreciate the time, labor and materials that go into what someone has created.
just ask artists at craft fairs (way too many mass-produced items for sale there at many) how many times they hear: don't buy it, you can make it or the ever fun one "i can get this cheaper at the current large-box store." no you can't they have never sold that and never will or will just send it to country x to be copied.
nevertheless, i love the idea of making and then donating it to the store to sell. a great way to put together items that might have just gone out in the trash.
kirsten
Getting your creations out there..good!
ReplyDeleteI have a dear friend who makes the most exquisite handmade ribbon flowers for broaches and hair-ornaments and she can't begin to sell them for what they're worth because people think they are just the same as the things they see at Walmart or even the Dollar Store. It's the same for so many things. We have lost our appreciation for the unique, the artisan (except for bread), the genuine.
ReplyDeleteSuch a huge loss for humanity.