These days, everyone is making something. And it is wonderful that so many people are learning traditional skills and trying new things. Really! But you only need to spend a few minutes browsing Etsy to see that the marketplace is saturated with crappy lookalike crafts. It's sad. And it doesn't have to be this way.
As a passionate fan of the handmade, I want to encourage everyone who works with their hands to master their craft and create work that is outstanding, high-quality, and absolutely unique.
This message is especially for people who are selling their crafts. If you're just making things for yourself or your friends, then go nuts, have fun. Amateurs create amateur work. Once you go pro, you had better be making professional work. If you're trying to sell your goods to the market then you must deliver to the market marketable goods.
Listen, I understand that we all have to start somewhere, and your first try won't be any good. Neither will the next one, and maybe many more after that. That's okay! Throw them out and keep trying. Eventually you'll get better, but don't settle for "good enough," either. Keep experimenting and learning and fighting. If you've found something worth selling then it's worth investing time into mastering your craft... 10,000 hours, if you have to.
True failure is stopping before you've finished. It's settling for less than your best efforts.
If you don’t keep pushing until you get through that dip, then you’ve reneged on your responsibility as an artist. You’ve let down yourself and everyone who was counting on you to make The Next Big Thing.
By the way, you don't need some rare innate ability to reach this level of mastery. The artists who have made it there before you are not some special breed of mutants with artistic powers that transcend human capabilities. They are, by and large, just a bunch of folks who kept plugging away at a problem until they found the solution that no one else could see. Anyone can produce great art if only you are willing to do the work.
Bottom line: the world doesn’t need more commodity crafts. What we do want is to be surprised and delighted. We want you to find the thing that you can do better than anyone else in the world and then sell THAT.
OK!! So, assuming you're interested, how do you get from here to there? I have some ideas... but I'd love to hear what you think. Leave a comment with your thoughts, or stop me at the Craftstravaganza, and I would be happy to chat. Talk to you soon!
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