Craftsmanship
Sep. 15th, 2012 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI can't remember where I saw it, but someone I know linked to an article criticising Etsy for deluding people into thinking they could make a living out of craft. Actually, I think it was a link in an article that was criticising the original article, but I can't find either one. Never mind. Suffice to say, this has sparked some thinks in me.
The original article had a tone that implied that the runners of Etsy were... not quite swindlers, but certainly exploiters of these deluded, naive craftspeople... the same kind of contempt that folks have for those who run Vanity Presses.
That kind of makes me angry, but I'll push that aside for the moment.
Thing is, I think the author of the original article was completely missing the point. Or missing several points.
First of all, anyone who has been around for a while should realize that ALL creative artistic endeavours are practically impossible to make a living from. Not just craft, not just art, but writing, acting, music... most people doing that have a day job. I remember John DeLancie saying at a convention, that 5% of actors make the huge money, and 20% of them make a living, and the rest simply don't get enough work to be able to act full-time. I wouldn't be surprised if the proportions were similar for music. And how many author blurbs have you read which didn't mention another profession that the author did; their "day job"? Or a spouse that supports them? Fine art? For every Jackson Pollack there are a hundred who make very little. The stereotype of the artist starving in a garret is a stereotype because there's truth in it. Two of my aunts were professional artists; they didn't starve in a garret, but they had day jobs as art teachers.
Just consider the amount of time that goes into creating a piece of art or craft. Hundreds of hours. Yet if the artist was paid minimum wage for all that time, nobody would buy the work. Perhaps in some other culture, people would pay artists what they're worth, but not in this one. That's the way it is.
And yet, people keep on creating. Why do they do that, if they are never paid what it is worth?
I think that's the second point that the original author was missing. It's a similar conundrum with FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software); there are those who are baffled by why anyone would write software FOR FREE! Surely that is a sin against commerce? Because the only way of measuring the worth of something (according to these people) is by the amount of money that changes hands. For them, if something has no price, it has no worth.
What balderdash! Bah! I spit on the concept!
If something has no price, it may actually be priceless.
People love to create. It's in our nature, as beings created in the image of God the Creator. Something inside us blooms when we create beauty, it's one of the things that make life more than survival. For some, the creativity is its own reward, not the money. Plus the warm glow they get from sharing what they've made. That's why you have things like fanfic, like fanart, like filking, like FLOSS. And for others, they're content enough to sell the things they make for less than it's really worth, because the money they get from that is enough to enable them to keep on creating.
That's what I think motivates a lot of people on Etsy. They want to make beautiful things, and they want to keep on making beautiful things. Have you seen the stuff on Etsy? Some of it is absolutely stunning.
I do a lot of craft. Most of it I give away, the rest I keep for myself. I think the only reason I'd do something like get an Etsy store would be if I ran out of people to give gifts to. Certainly, for me, if I made money from craft, it would go straight back into buying more craft stuff. Craft isn't cheaper than therapy, but it's more fun.
The original article had a tone that implied that the runners of Etsy were... not quite swindlers, but certainly exploiters of these deluded, naive craftspeople... the same kind of contempt that folks have for those who run Vanity Presses.
That kind of makes me angry, but I'll push that aside for the moment.
Thing is, I think the author of the original article was completely missing the point. Or missing several points.
First of all, anyone who has been around for a while should realize that ALL creative artistic endeavours are practically impossible to make a living from. Not just craft, not just art, but writing, acting, music... most people doing that have a day job. I remember John DeLancie saying at a convention, that 5% of actors make the huge money, and 20% of them make a living, and the rest simply don't get enough work to be able to act full-time. I wouldn't be surprised if the proportions were similar for music. And how many author blurbs have you read which didn't mention another profession that the author did; their "day job"? Or a spouse that supports them? Fine art? For every Jackson Pollack there are a hundred who make very little. The stereotype of the artist starving in a garret is a stereotype because there's truth in it. Two of my aunts were professional artists; they didn't starve in a garret, but they had day jobs as art teachers.
Just consider the amount of time that goes into creating a piece of art or craft. Hundreds of hours. Yet if the artist was paid minimum wage for all that time, nobody would buy the work. Perhaps in some other culture, people would pay artists what they're worth, but not in this one. That's the way it is.
And yet, people keep on creating. Why do they do that, if they are never paid what it is worth?
I think that's the second point that the original author was missing. It's a similar conundrum with FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software); there are those who are baffled by why anyone would write software FOR FREE! Surely that is a sin against commerce? Because the only way of measuring the worth of something (according to these people) is by the amount of money that changes hands. For them, if something has no price, it has no worth.
What balderdash! Bah! I spit on the concept!
If something has no price, it may actually be priceless.
People love to create. It's in our nature, as beings created in the image of God the Creator. Something inside us blooms when we create beauty, it's one of the things that make life more than survival. For some, the creativity is its own reward, not the money. Plus the warm glow they get from sharing what they've made. That's why you have things like fanfic, like fanart, like filking, like FLOSS. And for others, they're content enough to sell the things they make for less than it's really worth, because the money they get from that is enough to enable them to keep on creating.
That's what I think motivates a lot of people on Etsy. They want to make beautiful things, and they want to keep on making beautiful things. Have you seen the stuff on Etsy? Some of it is absolutely stunning.
I do a lot of craft. Most of it I give away, the rest I keep for myself. I think the only reason I'd do something like get an Etsy store would be if I ran out of people to give gifts to. Certainly, for me, if I made money from craft, it would go straight back into buying more craft stuff. Craft isn't cheaper than therapy, but it's more fun.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 02:42 am (UTC)Creative is creative. Etsy's role in the marketing creativity is totally beside the point.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 05:40 am (UTC)I think people put too much store on "originality". Thing is, as you point out with the socks example, hardly anything is really original. As one of my writing mentors said, "There's no such thing as an original idea, only an original treatment." Creation is a conversation between the present and the past. Nothing is done in isolation. It couldn't be, because if it was, it wouldn't be able to communicate anything; it wouldn't be art, it would be the ravings of a madman.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 06:51 am (UTC)I think the only reason I'd do something like get an Etsy store would be if I ran out of people to give gifts to.
And this is why I'm going to set up an Etsy shop. I'm also considering Zazzle for some of my artwork for the sheer hell of it.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 06:56 am (UTC)RedBubble is much more fan-friendly, but unfortunately they don't do larger sizes t-shirts.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 04:10 am (UTC)I get told all the time I should try to sell this or that thing I make. Nope. I might sell the directions or the pattern once I've perfected them (in fact, I have), but the things I make? I couldn't charge what they cost me in time and effort. And it would take all the fun out of it.
And that's exactly how I feel about writing fanfic. I can make a little pin money with non-fic. But I would not even want to try to put in the heavy lifting required to get fiction published. (I'm not talking here about the actual writing but the effort needed to market fiction these days.)
Our society seems to think that if money can't be attached to something somehow, there's no value to it. This explains the patronizing and condescending attitude held towards creative endeavors as a hobby. The phrase I hear so often is "She must have way too much time on her hands." Why? Because she takes the time to do something she loves just because she loves to do it? Because she doesn't spend her every last waking moment chasing the Almighty dollar?
As for Etsy-- I doubt very many people who put their stuff there are even trying, much less expecting, to make a living wage; they want to make a bit of pin money, maybe enough to buy the supplies to continue their craft, and they want to share the things they make with other people. If I ever put anything there that's probably all I'd hope to gain from it.
As you said, most of what I make, I tend to either give away or make for my own use. That goes for what I knit, or sew, or sculpt or paint or write...
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 06:09 am (UTC)Yep; fanfic, Libre software, they're all part of a gift culture, where one's status is measured by how much you give away.
The phrase I hear so often is "She must have way too much time on her hands." Why?
Indeed, why?
It's one of those irregular verbs:
I am creative.
You have a hobby.
She has too much time on her hands.
I think the phrase implies that the hobby is something that a desperate person would do to stave off boredom; that it is frivolous, useless, worthless; that if Person A had that much free time, they would use it for something different, not necessarily the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar, but something rated as more "worthwhile" or merely more mainstream. For example, I doubt anyone says that someone has "too much time on their hands" if they play a sport, even though one doesn't have anything but bruises to show for it, because sport is a mainstream hobby.
It's the same kind of contempt that the media has for cosplay, because they see it as "weird", even though sports fans look even sillier when they paint their faces and dye their hair in their team colours, but no, that's "normal". Hypocrites!
But I would not even want to try to put in the heavy lifting required to get fiction published. (I'm not talking here about the actual writing but the effort needed to market fiction these days.)
Absolutely. That's one of the reasons I stopped producing fanzines. I loved putting them together and having the hardcopy in my hands, but selling them was a chore. I still have a box full of my last run, and that was more than a decade ago.
Like you, I have no intention of going pro with fiction writing. The game isn't worth the candle. One has all this extra effort on top of the actual writing, and what does one get in return for it? A bit of pin money, a lot of heartache, and the possibility that lots of complete strangers will read your work and never tell you what they thought of it. With fanfic, the audience may be smaller, but you actually get to talk to your readers, which is a lot more cosy.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 06:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 06:53 am (UTC)I usually call it "gift culture", myself.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 08:20 am (UTC)i used to make music with a couple of friends, and one of them said once, it's cheaper than therapy. and it was for the two of us, since it was the third one who spent all the money on recording equipment, lol.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-17 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-17 08:49 pm (UTC)Good point.