So, it's clear that i've no time to update my precious blog :( i'm trying to create the work that will pay my bills. No spare time for crochet and knotting, but i'm not sad: i'm just creating one of the most important thing of my life. I will be a freelance, i will be an energy engineer and a web developer: PHP and XHTML will be my new crochet hook & tread. Yes, i'm becoming a truly geek ^^
However, this blog will remain still, just to remember me that, when i was young, i made a network with my little patterns. Thank you all for your kind comments and your support. If you want to leave a comment, don't worry, i will always read them :)
Showing posts with label A crafter's life series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A crafter's life series. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Friday, 15 May 2009
A crafter's life...something is moving
Some days ago i had the possibility to meet a professional painter during an art fair. She saw this necklace
and asked me a custom order. Above all my happiness in having an order outside internet, i enjoyed the conversation with a true artist. She told me that she doesn't like these-things-all-the-same, and loves to support other artists and their creativity.
Then i found that my last two sales where from people that subscribed to Etsy and DaWanda the same day of the sale and had no feedback!
Something out there is waking up, people is moving to search the different thing, the handmade thing! I like to think that i'm contributing to something, an international movement towards a rediscovery of what an human being can do with a lot of love.
and asked me a custom order. Above all my happiness in having an order outside internet, i enjoyed the conversation with a true artist. She told me that she doesn't like these-things-all-the-same, and loves to support other artists and their creativity.
Then i found that my last two sales where from people that subscribed to Etsy and DaWanda the same day of the sale and had no feedback!
Something out there is waking up, people is moving to search the different thing, the handmade thing! I like to think that i'm contributing to something, an international movement towards a rediscovery of what an human being can do with a lot of love.
Friday, 8 May 2009
A crafter's life...saving the world
I'm studying to reach the Energy Engineer degree, so i'm full of greenhouse gases, Kyoto protocol, renewable energies and so on. My thesis is about an absorption chiller/heater, and i've written an entire chapter about the possibility to use solar thermal panels with the chiller: in summer, when there will be more hot, the chiller will give more cold, with only a little electric absorption, instead of using electric-based chillers. I think that this will be a saving planet tecnology.
Meanwhile, crafters in their little, save the planet, reusing and recycling a lot of stuff. I was thinking that, with a little care, the recycling behaviour will allow us to save a lot of money (above the planet), and the money problem is a everyone problem with this financial crisis.
So, my question is: why the recycling habit is not an everyone habit?
The city life has driven us away from the nature, so we don't have under our eyes the direct impact of our behaviour. We tend to be frightened when we saw an huge plume of smoke that exit from an industry, but we don't mind of having little but lot of habits not so eco friendly. Me for first, i admit to have some wrong behaviours, but i decided to stop, i want to take the pledge to live eco friendly!
Meanwhile, crafters in their little, save the planet, reusing and recycling a lot of stuff. I was thinking that, with a little care, the recycling behaviour will allow us to save a lot of money (above the planet), and the money problem is a everyone problem with this financial crisis.
So, my question is: why the recycling habit is not an everyone habit?
The city life has driven us away from the nature, so we don't have under our eyes the direct impact of our behaviour. We tend to be frightened when we saw an huge plume of smoke that exit from an industry, but we don't mind of having little but lot of habits not so eco friendly. Me for first, i admit to have some wrong behaviours, but i decided to stop, i want to take the pledge to live eco friendly!
Friday, 1 May 2009
A crafter's life...DIYDS
It's always good to make something: we earn in money and in happiness, moving our hands to make something "our". We also love to write tutorials and teach how to do something that we consider easy when others consider...wow.
But, where is the limit? When we stop and say "Ok, i'll buy it"?
We have to discuss about value.
The seller point of view
The real great problem appears when the price is too much smaller than the value buyers' give to the item. Lot of persons told me that i have to increase my prices of 1,2 dollars, because the buyers can think that my items aren't products of quality.
So, the buyer will not buy if the item price is upper than the value he gives to the item, or if the price is smaller. And every buyer have is perception of value.
This is the best way to get an headache.
The only solution i see is to ask. Ask to your mother, father, friend and fellow crafters if your prices are right, or if they will lead to and indiscriminate Do-It_Your-Damn-Self ^^
The buyer point of view
Buying is addictive. I started saying "I can make it!", then i finished saying "I buy it!". It's beautiful thinking that we are buying an handmade product from an artisan that loves what he/she is doing. But not everyone has this vision, like me on the start. The first difficulty is the buying online, all the terms and conditions, giving the number of the card, address, if the item will be shipped or not, and also the language! Then comes the "I can make it!" period, because we think the item is expensive not knowing how much work there is behind. There is also someone who prefers to buy similar items but mass produced, expending 1/10 of the handmade item's price, because he/she doesn't believe in the handmade revolution.
The "I buy it" period comes after a real need of the item we saw, and then, if the costumer care was good, buying becomes addictive.
So, all is around value. Like a buyer, i will love to see a work-in-progress story about the item i'm going to buy, because i can finally understand how worth it is.
But, where is the limit? When we stop and say "Ok, i'll buy it"?
We have to discuss about value.
The seller point of view
The real great problem appears when the price is too much smaller than the value buyers' give to the item. Lot of persons told me that i have to increase my prices of 1,2 dollars, because the buyers can think that my items aren't products of quality.
So, the buyer will not buy if the item price is upper than the value he gives to the item, or if the price is smaller. And every buyer have is perception of value.
This is the best way to get an headache.
The only solution i see is to ask. Ask to your mother, father, friend and fellow crafters if your prices are right, or if they will lead to and indiscriminate Do-It_Your-Damn-Self ^^
The buyer point of view
Buying is addictive. I started saying "I can make it!", then i finished saying "I buy it!". It's beautiful thinking that we are buying an handmade product from an artisan that loves what he/she is doing. But not everyone has this vision, like me on the start. The first difficulty is the buying online, all the terms and conditions, giving the number of the card, address, if the item will be shipped or not, and also the language! Then comes the "I can make it!" period, because we think the item is expensive not knowing how much work there is behind. There is also someone who prefers to buy similar items but mass produced, expending 1/10 of the handmade item's price, because he/she doesn't believe in the handmade revolution.
The "I buy it" period comes after a real need of the item we saw, and then, if the costumer care was good, buying becomes addictive.
So, all is around value. Like a buyer, i will love to see a work-in-progress story about the item i'm going to buy, because i can finally understand how worth it is.
Friday, 24 April 2009
A crafter's life...and the net
After discovering my passion and the possibility to show it to the world, i exaggerated. I started to craft responding to the general mood and the trends, just to keep the hands creating something. This was a great, great, great mistake. When i saw that my items were not clicked i thought that people don't love them, and i stopped to craft. Suddendly, all my passion declined, reaching a point that i had the need to craft without knowing what to do.
Now i'm out of the tunnel, luckly :)
About this experience what can i say? I see lots of shops that just craft to follow trends, that ask if they are doing good and why they don't sell. I hope they can soon realize what's wrong in their behaviour...i think that all wants to be appreciated, everyone wants someone that tells "You're good". What's all this lack of faith in ourselves?
Usually, behind a screen we appear different, you know what i mean: i chatted a lot when i was a young girl searching for my first kiss, and i realized that i was really different than i am in the real life. So, why we don't earn faith instead of being super insecure?
I think that we all little crafter need a list of the things we want to achieve in our crafter's life, something like "i want to be happy with my craft, not with my store". I think we will erase the stress also from our passion, instead of only using our passion to erase the stress from our life.
Now i'm out of the tunnel, luckly :)
About this experience what can i say? I see lots of shops that just craft to follow trends, that ask if they are doing good and why they don't sell. I hope they can soon realize what's wrong in their behaviour...i think that all wants to be appreciated, everyone wants someone that tells "You're good". What's all this lack of faith in ourselves?
Usually, behind a screen we appear different, you know what i mean: i chatted a lot when i was a young girl searching for my first kiss, and i realized that i was really different than i am in the real life. So, why we don't earn faith instead of being super insecure?
I think that we all little crafter need a list of the things we want to achieve in our crafter's life, something like "i want to be happy with my craft, not with my store". I think we will erase the stress also from our passion, instead of only using our passion to erase the stress from our life.
Friday, 17 April 2009
A crafter's life...the beginning
Do you remember how you started to craft "seriously"? Like photographing every piece you create, blogging about it...and starting to sell?
Well, i seriously started when i subscribed to an association of live action role playing games. I had to dress like a medieval-fantasy woman, but without spending too much money. The solution? I did myself all the things i needed: belts, bags, the costume (well, my mom sewed it ^^ ), brooches and pins, and also hairstrings! Suddendly i discovered a skill: making things, using different tecniques...and i liked all the creative process, wearing my DIY things, and constantly improving all. I discovered kumihimo in this episode, while i was yet able to crochet, and the upgrade to macrame was easy.
It was a difficult period of my life, full of stress that i tryed to pull out crafting for me. Then something changed, i met my actual boyfriend, and i started to craft pulling out my happiness. What a change!
So, that's the point: the industrial revolution carryed the possibility to not work with our hands, but in these days we are witnessing a return to the handmaking, searching the quality of the item hand made, and taking pledges to buy only handmade.
Why this turn? I'n not an expert of marketing, so i can only suppose...
All these stressed people that take classes of crochet and knitting, person really lucky to quit their day job to only sell their handmade on internet...This life just don't fit us. Someone just want to have a simple life, growing their child and using their creativity in a creative way (excuse the pun ^^ ). The bad side of the medal is that we have to live this life, taking the possibility to do want we really want only in the spare time. This is not good. Criminality, stress, bad mood, stomachache...all depends on the feeling that we are not doing what we love.
It's just my view, i'll love to read your vision of the situation :)
Well, i seriously started when i subscribed to an association of live action role playing games. I had to dress like a medieval-fantasy woman, but without spending too much money. The solution? I did myself all the things i needed: belts, bags, the costume (well, my mom sewed it ^^ ), brooches and pins, and also hairstrings! Suddendly i discovered a skill: making things, using different tecniques...and i liked all the creative process, wearing my DIY things, and constantly improving all. I discovered kumihimo in this episode, while i was yet able to crochet, and the upgrade to macrame was easy.
It was a difficult period of my life, full of stress that i tryed to pull out crafting for me. Then something changed, i met my actual boyfriend, and i started to craft pulling out my happiness. What a change!
So, that's the point: the industrial revolution carryed the possibility to not work with our hands, but in these days we are witnessing a return to the handmaking, searching the quality of the item hand made, and taking pledges to buy only handmade.
Why this turn? I'n not an expert of marketing, so i can only suppose...
All these stressed people that take classes of crochet and knitting, person really lucky to quit their day job to only sell their handmade on internet...This life just don't fit us. Someone just want to have a simple life, growing their child and using their creativity in a creative way (excuse the pun ^^ ). The bad side of the medal is that we have to live this life, taking the possibility to do want we really want only in the spare time. This is not good. Criminality, stress, bad mood, stomachache...all depends on the feeling that we are not doing what we love.
It's just my view, i'll love to read your vision of the situation :)
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