Crafty Thinking.

I have been a 'crafter' for 50 years or more....long before the word crafter was invented. Back then we were creative people who simply made things which other people preferred ( if they could ), to buy.

I have been a professional crafter since my early twenties. This meant that what I made was sold to the public in such quantity, that it paid the mortgage. Many of the companies which were founded when I was young are still going. They were founded long before many of the present proponents of the crafting revolution were born! Many fell by the wayside after a good run at it. Nowadays, I don't consider myself a professional, as I have retired and I just play at it. But I still consider myself ( if you will forgive the unashamed plug ), professional in the execution of what I do.

There has been such an explosion of 'crafting' lately. The television and magazines are full of it. Everyone, we are told, can do it. Hmmmm can they?
Everyone CAN MAKE SOMETHING. Not everyone can be an artisan. Certainly, not everyone should sell to the public.

I only sell at craft fairs at Christmas, nowadays. The rest of the year frankly, is not worth bothering with. Years ago I could sell what I made all year round. I tailored my production to the season, as a good craftsman should. Sadly, however, I have watched, over the last 30 years, the British craft industry, dwindle to a pale imitation of its former self.

So, not only has the word 'craft' it seems, changed its meaning but the world of British craft has changed beyond all recognition.

Back then, there were a great many small companies producing original, beautifully handmade goods with the sweat of their brow and blood of their thimbleless fingers ( or those of their outworkers.) The public demanded no less.
If the item was not well made, fit for the purpose and original - it did not survive their scrutiny. They did not buy it. The company would have gone bust. So the British craft industry thrived.

Then, the world began to open up - people started to travel more. They went to the Far East on their hols. They realised that they could get things made there much more cheaply. They brought things back with them ( as folk have done ever since the ark pitched up on Mt. Ararat! ). Companies which began to have things made abroad, turned up at fairs. The death knell sounded for those makers who spent their days hunched over a table, pouring their soul into their hand made items. The Trade shows I attended began to be filled more and more with foreign goods. It was hard to compete. It was impossible to compete. Gradually, public taste was changed, they became more fixed on price and less on quality and originality.
It was rather a chicken and egg situation. Do you offer the public what you think it should have, do you if you like, educate the public or do you follow trends and go with the flow regardless? It's a tough one if your inclination is to stick to your old fashioned values and remain a 'craftsman', an artisan.

Many of the goods coming in from abroad were tatty and badly made. They used inferior materials and were produced in less than ideal situations. Still, because they were encouraged by magazines, the T.V. and advertising, the public bought into this idea. The General P became much much less discriminating as a result. That lack of discrimination is still here with us today. Only much worse because, with the explosion in the U.K. of those producing hand made goods, we now have a whole strata of poorly made, unoriginal run of the mill British items. Sad.

I shall probably lose friends with the publication of this blog post. Especially if I air my views on Facebook, which I think is rife with this sort of thing. There are many super hand made items on Facebook - don't misunderstand me. But there are equally, a great many poorly made, badly thought out, trite ( If I see one more hessian heart tied up with string I'll scream!), overdone, unoriginal items out there. And not cheap either.

No apologies to http://www.etsy.com/listing/101801470/50-off-shabby-chic-stuffed-hessian

Nearly every fair I go to, there is someone, who has been 'crafting' for a mere few months, producing an idea that has been done to death, that wasn't their idea in the first place. The magazines make me smile. " Here is a craftsperson  who is making  THIS.... oh how lovely! They have been doing it a WHOLE YEAR..and now they are established. " Piffle. Nine times out of ten there is very little skill in what they do, it's not original as I say and, having made a study of how long these people trade...they are here today gone tomorrow. I could give you a list of advertisers in the back of these magazines who were plugged to within an inch of their life on the web but who, now are NOT FOUND items when you Google! The saddest thing is, these people are clogging up the works and diluting the pool.

So let's hear it for the truly CRAFTED item. One that has and will stand the test of time. That is not so simple and banal that it can be copied by anyone with a needle. One that has been thought up and is produced by someone with some SKILL and DEVOTION to what they do. These people are out there. Please Joe Public - patronise them and not those ideas that are pathetically brainless in their idea and execution.

I have watched the 'craft market' decline with foreign imported goods. I have watched its resurgence - its regeneration with the bring back 'knitting and crochet' revolution ( yawn ) - all very well but do think of something original and different please and make sure you are good at it before you foist it on the public- and I have watched the type of goods on offer slide into a mire of unoriginal thought and poor craftsmanship. I'm upset by it. I'm also irritated by it.

Let us make an analogy. Let's take the craft market ( already under threat because of the prevailing climate of jitteryness about the economy,) and liken it to a sponge cake. You can cut slices of that cake - it is after all only so big a cake, thickly or thinly. If you slice that cake thickly you are more likely to get a whole piece. If you try to slice it thinly, it will fall to pieces. See what I'm getting at?

We have a situation where there are too many 'crafters'...the cake is slicing too thinly and we are all the poorer for it.

When you go out to look for handmade goods, please keep in your head the fact that the word 'craft' in its dictionary definition means and I quote from the Oxford English.....
" Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity. An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry."
And with this in mind, look at your purchase with a clear idea of what you are buying. Don't be influenced by the herd. Think for yourself.