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Message: 'A CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT?!! ...' with Replies

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• A CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT?!!
  
  Is it just me, or are there more and more business and entrepreneur type people using the craft scene to make a quick killing?
  
  Nowadays, with the onset of kits, imported 'hand made crafts' (albeit made overseas) and part time/retired amateurs, anyone can claim to be a crafts person.
  
  I have spent nearly 30 years making my own products from scratch and I see more and more crafty (in the negative sense) business people who might have bought their own moulds or beads or component parts diluting the credibility of us genuine makers.
  
  Does anyone feel the same, that these charlatans should be strung up by their tender parts and left with a sign around their ankles saying I was responsible for helping to bring down a great and once genuine market?
  
  I don't think the organisers of shows who, lets face it are only interested in lining their own pockets, have done us any favours by their more often than not non-existant vetting policies.
  
  So, what can we do to compete with these savvy and not unintelligent interlopers?
  Any ideas, any views any conclusions?
  
  Anon.

  24 Mar '09 - 9.15am

• Well, I wish I had a pound for every time I'd heard these views expressed. It's usual at a very quiet show when the exhibitors stand working out how much the organiser must be making out of them.

  These comments start when no one is selling. I have always been of the opinion that if a craftsperson is making money then it doesn’t matter who he or she is next to. They could be selling plastic toys if you're doing well so what.

  Organisers don’t go out of their way not to get visitors into shows, as they don’t make money either.

  I too, have been doing shows for 30 years and I have seen fads come and go. Some shows I have done have been terrible, others brilliant. 

  You have to choose which shows you do. Don’t go to the rubbish ones just because it’s a good price or it’s near.

  Be selective.

  Nona

  25 Mar '09 - 10.50am

• I have just joined this site and I couldn't believe the comments you made about so called 'amateurs' making and selling jewellery. Each to their own, I say, everyone has the right to make and sell what they wish, it's the customer's choice what they buy and are prepared to pay for it. You are obviously a purist when it comes to craftsmanship and I have no doubt what you make is of the finest quality, but you have no right to put down other peoples' work.
  K8

  29 Aug '09 - 3.08pm