Me, part 2: crafty business?
January 22, 2020 7:05 AM   Subscribe

I need to start earning some money again after leaving work for a few years to care for my young children. I no longer live in the large city where most of my traditional job opportunities and connections are and I want to maintain a flexible schedule. I love making things. Is it naive to think I could start a a craft business?

I am skilled at crochet and lately have been making wall hangings and small toys (amigurumi). From what I see on Etsy I don't think I can charge enough to make these worth selling. I'm not really at the level of designing patterns to sell. My partner has a laser cutter and some digital design skills; I've been playing around trying to come up with products using the laser but I feel I am going in circles. I'm willing to invest a bit in other equipment and materials if I come up with something promising.

Other than searching Etsy (which I have found somewhat demoralizing), where should I look to get a feel for what is in demand? I truly love the process of creating but I am not really a "stuff" person myself so I feel out of touch with what other people want to buy and are willing to spend. So far my thoughts lean toward home decor/wall hanging type things.

Also relevant: I live in a small, fairly artsy place with galleries, boutiques and a weekly (fair weather) flea market that gets a lot of big-city visitors on the weekend.
posted by messica to Work & Money (16 answers total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Learn to knit well; there is a market for custom knitting. The actual hourly compensation is low, but you can learn to do it while watching tv, hanging out with kids, etc. Sewing well enough to do hems, other simple alterations, and minor repairs is something you can pick up. ask on Craigslist/free or freecycle.net for a machine; there are many nice old machines in attics that are worth having. Make earrings; people buy so many earrings; other jewelry, too, but earrings take up only a small space, fun to make. I know someone who made custom string art, usually the outline of a state, and made some money. Visit the flea market, look at what is really selling.

A friend has a programmable embroidery machine for sale; I've thought of setting up and doing on-the-spot custom embroidery. And I've considered bringing a sewing machine altering t-shirts at events, because they are usually men's sizes, and too long for a lot of women.
posted by theora55 at 7:28 AM on January 22, 2020 [5 favorites]


I would argue that knitting has the same issues as crochet as far as making to sell -- it is simply too labor-intensive (and good materials too expensive) to be a reasonable craft to sell. Unless you have access to a knitting machine or cranked sock machine.

If there is a well-known and established show like Renegade Craft Fair that sets up near to you, that is where I would look for examples. Shows that people have to qualify to get into, not just pay the money for the booth. Etsy is indeed super demoralizing. There is a lot of mass-produced crap there that crowds out anything actually handmade, and the prices for that are often a race for the bottom.

One thing that seems to get a lot of orders among people I follow on Instagram is Cricut-machine cut vinyl stickers or lettering, and especially custom tumblers or Yeti cups or the like, or monogram bumper/glass stickers. I'm not sure if your laser cutter could do similarly.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:30 AM on January 22, 2020 [5 favorites]


Knitting has definite labor-cost problems. I'm currently having to do a spate of simple (and small, of course) baby booties for friends. (When I say simple, I mean that they take a little more aggressive shaping than, say, a scarf, but the stitch patterns are just garter and stockinette.) I'm a reasonably fast knitter. I'd guess I'm averaging 6-8 hours to do a pair, although since I don't do them in long concentrated stretches this might be a bit of an overestimate. Call it 5 to be conservative. Well, the pretty Koigu yarn costs about $15. Minimum wage therefore says these should cost $90. Guess who's going to pay $90 for tiny, cute, but plain baby booties? Nooooobody. I usually knit while watching TV or some other semi-leisure activity, so cut it to $50. Who's going to pay that without the cajoling of a large marketing budget? Again, probably not happening (and remember, at this point you're at only $35 profit, because of the materials [you'll need beautiful yarn to even dream of selling at this level], and occasionally you will need to replace a knitting needle or whatever). You see where this is going.
posted by praemunire at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2020 [5 favorites]


Shop the galleries and boutiques to see what they do carry and the pricing. Think about similar things you can make that would be different enough. Popular items I see have local sayings like "youbetcha" in Minnesota - and including town or neighborhood names is also really trendy right now.

The flea market might be a nice place to try since you can make a just a few of each item and see what sells. Vendors tend to be pretty friendly with each other. If you have any painting or refinishing skills, fixing up small furniture would be a good thing to try at a flea market.
posted by soelo at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]


To have any hope of actually making money this way, I think you have to look for things that you can make once and sell many times - so, patterns yes, actual crocheted items no; possibly something like stickers or pins that you could design and print in bulk and sell. Otherwise you are very unlikely to be able to get enough money to make it worthwhile.

Signed, someone who is constantly explaining that no, I don't need to make a business selling quilts even though I have made a lovely one as a gift for a family member

If you look, the people who seem to make money in craft spaces are usually either doing patterns, designing fabric, or are taking an "influencer" path.
posted by oblique red at 10:06 AM on January 22, 2020 [10 favorites]


Best answer: Related but different approach: Could you bill yourself as a person who will teach armigurumi, wall hangings, crotchet, etc., to specific groups? I used to work for a library and while crafts were not as popular as some things (music and performance for small ones, science/STEM/STEAM-oriented projects for 'tweens and teens, comics/manga workshops), there were always some decent craft-oriented presenters that would get snapped up again and again.

For a place to start, you could check with your local library and after school programs. Massachusetts has a directory of performers (includes crafts), so perhaps your state or region has one, too? The other thing to look for are Performer's Showcases, where you present a mini-presentation to a room full of librarians or teachers or similar folks who are looking for people to hire for programs. Again, your local librarians and teachers are the people to ask about such things. Also, if you go this route, find a way to tie it into summer reading. Most states participate in the Collaborative Summer Library Program and follow the theme; performers who have a ready-to-go program that fits that will get better showing than ones who don't.
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:09 AM on January 22, 2020 [10 favorites]


Any yarn crafts are a nope IMO. Just not profitable, too labour intensive and nice yarns are expensive!

I have a friend who makes little clay houses. Just a cube with a sloped roof and then she paints them. They're tiny and cute, her costs are really low. She mostly sells at craft fairs but she can't keep up with the orders and she's even branched out into commissions of more sculpted and detailed pieces.

Soap making could be a possibility. there's a trend of moving away from plastics so bar soap is making a comeback. (along with bar shampoo and conditioner). The curing process takes time so there's a bit of investment up-front required but potentially more profitable than yarn crafts and quite accessible as a home business.

You can also make jewellery with the laser cutter. Sugar and Vice is quite popular in the circles I move in.
posted by missmagenta at 10:21 AM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]


Best answer: - Improve your design skills, maybe by taking classes. I think you design a pattern for ___, make a couple of gorgeous samples, throw great pictures of your samples on Instagram, and mainly sell the pattern as a digital download on Etsy/Ravelry/wherever. (Amigurumi has patterns-for-sale sites, too.) (With commissions for a customized order of a popular pattern, if you have time/inclination for that sort of labor- and communication-intensive back-and-forth.) Occasionally rent a table at the market and sell the samples, if they're not moving online.

-- Create a whole fictional universe for a group of amigurumi friends, with interconnected stories, forming collectible sets. Eventually license the names/patterns/etc. for your characters.

--- Use laser cutter for LED candle wall sconces, hanging jewelry organizers, artsy clothes/coats/handbag hanging racks. (More ideas; the hanging room divider at #41 is neat; also see the jewelry entries.) Having local places (eateries, boutiques) use the organizers and racks (with a placard bearing your info) to display goods/corral customers' coats would offer visibility for your work.

It's difficult to make $ with labor-intensive, one-off projects, unless you already have a following. And shipping costs are on the rise. I think patterns and small, light objects (like the laser-cut earrings in the link) sold online, with larger works for sale in your area, is a workable balance.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:51 AM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I think laser-cut earrings are the way to go. If it were me I would design some that are classy-looking but subtly have nerdy references, e.g. the Hogwarts house mascots or whatever. People love that stuff.
posted by exceptinsects at 11:32 AM on January 22, 2020 [4 favorites]


^agreed: whatever you decide upon as a craft business, if you can thematically ride the coattails of a franchise without violating copyright outright you will make money
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:38 AM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]


I think laser-cutting is the way to go on this, if you're hoping to sell online. You can develop patterns and scale up to create many copies of the same basic thing, front-loading the effort into the design pattern creation, which is something you'll never be able to do with a knit or crocheted craft (scaling up is impossible, as many above have outlined).

Laser-cut items look awesome and can be very lightweight, and feel both professional and "out of reach" as DIY items to other people (who don't own cutting machines).

If you're looking for "themes," I second the riding-the-coattails-of-a-franchise idea, or doubling down on nerd/geekery franchises in general (nerds love to buy our own swag!).

City skylines and/or maps are another thing that works well with laser cutting and allows you to create a variety of visually-similar merchandise which folks feel is "customizable" (e.g., getting their own state) but doesn't require you to develop, like, 50 brand-new designs from scratch.

Lastly, getting into the wedding craft market could also be a good way to go. Yes, there's a TON of wedding stuff on Etsy, but folks will really pay out the nose for it. (Look for laser cut cake toppers, place cards, signs ... blank wedding invites, etc). Again, the beauty here is that you can develop a set of templates and just reuse them as needed. I don't think it'll be particularly rewarding in a creative sense, but it's easy to see what is popular and what's on-trend, and with weddings, there's a built-in and always-renewing market of folks who are ready to spend $ to make their "one day" look the way they pictured.
posted by alleycat01 at 1:20 PM on January 22, 2020 [6 favorites]


(I guess your options may be limited depending on the type/level of cutting machine you own, of course--e.g. whether it can do light wood and acrylic as well as cardstock. But even if it's only cardstock-capable, there's a market/wedding good for every kind of material ...)
posted by alleycat01 at 1:22 PM on January 22, 2020


Coming back to add another potential market to explore for laser-cut goods; toy collectors.

There is a pretty thriving market of people who make and sell things that are targeted to collectors, such as improved stands for specific sizes of action figure or shelf risers that are sized to fit into a common collector's furniture like the IKEA Kallax or the... I forgot the name, the glass one that costs about $60. Or also things like diorama pieces or props that are 1/6 or 1/12 scale, for the people who do figure photography. A lot of these items are 3D printed or laser cut.

Also as mentioned above, you might have a better chance doing nerd merch than general craft stuff; a lot of people go to SF conventions ready to shop. I've seen con vendors who make themed jewelry, stuffed versions of characters, clever shirt or bag designs, Christmas ornaments, any number of things. But that does require some amount of keeping up with whatever fandom you're going for so you know what to make.
posted by oblique red at 1:49 PM on January 22, 2020 [2 favorites]


alleycat101 makes a great point about opportunities provided by the wedding sector. (On Etsy: Popular items for wedding laser cut (35,237 Results)). Similarly, personalized/customized items for nurseries and little kids' rooms is a reliable crafts market. But the repeat business of fandom enthusiasts is a remarkable thing.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:36 PM on January 22, 2020


Response by poster: Thank you all. You have given me a wealth of excellent and practical suggestions that have really helped me focus my thoughts. I am honestly a bit blown away by how helpful each of your responses is. I'm going to focus my efforts on the laser and some of the product directions you all suggested (starting with earrings!). Carrioncomfort's teaching idea is also great and I think it could be well-received in my area. I've thought before about amigurumi workshops for tweens/teens and the library info (performer showcases! who knew) is super helpful. So glad I asked this question.
posted by messica at 5:39 PM on January 22, 2020 [7 favorites]


cortex makes these really cool kits with his laser cutter.
posted by bendy at 9:01 PM on January 26, 2020 [1 favorite]


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