It's happened again. I've watched a group of artisans lament the fact that "people don't appreciate quality anymore". Their customers can't tell the different between high-quality (American) goods and cheap imported goods. People only want a bargain, and they just don't recognize craftsmanship anymore.
Curious, I took a peek at the posters' websites, to see the high-quality handmade American craft they were producing.
And found the same ol' same ol' assembled stuff you can find at any little craft fair in the country. There was nothing original, handmade or anything even vaguely interesting in the work. I could tell you every single company from which they've ordered their components to create (I use the term loosely) their products.
You will not easily expand your market outside your local area if your work is standard fare. You can not compete indefinitely in today's marketplace with simply a cheaper variation of someone else's work. You cannot expand your market if your work is not a reflection of your personal vision, and all the design, expertise and boldness that entails. You cannot assemble mass-market components, slap a high sticker price on it (because you saw something like it in the Sundance catalog) and call it "fine craft".
To get big, somewhere along the line your color sense, your design sense, your playful or intriguing use of standard components, your unusual manipulation of found materials, or your own HANDMADE components, have to come into play.
Otherwise, you are just one of thousands of "crafters" who makes perfectly nice but not very special jewelry which will sell "just fine" at a few fairs and local stores.
If that's where your heart lies--if this approach is good enough for you--that's fine. There's a market for everything. Just don't expect the world to beat a path to your door.
I appreciate we all have to start somewhere. I'll admit, I was guilty of the same kind work when I first started out.
But on advice from John Mathieu, my friend in the jewelry manufacturing biz, and after looking around the marketplace, I realized I would hit my ceiling pretty quickly if I didn't figure out how to distinguish my work from tens of thousands of other people's work that looked just like it.
I tried a variety of things until I found the combination that clicked for me: Compelling artwork with a story, and a line of jewelry that complemented that. Handmade components. Good color combinations. Unusual sources for the ready-made components. And custom-made jewelry tags.
How can YOU get there?
Push yourself. Take a class in color theory. Take a workshop that helps you go beyond beginner techniques. Jump off the bandwagon and step outside the box instead. Use other people's work not to copy, but to inspire you to go beyond where you are now.
Find YOUR voice. Create YOUR signature work.
Or do what you've been doing if that makes you happy. Just don't blame your customers for lacking imagination, if you're guilty of the same.
