One Woman's Trash (or How the Craft Industry Can Survive the Economic Crisis)

(Excerpt from a 1938 French magazine on clever ways of recrafting last year's fashions)

One Woman’s Trash (or How the Craft Industry Can Survive the Economic Crisis)

Good Goddess there are days when my plate is stacked so high I want to run away and join the circus. It’s hard to pick something off when you’re afraid the entire pile will collapse and you’ll end up feeling like Fibber McGee after opening a closet.

Now there’s a Googleable reference for you!

I’m taking on everything that comes my way right now because the state of the economy is slaying magazines and businesses left and right. It’s ugly out there people. The craft industry is taking a big hit and we’re all trying to figure out how to stay relevant. That and we’re all trying to stay employed. I think there’s a bit of a disconnect though; this should be our time to shine! We’re just going to have to do it differently; it’s going to be less about mass consumption and more about back to basics.

It’s a good time for crafting if we can show folks how to repurpose, renew, ‘upcycle’, re-use and to utilize their stash in new and innovative ways. We have to show them how to integrate items they can buy affordably with things they already have on hand. I’ve been making treasure from trash for the past week and I have to say it’s been challenging in the best possible way. I’ve been a re-purposer since I first discovered thrift stores way back when. Things we usually toss in the recycling bin or the trash can can make for interesting new elements in designs. I love the costume jewelry designs from the 30s and 40s because designers were forced to work in new mediums and explore new avenues of creativity. That’s exciting stuff for an artist, it stretches you creatively. They used plastics, resins, straw, base metal, paper…there really were no limits. It’s easy to fall back on the make the same pretty thing using fine materials. One must to try to make gold and silver and diamonds and pearls look bad, but try making a necklace from vintage paper...or old toys...or images cut from a magazine...or chipboard and scrapbook paper and making it beautiful and wearable. Try making a collar smart with a few colorful tassels or button accents. Now you’re talking.

If you're selling finished goods, can you scale back some? Can you use cheaper materials but maintain your quality? People are simply not going to buy things that aren't either practical or affordable. So make beautiful useful things folks can afford to buy. Lower your expectations and your prices a skootch. It means sucking it up a little, but the alternative really sucks. Those who wish to stay afloat during stormy seas have to learn new strokes.

We simply have to gear up for the storm and do our best to turn those storm clouds into showers of opportunity. We do that by crafting smarter. We do that by rethinking product lines and product focus. We do that by showing folks how entertaining and how affordable it can be to ‘upcycle’ and ‘recraft’. We do that by getting folks who have been too busy to see the value in DIY to embrace it. How much cooler is the necklace you made yourself or the scarf you knit with yarn you dyed or the card you made from recycled materials than the mass produced assembly line cookie cutter thing you bought at the mall?

Rising costs in China are also going to mean far less access to cheap crap. To which I say...HUZZAH! I’m not a fan of the plethora of cheap crap because it’s mostly attained at the expense of someone else’s well being…like the silicosis epidemic among the folks in China who drill gemstone beads. I also think it’s about time we slowed down and regained our appreciation for the hand made. My grandmother was a master seamstress who always made her own clothes until she was stricken with dementia; the women from her era could do just about anything. The Grandma our industry loves to diss kicked some serious arse with a bobbin and a skein of yarn! My mother and father were heavily into recrafting back when I was a wee young thing. This isn’t a new idea, it’s just a time that’s ripe for it to reemerge.

It’s time for the craft industry to step in and remind folks of the power and the beauty of the handmade. It’s time for us to remind people just how fun it is to DIY! Plus we have to show them it’s an affordable alternative to ready made. So I’m working my pretty little fingers to the bone coming up with new ways to crack the nut each and every day. It’s scary out there, but I’m fighting fear with ingenuity, chutzpah, unmitigated gall and a whole lot of moxie!

How about you?

xoxo
Madge