Industrialization and mega corporations have been the death of cottage industry. It used to be that every town had a local grocer, bookstore, cobbler, jeweler, etc. The advent of mass production meant that the majority of people were no longer willing to pay the price for handcrafted items. The few left who did, were not enough to keep the small businesses running. This has changed. The internet provides a way for cottage industries to thrive again. It is possible for someone to make a living handcrafting jewelry because the whole world is available as a marketplace.
Obviously my family has benefited directly from this trend. Schlock Mercenary succeeds because people all over the world are able to read it and buy books. We were able to print the books ourselves and send them directly to the people rather than being forced to go begging for an alliance with a corporate publisher. We may eventually hand some of the work over to a corporate partner to reduce the burden on our family, but we will enter into that partnership from a position of strength.
I like the thought that there is space in the world for craftsmen again. I like that someone with skill and the love of the work can succeed. I want to be able to support such endeavors. I want to buy from artisans and craftspersons.
I love the fact that this is possible, as well. I have a good friend who has been taking bookbinding and calligraphy classes, and she has been able to set up a website (I`m not sure if it`s up and running yet) where she creates handcrafted books for people. How cool is that!?
I think there always been space for craftsmen (and women, of course), but I think now there’s more attention being paid to them and that’s partly because they can cheaply spread the word of their endeavours all over the world via the web. For example, one of my hats is Roman Road Cycles . In “conventional” advertising, I have one small display ad. in a single specialist magazine, because that’s all I can afford. The presence on the web costs peanuts and gets me world-wide exposure.
I, too am grateful for this. This is the reason my business is surviving. I am not Walmart, and my customers like it that way.
My sister and her boyfriend have set up a custom laptop sleeve business (Electricbaby (some graphics NSFW)). They’re getting their manufacturing done in Bali, where they also support local environmental/recycling programs and local manufacturing businesses. Art work comes from artist friends of theirs. Pretty wild what a yoga teacher and a surfer can do when they meet in the Himalayas.
My friend and neighbor just opened a little “shop”…
http://littlebuttons.etsy.com
she’s making aprons and bags and pin cushions and selling some of her photography from her trip to Germany and Paris. It’s just beautiful.
I got to let her experiment on me and I got one of her first bags.
Sandra, if you like aprons, you might like the Dia de la Muerte apron… 🙂
If you don’t like aprons, you should take a peek anyway, the material is really COOL!
One of these summers I’m going to share a booth at a Farmer’s Market… I will crochet things, and I have a friend who makes soaps and the one I mentioned who sews and makes soaps…now I just have to crochet things a lot in preparation. : )
If I had energy, I would open a Yarn Store on THIS side of the freeway. 🙂 Ross and I thought of a Half Yarn Store / Half Comic Book-Book Store named, “Spin a Yarn” good, eh?