It seems like it was only a short while ago that I last made an entry here and yet it has been months. I have been remiss and I apologize.
It has been a very busy time with an extremely successful show on Georgian Bay and a number of commissions to fill. I have been busy replenishing my inventory for the fall and Christmas seasons.
It is one of those times that I have often dreamed about: good cash flow, lots of work and new bodies of work to create. It has taken 40 years to achieve!
My fellow crafts people are all crying the blues - no one is buying - how can they survive - the studio tours are dying - no one comes to the studio anymore - and yet I enjoy success. Why is that? I think that I now know the answer.
Somewhere along the line somebody started calling crafts people artists. We were creators. We started calling ourselves artists and we started believing it. Therefore we had to create. We stopped being makers and became artists.
Artists want their customers to buy what they have created. Crafts people sell what customers want. It would be glorious to be an artist and only make the dreams I have in my head. However, I am a craftsman first and an artist second. 90% of what I make is what my customers want to buy. 10% is what I create - this is when I am an artist. 90% of the time I am working; 10% of the time I am flying. This is the formula for a successful crafts person.
I really feel for the artist who has lost their way as a crafts person.
It has been a very busy time with an extremely successful show on Georgian Bay and a number of commissions to fill. I have been busy replenishing my inventory for the fall and Christmas seasons.
It is one of those times that I have often dreamed about: good cash flow, lots of work and new bodies of work to create. It has taken 40 years to achieve!
My fellow crafts people are all crying the blues - no one is buying - how can they survive - the studio tours are dying - no one comes to the studio anymore - and yet I enjoy success. Why is that? I think that I now know the answer.
Somewhere along the line somebody started calling crafts people artists. We were creators. We started calling ourselves artists and we started believing it. Therefore we had to create. We stopped being makers and became artists.
Artists want their customers to buy what they have created. Crafts people sell what customers want. It would be glorious to be an artist and only make the dreams I have in my head. However, I am a craftsman first and an artist second. 90% of what I make is what my customers want to buy. 10% is what I create - this is when I am an artist. 90% of the time I am working; 10% of the time I am flying. This is the formula for a successful crafts person.
I really feel for the artist who has lost their way as a crafts person.
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