Reply #3: I suspect this one is a losing battle [View All]

[starroute]

The Arts and Crafts movement goes back into the 19th century, after all -- and even them it was something of a rearguard action.

The trouble is that crafts of that sort are not really creative activities. From Neolithic potters repeatinging the same design of stylized ibexes for a thousand years, to present-day crafts ladies with their hand-knitted traditional sweaters, it's all replication of stuff that's already been done. And if a Chinese peasant, or a machine, can replicate the model more cheaply, that will always prevail over the person who replicates it expensively.

The only answer to this is to do work that can't be easily replicated. Be a real artist and create originals instead of replicas. If you're a craftsperson, give up the malls and do custom design for people's homes. Or find a niche so cutting edge that the replicators haven't hit it yet.

I realize that none of these helps the person who is just looking to do something easy and enjoyable that will bring in a little income on the side. But situations like the one that prevailed in the 1970s and 1980s are the exception, not the norm, and it's unrealistic to hope for things to be any different.