Reply #23: Arts & Crafts vs The Cult of the Blue Ducky [View All]

[NashVegas]

As other posters have said, there IS a booming market for quality crafted domestic goods. But it happens that market is on the high end, where people want *original* designs to make these items a showplace in their homes.

IIRC, the crafts market that was big in the 80s, and all over the stores in the 90s and present, is the kitsch stuff, what I call "The Cult of the Blue Ducky" — all that pseudo "country" stuff in shades of blue, pink, rust, etc, of geese walking about and little dutchmaids, what have you.. That was never part of anyone's real culture. If there was ever an historical basis for those designs, I've not been able to find it. It was really not art so much as a marketing strategy from/for/by the people who sold the raw materials and design books. A product built on strategy can be reproduced by anyone with the right equipment.

The short of it is, if you want to do it you can, but understand you will have to reach for the high-end consumer and price the average Joe out of your market. Juried crafts fairs are a good place to start.