to think that locally made "craft" shops are dire?

[HotGrapefruit]

I really REALLY try to support local businesses, but we have a few of these local 'craft' shops that have popped up, with home-made nonsense from local people, and they are without exception all terrible.

Honestly, it's the sort of thing that if my children brought it home from school I would put in the bin in a very short period of time.

I feel awful for thinking it, because I try to be very positive about these things, but everything is terrible. And all mixed in with weird 3D printed dragons that are just EVERYWHERE these days.

What do people buy from these shops? Or are they all terrible, without exception?

Part of our company premises is a hall, think large village hall/sports hall. Couple of times a year we do a craft fayre. It's for charity, we charge a tenner a table and are always full. Some of the people who can actually make something worth purchasing do extremely well. There's a woman who makes bows for little girls hair, in complementary colours of the local school uniforms, she only charges a fiver a set and she makes hundreds every time she comes. We get somewhere around 750-1000 footfall every time.

Last time we had this woman who cast all manner of crap in resin. Garish orange and purple cannabis leaf ashtrays. £30. I think she sold one keyring for £7. She came and told me it was our fault she made no money for not advertising enough. She was selling utter shit.

It is incredibly varied. I go to places like Lewes and Petworth in Sussex, where the artisans and craftspeople seem incredibly talented. There are shops like "Made in" Hastings and I will go out of my way to shop there.

On the flipside, our local markets and tabletop sales are horrendous, and I genuinely feel let the whole concept down. There is a "Christmas craft" fair that comes around and the stuff is absolutely shite. Its looks like its mostly made in the Far East, imported and then passed off as "craft".

I agree with you, its baffling why people think someone would pay for this stuff. There is even a place for "kitsch" stuff but I agree, some of it is crap.

It always makes me sad to see it really, because there are genuinely talented people out there but they get lost in the midst of the acrylic pastel knitted teddies wearing a T shirt saying "little champ" or similar.

that mushroom is brilliant. 😂

Crafts are really hard as a market. I rarely sell anything I make (I will, rarely, take commission for a friend) but textiles in particular are extremely difficult to make a profit on. People do barely want to pay for the materials cost much less labour, but everyone tells crafters to sell what they make. If you run the numbers where you pay yourself minimum wage for the labour you see how uneconomical it is.

This means that you have a small segment of really brilliant work which is priced accordingly, and a flood of tat. People are always looking for quick things to do and sell. Polymer clay seems to be a big one lately where I am.

Tools like the Cricut and 3D printers have really accelerated this as it's even easier to turn out some of this. 1001 "Live Laugh Love" wall decals!

There’s a shop near us selling this sort of tat it’s a running joke it’s like what kids bring home I wonder who buys it 🤣

there’s also an artisan “market” in a nearby shopping centre which is absolutely hideous too - very overpriced and naff

who buys it all I wonder?

Okay, before I try to book in anymore markets this year please let me know the general consensus on whether or not my gonks are tat 🙈 I of course love them and cannot trust my family to be honest! I did 2 very small markets last year (some photos included) and they did ok but I had a lot left so. Not entirely sure. Panicking as I've make your own kits this year! Obviously this is a hobby. Price this year from £3.50-£7.50 😬 I was going to book another one as I've got 2 sorted but I'll wait to hear the verdict!

Yes @notagrownup the gongs are tat. Kits possibly a little less tattish but surely even £7 doesn't cover the cost of the kit contents, instruction printing and the packaging?

Sorry, the blue and pink one is actually cute but I would also class those as tat.

@TheDevilWears are you in the west of Ireland? I think I know the pottery shop 😁

i am 😂 Achill ☘️

Disclaimer, I don't like gonks. So not your audience already.

However, I don't mind the first pic, the traditional looking chap. I strongly dislike the lurid plaited ones. I dislike the pastel one.

We have a couple of knitted looking decs that DC were given as we went round a craft fayre when they were little. They are known as "bug eye Santa" and "screaming angel" and we do chuckle at them as we put them on the kids tree each year. Alas, the stall holder wasn't going for comedy value.

@TheDevilWears knew it😂. Have they still got the sharks .. and the 'monster'.

The sharks visit every year 😊 we haven’t seen the monster in a good while…we should have the púca back this week though ☘️

Gonks are everywhere and done to death.
I recognise the little hats. Did you make them with a loo roll inner? Sorry, but another vote for tat here.
I had a friend who saw the hats and tutorial on Pinterest, and was convinced they would sell at craft fairs. She must have made over 100 of the things, and she only sold a handful when she dropped the price to 10p.

I think a kit would be ok, but one that makes a few Gonks, so there are are few options for colours that people can mix and match, and it would be a nice little craft for people to do together.

I own a shop like this, however, my background before running my own handmade business for 15 years, was retail, sales and merchandising. I know how to have a beautiful shop, and I know that most of these craft shops are very much "shove your stuff on a shelf and hope for the best" types. The owners aren't bothered, they are paid by crafters renting shelf space. I opened a shop to sell things, including my own products. I was determined not to have a shop that looked like a jumble sale and I know I have achieved that. I only stock high quality products that I think will sell. No tat, no trademark/copyright infringements, and everything must be safe and well made.

Unfortunately when you are very strict about your criteria and shop layout, it is very difficult to attract sellers, so I do a mixture of wholesaling and rent-a-shelf in order to have the most control about what is for sale. I do still work with a lot of small, design-led businesses though, who are at the stage where they can wholesale.

Hiya, yes I can agree that gonks are everywhere but usually they're factory made ones and I have purchased handmade ones on the past, they are most definitely better and larger than mine as I only make tree decorations but thought that there was a gap for handmade ones. I've sourced a very wide variety of wool's and only make 1 of each. Some have a cardboard inner for the hat, I also needle felt hats and some are significantly smaller as I chop up the insides of of thin cardboard tubes (for like baking paper) with a saw. I also make a lot of the embellishments from clay and paint them with mica 🤣

Kits are going to be £10 which barely covers the cost of making them 😅 and they only make 1, I had wanted to make a diddi gonk multi pack craft kit but it would take more money that from these responses I highly doubt I'd recoup 🤣🙈

Other handmade ones I've seen out about do a lot of the same hats, usually in the same colour and with wool beards as well rather than roving felt. I do think some of the ones I made last year weren't great, I didn't get them all out and actively threw some of the earlier ones away that I wasn't happy with. I've now asked AI what it thinks of the gonks and it was nicer 🤣🤣 but as AI isn't the one buying them I doubt I'll bother booking in the 3rd market! As it's been a 100% tat vote from us humans! 🤣 Glad I asked though, I probably won't both next year as it's something I was actively worried about people thinking. Wish I could enjoy making something useful 🙃

I think the gonks are cute but I would never buy one.

I wouldn’t now what to do with it once it was purchased.

I'm very crafty, and a lot of what I see isn't junk per-se, but it's definitely 'crafty' not 'artisan'

Like the lady with all the poly crochet baby blankets. Yes, it takes a lot of time, but it's not high skill, they're not very pretty, and the materials are horrible.

Just because something's hand made, doesn't mean that it needs to be a bit rubbish. When I knit a jumper, it's knitted well, the ends are woven in, it fits, the seams are done neatly not just hacked together, and it'll be done out of pricy wool (possibly hand spun by me) because there's no point pouring a month's work into something and using cheap synthetic. The baby blanket in cream merino that I gave a friend was close to 200 hours of work. No-one would pay what I would have to charge, even at minimum wage, for that.

So the stuff on these stalls has to be 'crafty' yet expensive because it'll take you 30 minutes minimum to crochet even a small animal keyring - so that's 6quid before equipment, travel, paying for the stand etc.

I completely agree, I grew up in a "crafty" household. My mum knits and the latest jumper she made for me costs about £900 in materials and labour alone. My aunt does embroidery and the labour is even more expensive. Neither of them sells their stuff because it is not financially viable. Those who are able to find the right target market for their product to cover costs plus make a profit are not selling at Christmas markets. They are selling at high end shops and galleries. But there seems to be some mismatch of expectations.

One thing I really do like is the soap made by a friend of a dd. It gives a most wonderfully creamy lather. She’s been making it for a few years now, and I think is reasonably (deservedly) successful.

And the mounds of fused glass things for your shelves. Just why?
I like some of the jewellery and the occasional artist but it’s a big fat no to crocheting horrible colours, shell pictures, anything in fused glass, badly done air dry ceramics and fabric handmade bags

It’s not quite local to me, it’s in the next county and in a very well known tourist spot but the locally produced craft in the shop is absolutely gorgeous.
Such talent.
It’s not cheap but people have to earn a living.
I’m in Ireland.
The craft shop is in Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow upstairs, if you’re ever in the area.
I am not affiliated to the shop in any way.