[Posted with accompaniment by loud chickadees exploring my deck.]
I’ve recently put in a lot of time writing a business plan, and sewing items to sell to benefit the Sew-op, which has rekindled my interest in having an Etsy shop. As a result, I find myself thinking a lot about my goals and desires. Overall, my goal is to make my living through craft. More specifically, well, that part is in question. Of course there is teaching, but there’s a limit to how much of that I can do, and it lies below the threshold of livable income. There are pdf patterns and potentially books, but can I get to the point of solvency fast enough with those alone? It seems doubtful. I’m considering my three main crafts.
Sewing is my endurance craft. I can and have stayed up all night doing it. I love to make do and customize. I don’t love cutting, but can usually get myself through it. Every electronic gadget that comes into my possession gets a bag. My items may end up slightly imprecise; I lack the gene that allows perfectly aligned corners in a patchwork quilt, or carefully adjusted sizes in a lining and outer fabric so there won’t be extra fabric to spread out. I love the idea of upcycling and remodeling clothes, although in practice I don’t have a lot of inspiration for projects, and design sometimes gets trying — don’t even ask how long it’s been since I started designing a sewn summer hat.
Crochet is the craft that plays to my design strengths. It doesn’t need the precision of sewing, and I find it easier to apply my geometric intuition to it. The difficulty of engineering crochet is just right to make the challenge fun and interesting, though I have several unmet goals and on one have decided sewing just makes more sense. I am a fairly fast crocheter, but I get tired of making the same thing repeatedly as is needed for design — often the design challenge feels completed well before the design is actually ready to share with others. Sometimes I have to bribe myself to buckle down and finish. Often it comes down to not wanting the time I’ve already spent on the item to go to waste.
Embroidery is the craft I lust after. I have a number of ideas for large-scale art embroidery pieces, though the details are not worked out. I enjoy embroidery, though I am slow and typically get tired of it well before a large scale piece is finished. If I hadn’t had a deadline I was determined to meet, my embroidered spaceman would probably never have seen the light of day. This also means any large-scale piece would have to be done for love more than for money. On the other hand, I’ve been jonesing for a small-scale embroidery project for a good two weeks now, but can’t seem to come up with something I really want to do.
There’s not one craft I want to do all the time — and wouldn’t it be easier if there were? To graft my lust for embroidery, adaption to crochet, and endurance for sewing into one fruitful tree! “Find your niche and focus on it” is one piece of business advice I have seen over and over again. As it is, though, my living will have to be cobbled together from multiple sources. I do feel that my subconscious is working on a solution, but meanwhile I’ll have to muddle on however seems best.