Nurturing your individuality in a high-tech world
Today’s world is getting more high tech all the time. Products are factory made. Goods that used to have individual character are devolving into commodities. Everything is getting slicker and slicker. What’s happening to individuality? Individuality has not gone away. The human drive for individuality is being fostered by the growth of interest in handmade crafts. More and more people are taking up the making of handcrafts as a way of expressing their artistic individuality. But these handcrafts can’t be just the same old things that your Aunt Myrtle made. No antimacassars here. New craft items are being dreamed up every day. For example, have you ever heard of a purse dangle ? No? It’s just a a handbag pendant. Adornment for your handbag. Isn’t that a fun concept?
But there’s not really a bottomless chasm between the world of high technology and the world of handmade crafts. As it turns out, it is the world of high technology that is allowing handmade crafts to flourish. The best and easiest way to sell handmade crafts is to sell them directly on the Internet. Sure, you can find stores that sell craft items, but you have to know where they are and have to travel there. And for the seller, the process from making the item to putting the item in the buyer’s shopping bag can be complicated. The crafter has to meet with the store owner—on the store owner’s schedule. The store owner surely will want to evaluate the item and either accept it for sale or reject it. Then the artist must accept the terms of the sale. A store owner has to pay overhead. That means that she will take a large portion of the artist’s profits. There can be additional complications in the contract, such as obligations for promotional activities.
Selling on the Internet is a simpler way to go. The buyer can just sit at home and browse the sites. And even finding the online shops is easy. Just do a search for the item that you are looking for, and the site where it is located will come up. One of the best known sites, eBay, allows anyone to sell just about anything to any buyer. Its reputation makes it a go-to place for people looking for handmade crafts. The crafter doesn’t have to make herself known to the world because the world knows eBay. Other online shops are more specifically targeted to the crafter. For example, Etsy is a site that is becoming more and more well known as a place to find just handmade crafts and vintage items. On Etsy, the artist has full control of a personal shop. She can develop an identity consisting of a profile, a photograph, and a logo. The selling process is also inexpensive. The cost is just twenty cents per item for three months, and Etsy’s commission is only 3.5 per cent. The artist can display a number of photographs of each item.
People are eager to find handmade objects because unique possessions allow them to express their individuality in a truly modern way.
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