Are you sure about that?
Frick, Aargau, Switzerland has been selling a crochet machine for decades. I recall a company in Loveland, CO in the late 90’s that made crocheted gloves using their machines.
It’s more likely a knit machine with a crochet-like stitch. And many knitters–manual and otherwise–will join or finish a piece with crochet.
But the link is wonky and I’m watching The Office reruns while I finish up some things before I do my Friday night “crochet & Kindred Spirits” so I don’t wanna read for 49 minutes, thank you. 
For years we have visited the same open studio weekends in several states.
Many of the artists we visit have attractive studios, in converted mills. They show no signs of starvation but signs of a working and successful spouse. Of course, there are others who have wealthy patrons.
I do not know if you would consider that a connection between the business side and the creative side.
An artisan friend of mine used to have one of these, a lovely small creative space that became Open Studios on the weekends, in an old mill conversion in MA. These spaces are great.
I used to do a few trunk shows in connection with my local arts council. They’d have maybe 3 of us at the opening of new art exhibits. The folks that came to their events were always interested in handmade, and a few would be dressed in full artist clothing - every stitch they wore was a handmade unique lovely piece.
I always remember one woman looking at my jewelry and saying I should charge more - that these customers wouldn’t wear a $40 pair of earrings. They would pay $400.
Once again you impress us with what an amazing company you have - and what a boss! This is so wonderful, as the Mom of a 17 year old, I thank you for giving this student her kickstart!
I would say my work is 98% business and 2% creative at this point. And when we travel, I’m not really shooting what I love anymore, it’s what I think will sell. Which is fine & necessary to keep things going.
True for me too. My true creative days and major artistic accomplishment were before I started to sell my creations when I was creat just for the joy of it. Once you have to think what will sell and the time involved, well … I don’t have the time to do the artwork I love, just try to keep up with what I can make to sell.
Absolutely. I have a customer from “in the beginning” when I was doing shows who has been critical of me on social media the last few years. When I share a new design she will say something like “I miss your art…” So I will make a truly one-of-a-kind piece to scratch my creative itch and satisfy certain customers. But it sits and sits unpurchased (have to price it higher of course). Meanwhile, in the time to make that one piece, I could have made AND sold 20 of the simpler repeatables. This is a business and how I feed my family and that fact has to inform my decisions. And for all its flaws and frustrations, Amazon is still the best venue for me. I hope I don’t ever have to do in-person shows again.
- I know some people love the in-person but I do not. I was a newborn & family portrait photographer for years and as an introvert it broke me down. I’d have 3 hour sessions in the morning then have to go home and sleep for an hour - totally exhausting. My clients never knew, they thought I was awesome haha. But my kids didn’t get the best of me, so I happily gave it up.
I look for them, Eagle Scouts, Students involved in Sports, young adults (families) in need, and troubled youth.
For this artist, sad but true, she came out her Senior year in the COVID generation. She lost so much, due to that horrid situation, and how it was handled. She was one out of ten students that ended up in a job related to the arts. I am proud of her however, her commute is nearly an hour.
My primary goal is to increase profits enough to hire her so she can live, work and play in our town.
Thank you for your compliment, it is humbling to say the least.
Artists have often had to make the trade-off between art and eating.
Among the many historical examples are groups of artists like the Paris Salon. Who chose to eat well and frequently.
IMO there is no shame in choosing to be well fed. But I am not an artist.
I’ll admit I was excited when Handmade first started…but that bubble has been burst as I figure out everything on Amazon (and elsewhere).
What had the potential to make Amazon Handmade great – was that it had a starting date that everyone could identify with and there was HOPE to keep commercial sellers out.
That went away after the first or second year. Too many folks slipped in.
While I was grateful for other sellers to get that measlly 40 fee waived…to them it meant the world. I was already doing fine on the marketside so I was stuck paying that. I felt like it was fair that Amazon said if you sell over 40 items, you’re enrolled…to pay…and then it kept getting waived.
There were many threads on the old forum listing the pro and cons… and after getting a competitor who played the “penny game” – I can see the advantages of being in handmade even if your’ NOT handmade (cheating) because of the exclusivity of having total control over the listing.
Once I figured out branding and production/handling time on the market side…I see the two almost even. Handmade made has never ever been advertised properly by Amazon – always featuring “non-handmade” items when they do AND not giving some kind of seach bump to one of a kind items.
The absolute best feature was the totally private forum on Amazon and then they took that away.
They will not shut it down. They will pretend it does not exist and leave those sellers who remain neglected.
The status quo right now is their strategy for the category. It exists, it says “handmade” but there’s no real requirements or vetting outside of just saying your stuff is handmade.
If past history is a guide, the next step might be no approvals for new sellers in the program.
I am not predicting when, but that is usually when it becomes evident that there is no category manager or team.
If Amazon wanted to end the category - I think they would start charging the $40 monthly fee. That is $500 in revenue a year.
Couch it as, as a companywide adjustment or some such thing
That way, those that do little business, will drop out. Those that do a middling business will ponder, when and if, but stay another year or so.
and those that do a lot of business, will just pay it.
win, win, win
Amazon does not end categories.
It lets them wither on the vine. If a category has no category manager, there is no one to even make that decision to charge the fee. BUT charging the fee would be more of a recognition of an Amazon mistake than they might be willing to make, ever.
I have no idea how Amazon feels about handmade, today. I am not suggesting they are doing anything, though it appears that some others are not optimistic.
I spent some time using the Amazon Search to see if there was a way to find what is listed in the Fine Arts Department - part of Fine Arts and Collectibles categories.
I cannot list what is in the category. Selecting the Department from the dropdown in the search yields no results. You cannot limit results to the category from the list of Departments on the left of the search results.
Items which would not be listable anywhere else due to UPC and other issues are turning up in Home.
The benign neglect appears to be other than benign.
To my knowledge the category still exists.
My cranky self thinks having a monthly pro subscription should be a requirement regardless of category/seller.
My cranky self also thinks $69 or even $99 would be more appropriate.
My cranky self thinks that if the two forementioned steps were taken, it would 1) increase revenue for Amazon, and 2) Darwin kicks in and weeds out the herd.
Forgive my crankiness tonight.
Nah. When you have people selling at a loss for a year and wondering why they’re not getting payouts, or people who order from other Amazon sellers to get their inventory, or follow the advice of 5 year old YouTube videos, they’re not going to even blink at a trivial cost increase. The idiots that have most of the problems never bother to run the numbers, so $40 and $400 come out the same.