Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Labor of love


I've been working on marketing myself on Etsy and other sites. Putting up pictures of my work, talking in forums, among other things to get my name out, I realized my focus is narrow and I need to be broader but that's for another day. I have a goal to get my first Etsy purchase by the end of the month and to facilitate it I've been placing bids in there custom area called Alchemy. It being prom and summer wedding season, there are many people looking for custom special event apparel, but the dollar value they place on there need is down right appalling. There are items wanted that are listed for less than what the materials would cost to make them. This is the result of a buying public that is use to mass produce items with cheap labor.

How do we educate a buying public to understand the quality , time, and craftsmanship that goes into a custom made garment or any handmade item? Especially when they can get an item for the same occasion for pennies on the dollar. We shout it from the roof tops. I have started letting my consuming public know this is what I sell, this is the supply cost, this is my time cost, and detailed description of what the process is. They know what the process is when they shop a store, they don't know the process of how the garment got there and how it was made, but they don't want the same dress that Madison is wearing and they don't know what it's worth. We have to hunt down the places where they are and let them know why our price structure is different. Then and only then will they realize our value and worth.

1 comment:

  1. An absolutely great point! We've just bantered on on a thread about this over at the DUST Etsy team... It is imperative to educate that what a person is getting is not an item made in the thousands sewn by people getting paid 50 cents a day!

    Keep plugging away & thanks for the blog :)

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