Monday, December 15, 2008

A Crafter's Eternal Complaint

In the last few years with all the complaints surrounding children's toys you'd think that people would want things that have been hand crafted, since these would be among the few that are truly safe for children.... WRONG!
It seems that people have this strange fascination with buying things that are made in foreign countries, then they have the utter gall to complain when they don't have a job here in the United States. There's a reason for why the unemployment rate is so high. The majority of the manufacturing jobs have been sent overseas. While these jobs typically didn't always pay well, it was still a job. Now those jobs have left.
I thought that with the lead paint in toys scare that happened a while back that people would be more apt to buy handcrafted, Made in USA toys.
When I had my little crafts business, I never made a very large profit, granted my prices were pretty low. I just thought that would influence people to buy more product. Wrong again. I really try not to laugh when people see some of the things I've made, like purses and scrunchies and tell me that those things would sell well. Then I get to tell them my lovely sob story about how I've been there and done that.
This holiday season I tried to make Doll Clothes to sell online. While I have sold a few things, it's not nearly enough to be called a success.
This is why I'm posting the doll patterns that I created for some of the accesories. I'm pretty much just fed up with the mentality of some people. They want a quality product, but they would rather poison their children than pay a moderate fee for something that won't harm them.
I guess from now on I'll just stick to knitting for charity. At least the organizations that I donate to appreciate the HOURS that it takes to create one of a kind items by hand.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hear you there. i got a comment stating well if we are buying from you then we don't know you personally how do we know whats actually in the toy etc etc. some people

Onelia said...

Checked out your blog Annie. Love the doll! Too cute!!!
http://annieamentsblog.blogspot.com/