Minding my own business

Things happened on Friday.

For a start, I made this pair of earrings; they're exactly the same design as the white ones I posted the other day. I thought they'd photograph better than the white ones (which, to be honest, weren't bad, but these are even better). There was a specific reason I photographed them alongside the beads I used. I'm so pleased with the design that I wanted to send it to Spoilt Rotten and ask if they'd like me to do a photo tutorial.

So I did; but in fact it was even better than that. They didn't just like them. They loved them. And they loved them so much that Juliet, who's in charge over there (I say "over there" but in fact they're not far away; if I ever need to go and talk to them in person, someone could easily give me and the wheelchair a lift to their warehouse), asked me if I minded if she produced the tutorial. In video format. Giving me full credit, of course.

Juliet does a lot of video tutorials and they're extremely popular, so of course I jumped at that, even though video tutorials are not my personal thing. (Apart from anything else, it saves me a bit of work!)

If that had been all that had happened with the earrings, it would still have been great. But it wasn't. The previous day, I'd been told about a little shop in the area (I'm still not clear exactly where it is, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough; all I know is it's very near here - not quite within scooter range, but nearly, I think) which sells local craft work. So I e-mailed them with some photos and asked if they'd be interested in selling my earrings. And, on Friday, they got back and said they certainly would. I have no idea about pricing, so I had asked them about that, and they advised pricing them in the £10 - £20 range. Given the time it takes to make them and the fact that the shop takes a 20% cut at point of sale, I reckon they all need to be at least £15, with the wreath earrings more expensive as they take longer to make than the other two types; but I haven't yet finalised what the prices are going to be. At some point I need to call in there (I should be able to get a lift) with some samples, so I'm going to be quite busy this week making a good selection in the hope that they'll put them on sale there and then.

Now, this is astonishing; because for pretty much my entire life I've been doing crafts of one sort or another, and at various points someone has said "oh, that's really good, you should sell it," and I've had to tell them it isn't worth it. For most craft work, to be even faintly economic (by which I mean to pay yourself more than about half the legal minimum wage) you would have to charge ridiculous prices. For instance, take my knitted socks. If I use the Tencel-mix yarn, the price of that would have to be factored in as it's expensive; but even if I use King Cole sock yarn (which is not as outright gorgeous as the Tencel mix, but it's still a pretty good yarn at an extremely good price), there is still the fact that one pair of socks takes over 20 hours to knit. I haven't timed it exactly, but my best guess is 22 to 25 hours all told. And even if you assume I can do it in 20 hours (which I'm pretty certain I can't) and I pay myself only £4 an hour, then I still have to charge £80 for a pair of ankle socks, and who on earth is going to pay that?

And then there was the zhostovo painting. I think I went into some detail about the economics of that in the relevant post, so I won't bore you with it again; suffice it to say that I have no idea how professional Russian zhostovo artists survive. The story is pretty much the same for everything. People love handmade stuff but aren't prepared to pay handmade prices.

Until, as it turns out, you get to bead earrings.

I'm still pretty sure I won't be able to make a living from this, unless either a) I move house so that I'm within easy reach of a post office, or b) I have someone with me regularly who can get to a post office for me, or of course c) both; that would enable me to move onto Etsy as well, or something similar. But it's not intrinsically impossible for me to do so this time. In the meantime, I've had a set of earring cards printed with "Mongoose Designs - handmade in the UK" and a contact e-mail address for custom requests, because I shall be more than happy to do those. (You need a pair of earrings to match that special outfit? I'm your mongoose!) I have also spent £yikes on an assortment of beads in colours I don't wear, but other people do, and a much more modest amount on some compartment storage boxes so I can get all these beads reasonably organised (I've been working out of plastic ziploc bags up to this point). Eventually, this will all pay for itself, and I'm pretty relaxed about how long it takes to do so. I can actually afford to start relatively slowly, so that I'm making more than I can sell, which will enable me to build up stocks so that a) it doesn't matter if I'm ill for a while, and b) if I do find another convenient market for them I can put a decent-sized batch there straight away. There is an actual market here now and again - once a month, I think - and if I have at least 50 pairs to sell it's probably worth having a stall. I need to check that, but not just yet, obviously.

And now I also have the perfect excuse to design a few more types. Remember those icosahedrons? While I was buying all the beads, I discovered that, as well as 3 mm bugle beads, there are 6 mm ones, and it immediately occurred to me that those were just what I needed for icosahedrons; they're long enough to have one along each edge, and if there's just one bead it can't bend. So I have bought a couple of experimental packs of 6 mm bugles and we'll see how that one goes.

I've spent a good deal of time following random craft leads to see where they take me, and I've had a huge amount of fun in the process; but I never expected any of them to start paying. Well, you live and learn, don't you?