It’s been a week of ups and downs in Craftville. The highlight was the launch of the first ever cinema advert promoting craft, and the lowlight was discovering that crafters are currently selling their work at ‘less than Primark’ prices.

The quietest craft market ever? On Sunday I had a stall at a craft event just off bustling Brick Lane. Despite there being 85 stalls of original, beautiful, handcrafted goodies, the public were not in the mood for spending. Wandering around the market I noticed that the price of items were considerably cheaper than what they should be. Almost everyone was selling handmade items for a quid; there was one stall where everything was a pound.

Crafters/designers should not be lowering their standards by making their work the same price as mass-produced tat. Some people sell crafts as a hobby and perhaps they don’t mind making a loss, but this impacts on professional crafters who ‘make’ for a living. It’s not fair on them when neighbouring stallholders are selling at ‘give away’ prices while they have to maintain a fair price which includes materials, labour and overheads before profit can even be taken into consideration.

Craft Scotland’s Emma Walker is on a mission to reclaim ‘The C Word’ What are we going to do about this situation? Up north, Craft Scotland have been putting their thinking caps on. Ever since their new Chief Executive Emma Walker joined a year ago they’ve been working on a plan to re-launch ‘craft’.  Emma opened a historic event last week, the launch of Crafts Scotland’s new campaign ‘The C Word’; a three-year mission that sets out to reclaim Scottish craft. As part of the campaign, they have created a cinema advert showing how stylish and affordable Scottish crafts are, and it will be shown nationwide. They are also in talks with the producers of the next ‘Sex and The City’ movie to get the cast wearing their crafts.

But why did they launch the campaign? When Emma became involved with Crafts Scotland, she was shocked to discover that so many crafters were disillusioned with the industry to the point that they were turning their back on the ‘C’ word. They no longer saw themselves as part of the craft industry. But why was this the case? It’s true that ‘Craft’ has never had the same prestige as ‘Fine Art’. It’s on the outside when it comes to art events, art reviews and art publications. And yet, when we talk about craft, we refer to things that have been handmade, showing a high level of creative skill, so they should be respected far more than they are.

As part of her speech, Emma asked why it is that when you go to tourist destinations you always get ‘craft shops’ that rarely sell handmade crafts? Maybe this explains why people are so confused about ‘crafts’ and what they are? Is seeing a cinema advert that intends to show ‘Joe Public’ an insight into handmade crafts and why they are worth the investment going to make any changes? A follow up TV advert is also in the pipeline, as are nationwide events, so one thing is definitely guaranteed, the people behind the C Word campaign are not giving up without a fight.

Glittermouse brings some colour to the craft fair One crafter I spoke to at Sunday’s ‘quietest fair I’ve ever been to’, who creates stunning painted glasswork under the guise of Glittermouse, also had a slow day but said she saw events like these as a form of publicity. While it’s good to have a marketing budget, I’m not sure if spending all day on a market stall where nothing gets sold is really that productive. It’s certainly not working out for me. I’m going to hit markets on the head for now. Creating publicity and media interest to generate sales is just so hard. I once invested in expensive press releases and even employed an intern to help promote me; both failed. Sure I could continue to do what I do, waiting patiently for someone to see my work and commission me to do bigger and better things, but is this ever likely to happen if I’m not pushing it?

Issue 3 of Fete Craftzine is the best one yet! One way I have tried to be productive, and give another dimension to what I do, is by editing my craftzine, Fete. For me it’s a pure labour of love, because I strongly believe in giving crafters a platform to share their work. It’s been much harder selling this third issue. One store even wanted to take it on a ‘sale or return’ basis, which for a not for profit venture is a bit unfair but the good news is, it’s available in a couple of key London locations Housmans and All the Fun of The Fair. If anyone can suggest any other stockists nationwide I could try please let me know.

Ok, chin up, I’m off to do some real making now.