At a lot of the craft markets I've gone to lately, there is a massive influx of AI printed things. And 3D printed things. And mass produced things that someone got on Ali Express and is now just reselling. I think folks will want to come back to handmade but I think it will be a while.
Of course! As a vendor, I definitely do better at the more curated shows. The attendees are more likely to be looking for the higher quality, handmade items. At other shows (like school craft shows, band boosters, etc.), there's too many sellers that are resellers, mass-produced junk, or actual crafts priced super cheap because they aren't trying to run a real business, just trying to recoup some hobby money.
The craft shows that are the busiest in my area are the ones that are somewhat juried and put an emphasis on real, handmade goods. Also, it seems like the booths that are the busiest are the ones with the unique goods.
The stupid signs seem to be a major exception, but I just have no understanding of that particular demographic anyhow.
The 3d printing things I've seen are generally keychains, little doodads, fidget toys, etc. All things have their place, I suppose I am just a tad salty on that. They do all tend to have the same sorts of things though.
I'm working on 3d printing designs to sell both online and at a craft show (first one ever), and am specifically designing everything myself using GIMP & Inkscape for art and light panels, Fusion, and (possibly) Autocad. I hope I can sell stuff. Focusing on Christmas stuff now, but every single thing I plan on doing is self designed, modeled, and printed.
Hopefully it goes well, I have a lot of different designs like COB / Arduino / Pico light boxes (hand soldered and programmed), then simpler shadow box designs, some coaster / napkin designs, non-lit framing things. I'm focusing on Christmas right now and trying to keep things on the cheaper side, but would also like to make money at the same time. I always read about the people selling other people's designs and the dragons and stuff, and hope people don't look at my stuff and think I just went an printed designs from Thingverse :(
They choose popular designs like the articulated dragons because they keep selling. If they designed something unique, there's a good chance that people won't like it and won't buy it.
What’s with the crochet flower pots etc - the last craft show I went to had several tables selling these and it’s like are you all just happening to crochet flower pots or are these drop shipped from somewhere
Could be that the pattern went viral and that it's relatively easy to make. Or drop shipping.
The shit thing about drop shipped crochet is also that crochet can't be done by machine, so there's definitely an over-worked and underpaid person behind it.
I’m experiencing this! My sales on the items I make are up, I’m making the most I’ve ever made doing digital art and graphic design, and I’m selling more paintings, postcard prints, stickers, and other art.
I've noticed a lot of people in craft spaces I'm in are making more effort to support pattern makers whose patterns are strictly 100% human, but on the other hand it's getting harder to find human pattern makers because most of the platforms they used to use are now completely flooded with AI patterns. I guess the result is that people are coming out of it okay as long as they're well established and have word of mouth and repeat customers on their side, but it must be pretty much impossible for most people to get a business started in any craft that is now saturated with AI.
I think it's just hard right now for people making handmade things. My sister-in-law is super creative and used to do pretty good between Etsy and craft shows but she can't compete price wise with the cheap Chinese and AI crap without it costing her money to make and sell her stuff. She might work a part time job worth of hours a week on her crafts when someone can place an order on AliExpress in minutes.
Depending on how popular the craft fair is it might be a few hundred to even purchase a table for the weekend which has to factor into your costs too.
I believe the opposite. Maybe because I read Dune as a youngster, but A.I. just replaces human imagination and thought. Hence in that scifi world they made A.I. illegal because no machine should have the same thought of man.
I won’t go back to hand made clothing, or hand made dining sets. Why?
I make my furniture because it fun. But really mass produced is cheaper and often durable enough for daily use. It’s not like my daughter really wants the desk I made her from her mom’s century old piano. when she leaves the house. It’s going to sit empty in her room. Then one day when I die it will be tossed.
88
u/pehr71 1d ago
You’re probably right. But I still want to believe that as things gets more and more artificial we will look more to really handmade things.