Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Craft Buggery


For my birthday this year, one of my sisters got me a little book called "Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business," by Meg Mateo Ilasco (Thank you, KTO!). I have begun reading it and enjoying it as the author introduces the reader to the possibility that people do make crafts for a living and so can anyone who has the creativity and the drive to do so. However, I'm stuck on the section subtitled "What's Your Creative Bug?" on page 16 of Chapter one. I don't know what mine is! That's my problem!

Meg's criteria for what the reader should choose as his or her crafty bug are:

1. "It's important to start with an endeavor that comes naturally to you."
2. "...look to your previous creative habits as a child or teenager."
3. "...it should be something you love to do regularly, maybe even every day."
4. "Would you do it even if you weren't paid to do it?"

I love dyeing yarn, but I definitely don't think I could dye it on a production scale, which is what I would need to do in order to make a living at it. I don't have the space or the resources. I'd have to have a separate kitchen and vats and stuff for that.

But when I hold dyeing up to Meg's criteria, I can answer yes to all of them. I even experimented with tie-dyeing as a kid and loved it.

If I love it, I should do it, right? I could build a shack or rent a space and fill it with ovens, burners, vats, swifts, drying cupboards, shelves and all that. I could hire people to help me unwind and wind the yarn into long circles.

I could have a secret recipe book containing all my color combinations that I keep under lock and key in a safe behind one of the loose bricks in my office wall.

I could attend craft and yarn festivals, host dying workshops, donate colorful yarn to charities, clothe the homeless, feed the hungry...I could save the world!!!

Yeah, whatever. I'll keep reading and maybe something will click that helps me figure out what I want to do and how I want to do it.

No comments: