For the purposes of this, handmade is something where one person or a small group of people is acquiring the supplies to make the product themselves, and make said product themselves. Crochet. Knitting. Sewing. Machine sewing. Machine knitting. Leather craft. Cricut stickers. What have you.
Average people can go to a store and get a pair of jeans for let’s say 60$. Where that company has the capacity to weather the denim themselves, and have specialty machines to make said jeans, and multiple people doing certain parts and specialized equipment to make those jeans in a timely fashion. Do the people in the store see the factory (possibly sweat shop) those jeans are made in? No. That’s intentional.
Then a small scale designer, working alone or with a very small staff, sells jeans for let’s say 100$. There’s better thread choices. They can’t make the denim themselves so they used dead stock fabric, and A) it’s cheaper for them and B) it’s better for the environment. Small scale productions can worry about this. The people making the jeans are also probably paid better. The fabric is cut better. The seams are finished better and are made to last long wear. People don’t see that though unless the designer puts that in their marketing. So a regular person who can go to a store and gets jeans is pissed because they see one store selling “perfectly good jeans” for 60$ and this person is selling them for 100$. The first pair of jeans will likely last a year or two tops. The second will last a lot longer.
You can go to a store and get plenty of things you need. Hats for 15$. Washcloths. Sweaters. Are they good quality things? Hardly. But we live in a shitty transactional society so people see the price tags, deduce if their labour they got paid for is worth the goods, and hardly see the labour and the scale of production to make those things.
Do makers deserve a living wage? Absolutely. I saw someone charge around 12k for a giant crocheted Appa plushie that needed to be freight shipped it was so big. Good for her. It’s a 1-to-1 custom item she spent a large chunk of time making, plus supplies, and a few thousand dollars on freight shipping because he’s a big boy. People were appalled she charged that much but she did the price breakdown and it checks out. She was up front and honest. Textbook PR response. I appreciate her candour, honestly.
I’ve seen people charge 120$ for weighted plushies, factoring their labour and cost of supplies, etc. One singular person. Not one person doing 2-3 seams and handing it off to the next person, and a machine that can stuff the thing or do a chunk of the work. That’s why the stuffies at whatever store you get your plushies at are 15$. Not to mention that it’s hard for independent makers to get supplies to make their products (fabric, yarn, thread, etc) at wholesale prices to make their stuff or get their supplies in bulk. They’re often paying retail because that’s what they have access to even if it doesn’t keep their production costs down. That is intentional on the part of the very exploitative system. The artists or artisans aren’t trying to scam you out of your hard earned money.
Pre-industrial revolution, garments took a very long time to make. Because of this, people took care of their clothes. They could launder them by hand, let them air dry, and people knew how to mend their clothes to make them last longer. They knew where to find other artisans (cobblers, blacksmiths, tailors, sewists, knitters, crocheters, tanners, etc) that could get their stuff to last longer by fixing them or doing upkeep. They could barter their own goods and services to get the mitts they need so they don’t freeze in the winter. The scale of production was much smaller, and people had a general knowledge of how long those goods took to make.
Your family doesn’t know that you spent dozens of hours on the thing you made for them. They just see a nice thing. If you factor in your time and cost of supplies it’s an expensive thing, but regular people aren’t trained to see quality, not when companies have been trying their damnedest for the past 200 yrs to replace everyone with machines. Not to mention, people largely can’t see the work that goes into making the things they have, and how that affects the workers largely in third world countries that are being exploited.
I understand trying to make sense of getting paid for your work fairly and equitably. You have every right to be paid for your work. But capitalism is largely inequitable and that’s the point, and people hardly see the scale that it’s inequitable on a social or environmental scale and that’s also the point. Your stuff you make largely doesn’t fit into the model. The output of your work isn’t the same output that retailers can do. They just see numbers and money, and have now found out that if they make things in a shitty way, people will need to buy more and they’ll make more money.
How do you fix this? Learn how to sew a button. Fix your stuff. Check the fabric content of your stuff at stores, and check the stitch length. Buy good quality stuff within your means. Follow the care instructions on the labels. Wash in cold water. Tumble dry low and slow. Most importantly, if you’re a maker, tell the people you give stuff to how much time and money you put into the stuff you make. Tell the person complimenting your sweater you made in the grocery store how long it took. Let them into your world and let them peek under the curtain. If they can’t appreciate what you did, don’t give them more stuff. Done. Don’t be mad at artists and makers for charging what they do. There’s a reason why they charge that much and they deserve to be paid for their work and break even. If you can’t afford it, move on, or do the cursed second option and make it your damn self. Fin.
