HANDS ON

My job couldn’t be done without my hands, everything I do is ‘hands-on’. From the making of the products, the designs of my social media posts, building my website to writing blog posts and keeping the accountant happy with a reasonably organised filing system.

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My favourite of that list (and there’s so much more I could add) has to be the actual crafting. Knitting, crocheting and macrame are my life - a day doesn’t pass without me creating something using one or the other, or possibly all three.

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Sometimes I even make something for myself and it’s usually something that I know is going to cost far too much to sell at a retail price because the quantity of materials and the time it takes to make just isn’t commercially viable.

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The cardigan in this post is one of those items. If I was to sell it I’d have to charge at least £150 and that’s only if I pay myself around £5/hour or less. The amount of work that goes into something handmade really is undervalued these days. We’ve all become so used to Fast Fashion, the true value of a hands-on/handmade product very rarely enters the mind when you’re on a retail therapy mission around a shopping mall.

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When I’m making items for my online shop, I keep in mind the value of the product to me as the seller as well as what my customers might consider a quality product at a fair price. It has to reflect the time it takes to make and the quality of the materials. It’s a tough call sometimes, but then my choice to only use the highest of quality materials is something that I feel strongly about and is the basic ethos of my business. 

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Quality over quantity all the way!

 “There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.”  Mahatma Gandhi