Do you find yourself producing more Whatevers than you have any use for? If so, what do you do with your excess?
Nearly every other female in my extended family (including in-laws) is really into one or more crafts. As in, spending hours every week (or every day!) creating stuff. Not me. At various times in my younger days I tried out many crafts. I’ve crocheted a few things. I’ve knitted a sweater. I’ve done a cross stitch sampler. I sculpted some pots and vases. Etc. But the truth is that I never much enjoyed the process and I never really wanted the products in large or ongoing amounts. (For example, I made a nice tooled leather belt. One. I still wear it on occasion decades later, but I absolutely don’t need another.)
Of course, after investing so much time (and sometimes using expensive supplies) to create this stuff, clearly you don’t want to simply throw it out. So you display it. But how many cross stitched wall hangings does any one house need?? My mother was into quilling, you know, rolling up thin strips of paper into various round/oval/petal shapes, and then glueing a bunch of them onto a backing to make, uh, well, I guess you could call them ‘ornaments.’ (I called them dust-catchers, but not to her face.) She had the walls of her living room AND dining room AND kitchen filled with dozens.
Okay, not my problem: she liked them, more power to her. But even so, sooner or later you’ll have more Whatevers than you can find room for. So, the next step is give them away as presents, yes? Which is nice in theory, but the trouble with ‘ornamental’ stuff is that its only use is to look nice, and people’s taste vary. I have a sister-in-law who paints tole trays – black lacquered metal of some sort, with flowers and wreaths and gold scrolls all over it. She’s given me one each year for Christmas for at least five years.
I think they are hideous. (Though not up there with the half doll dressed in pompoms toilet paper cover another relative gifted me with…)
So. What do you do with your excess ‘stuff’?
(I guess this is only a problem with things that don’t get naturally ‘used up’ or routinely disposed of. Like someone who knits sweaters or makes their own greeting cards.)
I make beaded jewelry and I do enjoy the actual process, so I have indeed made far more items than I can really wear. Luckily necklaces and bracelets don’t take up a lot of space, so they’re not overrunning my apartment…yet. And although jewelry isn’t exactly practical, it’s also not the sort of thing where one item is all anyone could reasonably want. I mean, a woman could reasonably have several necklaces or pairs of earrings to go with different outfits, while few people would ever have use for more than one tole tray even if they were painted with different patterns.
I do make a lot of things as gifts, but I do make them as gifts – I design and create the piece with the recipient and her tastes in mind. I have occasionally sold things from my horde (generally to friends who want to give them as gifts to others, and once at a friend’s stand at a local craft fair), or donated them to silent auctions for various charitable fundraisers. I know a young girl who donates a lot of her work and has raised thousands of dollars for charity this way. She is pretty good at coming up with things that will do well at auction, like necklaces made with the colors of area college football teams.
Sell it and give it are pretty self explanatory, but donate it can be very rewarding. The trick is figuring out who can benefit from your donation. Quilts can go to Goodwill, of course, but consider contacting a battered woman’s shelter or homeless shelter that focuses on finding permanent housing, instead. People leave the shelter and go to an apartment with…nothing. How wonderful would it be to have a beautiful quilt, or cross-stitch piece, or other well made decorative crafty thing to beautify their new space? Nursing homes often welcome quilt donations, too - they have blankets, but quilts are a nice personal touch for residents’ rooms. They might also appreciate cross-stitch works, too. Or you can kill two crafty urges with one project: do some cross-stitch and then turn it into a quilt!
Neonatal intensive care units are another good place to unload specific items. They always need tiny crocheted or knitted hats to keep the baby’s head warm, and the premade ones bought by the hospital are much too large for most preemies. We LOVED my daughter’s hat collection, and one particular picture of her in her hat even inspired a Doper to write a song about her! They can also use small quilts as blankets and larger ones as isolette (incubator) covers, to keep the babies warm and help block light and reduce the noise inside the baby’s bed. There are even patternsout there for isolette covers, if you like to sew and would like a useful crafty idea.
Thispage has a ton of patterns specifically for donation creations, from preemie clothing to positioners to bereavement/burial gowns. There are other links to things like wheelchair and walker caddies (another good option for a cross-stitch addition!) and chemo caps and catheter covers and more.
I still have the quilt someone made and donated for my daughter. It’s very tiny, only about 18 inches square. It’s her favorite doll’s blanket now, and I’ve asked her, if she ever wants to get rid of it, to return it to me for sentiment’s sake.
That’s how I started there, anyway - there really is only so much jewellery any one person can wear and own, and I eventually hit my limit. Even with gifts (and I gave many gifts) there was still a pile of stuff building up. So selling it was the answer for me, and now it’s a self-funding hobby. Bonus!
I like the idea of donating, too - I’ve donated a couple of pieces when asked, for charity raffles and the like. I should look into other options - shelters for victims of domestic violence, maybe, although I imagine they need more useful things, rather than pretty things.
I got a vending license for the sole purpose of getting rid of my creations. I was overwhelmed with my creative energy and the resulting matter building up in my apartment, and I also realized that my small social circle can only absorb so many monstro creations as Christmas presents. So I took to the streets.
My business model is simple. People pay what they want. Including nothing. Because really, the money is secondary to me not carrying the stuff back home. I also like to see people’s reactions. Yesterday, this one lady freaked out she saw my display and then freaked out again when I told her to take whatever she wanted. Giving away on the street like this is much more rewarding than giving to family/friends because people have a choice to pick up something. If I give something to someone as a gift, they’re forced by etiquette to smile and take it, even if they hate it. But if a complete stranger screams, “OMG! THIS IS FREAKIN’ AWESOME AND YOU’RE SAYING I CAN JUST TAKE IT???!!” then it’s like being Oprah or something.
I have donated to Goodwill before, but I prefer doing it this way because I actually get to see who takes my babies home.
Of course they need useful things, but don’t underestimate the lift from pretty things. If you’re poor and crafting from scraps (or your donation dollars are otherwise occupied), I wouldn’t hold off donating something because it’s pretty. It’s not like getting a pretty thing from you means they can’t get menstrual pads and pots and pans from other donators, y’know?
I once listed a dining room table on Freecycle, and the woman who came to pick it up was fresh out of a shelter. She started crying when she saw it, because it was so “beautiful” and she hadn’t ever hoped to own a real hardwood table in her life. Sure, it was useful as a table, which was why I listed it, but it was the beauty of the thing that really uplifted her and made her night. To me, it was a hand-me-down from my grandma, not heirloom quality or anything, just Grandma’s old table that I didn’t really want anymore. To her, it was a symbol that she was worthy of pretty things, and her asshole ex who tried to convince her she was worthless was wrong.
And yes, I cried too. And hugged her, a lot.
(monstro, I hoped you’d pop into the thread. I can’t tell you how much your “business model” makes my day. I’ve never been the recipient of one of your beautiful works, and yet just hearing your stories makes me happy, so you’ve made more than one person happy with giving stuff away!)
If you’re ever in Richmond, VA and decide to visit Carytown, I’ll hook you up, girl! Though, it sounds like you’ve got your own crafty madness going on and you don’t need someone else’s!
I mostly give the stuff away. I sew a lot (well, not as much since so many other things piled themselves on my plate) and I prefer to give the extra away. I’d be happy to sell things too–I’ve done that a bit with 18" doll clothes–but I’m too flaky to open an etsy store, I haven’t got the time (though I did register two different names when I meant to do it!).
My new favorite strategy is to take commissions. I’ll sew you a whole quilt, if you buy the fabric and I have the time. I’ve done 3 “emergency” quilts in the last year on that model–those were for friends who were diagnosed with breast cancer (no one else has gotten any form of it, kinda weird that). I spread the word, took contributions, and produced the quilts as group gifts. I’m doing one now for my mom, who needs a double quilt for a guest room. Since I’m broke and can’t really buy fabric these days, this is really nice for me.
The next thing on my plate is a fancy smocked dress for my niece. I get to make it, but I haven’t paid a cent. I did a blessing gown for a baby niece–come to think of it that was just out of stash–and I gave the same niece two smocked dresses that I’d done to learn how.
I’ve also sent quilts to my church’s humanitarian aid organization–I meant to make a couple this summer from stash but summer went by in about a nanosecond this year. I haven’t sewn anything on my list except that one quilt.
So: what I mostly like to make are heirloom clothing (baby or kid), quilts, and 18" doll clothes. I mostly give it away, unless it’s destined for one of my own kids. My 8yo really needs another dress…
Tell you what, if I’m ever in Richmond, I’ll bring my beading stuff, and we’ll have a swap! It doesn’t count as “bringing more crafts to the house” if you’ve exchanged some of your crafts for someone else’s crafts, right?
Very timely thread. Today I attacked the disaster that my pottery studio has become. I’m getting ready to take another class and I’m hoping to spend more time making things, but there are only a few I want for myself.
I have done craft shows in the past, so I’ve sold some things. After I subtract the cost of the materials (which isn’t very much) I donate the proceeds to my county’s women’s shelter. Unfortunately, all my best stuff has sold, and a lot of what I have left is pretty pathetic. I’m trying to decide whether to make a mega-sculpture with the weird leftovers or to just make a give-away/buck bin so I can get them out of the house.
My other crafty obsession is knitting and crocheting. Over the course of 40 years, I’ve made a gazillion afghans for family and friends, and I think we have about 10 in the house because my husband is always asking me to make another. (We’ll never freeze to death, that’s for sure.) Lucky for me, my mom’s AARP group makes and donates afghans, hats, scarves, shawls, and baby items to shelters, veterans’ homes, nursing homes, and probably other things I don’t know about. So I make all sorts of random items and pass them to my mom. They recently asked for hats and scarves that they’ll be donating to a homeless shelter, so I’ve been doing a bunch of them. Some of the women who aren’t crafty will donate yarn, so I’ve gotten a bunch to supplement my stash. I also asked at work and several people gave me a LOT - I’m set for at least a dozen more afghans and more hats and scarves than I could count. So I keep my fingers nimble and people who really need these items will get them. Win-win!
I knit, I spin and I dye yarn. I have a couple of strategies for dealing with excess output.
I knit a lot of socks. It’s hard to have too many socks, but when I feel like been making too many socks for myself and cwPartner, I tell my Mom or my sister that I’ll make them some socks if they’ll buy the yarn. Keeps my busy without cluttering the house.
Excess yarn (handspun or hand-dyed) gets sold on eBay or Etsy. At least, I try to sell it. I haven’t had a lot of luck selling yarn online this year. I had better luck in years past. I’ve traded yarn for other crafts (notecards, glass buttons), too.
Man, I’ve never thought of donating to a homeless or women’s shelter. What a great idea! I have crafted about every kind of craft there is. Right now it’s yarn work after about a 40 year hiatus. I have a friend who is a newborn photographer so I make a lot of small blankets and hats for her photo shoots. Occasionally she’ll buy the yarn but she’s just beginning her photography career and I love to be able to help. A skein of yarn is cheaper than therapy!
ETA: I forgot to mention that I rarely craft things for myself. I make scrapbooks and greeting cards to give to others, all of my knitting and crocheting have found homes as well as my needlework. Gifting is one thing but donating…have I mentioned that’s a great idea!~
I have fun making greeting cards, some quirky and all of them very clearly hand/homemade. I doubt I could sell them so I’ve given them away. It’s my way of getting through my excess crackbooking supplies.
Consider that plagarized because I have just stolen it from you.
I have never had a craft be as expensive and as hoard-ful (is that a word?) than scrapbooking. Getting new paper or tools is like…crack. Use it? bah. Cut it? never! I just looooves my precioussssssssssssssss.
I’ve been planning projects in terms of materials and recipients, so I don’t have an overabundance of finished items with no homes, nor do I have an unwieldy yarn stash.
I was that way, then we started this moving every year shit and it became a struggle to cart it all across the country. Now I limit myself to one very large tote. I also don’t let myself buy anything new, though re-using stuff from others is quite acceptable. I trim holiday crads down and make postcards out of them for those folks who either get forgotten from the the main list or pop up at the last second. Those cards where only the picture’s not written on are trimmed into gift tags.
In my giant box are many 12x12 sheets that are just too pretty to cut up or paste something on.
Oh yes. Crackbooking. (We already use the term at the local scrapbook shop, so I didn’t steal it - but I would have!)
I started out making a scrapbook for the player I sponsor on the local (minor league) hockey team. I wasn’t satisfied with the photos I was getting with a Sure Shot, so I got a Nikon. The amount of paper I have is scary, but I have learned to check for sales at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Joanne’s.
Last season I did three books - one for my player and two for other players, for which their sponsors paid for materials. I am currently working on a book with pictures from season-before-last, and will actually make a little money on that one. I have to do one for the Booster Club for last season - they will reimburse me for materials.
I already have orders for 5 books for the upcoming season, three of which will show a little profit. My players book I will pay for and the Booster Club book will reimburse materials.
I also make jewelry and sell it in the merchandise store of the team, and make a set every season for the team’s Children’s Miracle Network fundraiser. I love the idea of donating to a battered women’s shelter; I’d like to do that.
I have been known, when complimented on a piece I was wearing, to take it off and give it to the person who commented on it. Random acts of kindness…
I haven’t sewn anything on my list except that one quilt.
