I just found this amazing segment about men in the craft world on the NPR website! It was put together by Jess Gitner, and it helps to know there are other male pioneer crafters out there somewhere. I posted a written form of the segment, but if you are too lazy you can watch the awesome cartoon from the link at the bottom.
Men Of Craft
Online arts and crafts marketplace Etsy.com reports that out of hundreds of thousands of sellers, only four percent are men. Is the number really this low? I decided to see what things looked like on the ground. On October 3rd, I hit the streets of Washington, D.C. to attend the annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Craft Fair.
I was confident I could find some men to talk to among the crowded network of booths, but I quickly realized I possessed no talent for sniffing out men. I approached several booths that seemed manly-one sold prints and pins of U.S. presidents. I eagerly approached the man behind the table, but he directed me to his sister next to him. She was the crafty one, and he was just helping for the day.
A few disappointments later, I spotted a glimmer of hope. Next to a table of rather loud jewelry was a guy slouched behind an assortment of comic books.
"I've had my friends come here before and say that they wish there was a man table with brass knuckles and guy things, nothing but guy things," says artist and graphic designer Ben Claassen. "And I think that's also what the craft fairs are missing: the man booth."
Claassen's comics appear regularly in the Washington City Paper and Express, but he doesn't consider himself a member of the arts and crafts community.
"I consider myself more of a comic artist," he says. "I'm used to going to the comic conventions, but I've always liked coming to [craft fairs]."
Admittedly, most of the men Claassen sees at craft fairs are husbands and boyfriends of the craft-makers. Although he is an artist and runs his own booth, his story is similar. He started participating in Crafty Bastards largely in part due to his girlfriend's involvement in the fair: she helps organize it each year.
I left Claasen's table to find Figs and Ginger, a jewelry company I'd heard about earlier. Reportedly, a man was involved with the operation.
"As a guy in the indie craft scene, I'm definitely a minority," says Elijah Wyman, co-owner of Figs and Ginger. "As guy in the indie craft scene specifically selling jewelry, I'm in the vast minority, if that even makes sense."
Wyman runs Figs and Ginger along with his wife Rhonda, and he's experienced the perks of being a man in arts and crafts.
"We've noticed that I sell jewelry better than my wife, Rhonda, does, because I can give an honest compliment without any fear of it being strange or catty," he says. "It totally works. Sometimes we have this superstition where if we're not selling, we'll just have Rhonda leave."
Most of the men I talked to admitted that being a man in craft attracted extra attention to their businesses, but they also admitted holding down other jobs. Scott Robinson, a soap-maker from Bunny Butt Apothecary, gives private yoga lessons. And Nick Nocera, a t-shirt designer from Allison Rose, is an art teacher at an elementary school. Elijah Wyman and his wife Rhonda, though, are able to work full-time making eco-friendly jewelry.
"Both her and I work full time at this and this is our only living," he says. "We pay our mortgage with this. We make a good middle-class living off of what we do."
Wyman thinks there will be more men in arts and crafts soon, citing changes in popular culture. It is becoming more OK for men to pursue traditionally feminine crafts, like jewelry-making.
I never did find the "man booth" at Crafty Bastards, but I did find a few men, along with their female partners. Maybe in the world of arts and crafts, there's a wrinkle to the old adage: Behind every woman is a strong man.
4% represent!
Cheers,
Brad
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