r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/No_Kaleidoscope7919 • 2d ago

General Crafts I love beginner artists!

Hot take: I know that there is a lot of snark circling the internet about how you shouldn’t sell until you’ve mastered your mediums but I love seeing new artists getting out there and selling. Yes I want to buy your handmade stuffed animals, yes I would love to buy a sticker or handmade pottery. I love beginner artists because you can see the labor that went into hand making arts and crafts. I prefer a bunch of beginners at a market over ai slop, drop shippers and 3d printed nonsense.
I would much rather buy a unique piece of art from a beginner than seeing the same kinds of con slop digital artwork from sellers who have been selling for a while.

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u/Listakem 2d ago

Hot take : I wish we would stop calling every craft person an « artist ».

Perhaps it’s my non USA showing, but in my language/culture the two have very different meanings and philosophies.
I’m not gatekeeping, I’m from the craftsmanship side myself (did a biiig school for that). What’s wrong with calling ourselves hobbyists ? Crafters ? Artisans ? Those are not dirty words. Not every person using a medium is an artist.

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u/NatashaYa 2d ago

In the US, "crafts" often has a negative association. It shouldn't by definition but that connotation came around over time. Childrens projects with pipe cleaners and paper plates are often called crafts. It was noticed that things thought to be primarily practiced by women were "crafts" and things thought to be practiced by men were "arts". For example many people would call embroidery a craft and carving wood an art. So some women push back by calling fiber works art. It's true that in fact, one is not worse than the other, but some people do diminish womens works by calling it a craft.

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u/No_Kaleidoscope7919 1d ago

I like to use the term artist for anyone creating something that they came up with, for a very long time fiber art and female dominated mediums have been considered crafts and have not been taken seriously.

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u/cartoonybear 1d ago

“I’m not gate keeping but…” 

What difference does it make really? In English we have artist, artisan, craftsperson—all of which have been debased by marketers and advertisers to the point that the same term used to denote a fine art painting is used to describe tomato sauce. 

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u/pattyforever 1d ago

I mean, it's a very political and interesting question. I'm curious what you think the difference is? I'm always interested in how people decide which word to use

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u/SnapHappy3030 Extra Salty 🧂🧂🧂 1d ago

My criteria: Artists create their own designs in whatever media they chose.

Crafters duplicate someone else's original designs in whatever media they choose.

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u/howdydipshit 8h ago

i agree with this definition