Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for December 09, 2013

Husband and I have a business making and selling handcrafted gifts. Unfortunately in this area handcrafted is looked at as inferior to manufactured items. “Craft shows” are mostly manufactured items. We were at show where husband was selling (among other items) leather belts – he bought the hides, cut the belts, hand stamped the designs $20, including almost 9% sales tax – next to other someone had belts from Mexico $9, think we sold much? We started doing craft shows in 1986. We were down to 1 show a year and that was mostly sentimental, not sales, when we stopped 4 years ago. People are only interested in mass produced items. The only items that still sell of ours are items made for 18th century reenactors that we sell online and through a “sutler” who sells this sort of item at reenactments.