Hand Made Future: the Good Life as Artisans’ Goal

Abstract

“What makes craft interesting is that the process itself is as important as the finished products. Each item is made by a human being, who is directly involved in the production process and puts something of his/her personality and energy into it. This can be seen in the uniqueness and high quality of the products. It is understandable that craft practitioners include many lifestyle entrepreneurs and that the production techniques employed are not always suited to serial production. Craft bears a close resemblance to art: creativity and aesthetic considerations are emphasised in both. This does not mean, however, that profitable business could not be based on craft.”

In this text crafts refers to a production process performed with the hands or with manually-operated tools, and also to work produced in such fashion. Crafts represent one sector of the Finnish creative and micro-sized-enterprise and account for estimated 9,000–10,000 businesses employing directly nearly 14,000 people. Craft entrepreneurship basically means the ability to convert personal artistic input into a commercial, innovative product and then market and sell it. The products tend to be items for interior decoration, garments or accessories and also services like tourism services or education. Different types of craft business are crafts as a lifestyle, stable, production-based enterprises and growth-oriented enterprises. Small volumes, direct sales and marketing, and low risk are characteristic of those for whom crafts are a lifestyle. In stable, production-based enterprises, it is more common to subcontract and cooperage.

Artisans most important and valuable products are not the financially most valuable or biggest selling. For craft entrepreneurs, as well as other life-style oriented small and micro-businesses, product quality and other subjective meters are more important indicators of success than more traditional, hard meters. The connection between the craftsperson and his/her material are found to be inseparable, as well as his/her efficient management of the production process. The entrepreneur often has an outstanding personality and specialist know-how. He/she is an independent problem solver producer of new ideas and discoverer of new contents and technological solutions. Products are naturally of paramount importance as a factor of success.

My main sources will be surveys made by the Finnish Crafts Organization, Crafts Entrepreneur 2009 and Crafts and Design Entrepreneur 2011. They indicate that good life is more important than economic success. Good life includes ethical and sustainable crafts. It seems that crafts and design entrepreneurs represent modern life-style oriented businesses.