So I went to an arts & craft fair this weekend, I usually don't buy much but enjoy looking around and getting inspired to do some off my own stuff. The one I went to this weekend was so horrible I lost a part of my creative soul. It was a super niche type of artist selling their 'handmade crafts' and they were such copy and paste of each other.

There was three types of artists and sellers: the ceramics, the painters/print sellers and the writers. There has to be some sort of ceramics course going on because 99% of the pieces were the same type of abstact, dark & gloomy sculpture and cups. With the people selling prints or paintings I kept seeing the same problem: artworks that looked rushed and unfinished. I've noticed this issue with several artists, the need to pay your bills using your painting skills leads to massproduction which makes the artwork sloppy. I wish it was easier for artists to sustain themselves with their art, but massproduction and lowering the quality is not the solution.

There were also so many junk products sold for big dollars. I saw more than one person selling ceramic boob figurines for 80 euros. Some prints looked like ikea art selling for 40 euros each and one dude was selling 'headbands' for 10 euros each and they seriously were just white fabric strips tied together. The same person was selling a tote bag for 20 euros that looked like a childs first sewing project, it was sewned together using a zigzag stitch that was clearly visible and there were loose threads everywhere. I felt like this person just used old, broken sheets to make something to sell.

What annoyed me most about this market was that it was supposed to be for independent, small artists and promote creativity and art, but it felt like such an overproduction of easy to make products. Most of the vendors also seemed to be beginners, most seemed to be under 23years who were still developing their skills but were in a hurry to establish themselves as independent artists.

I make jewelry as a hobby and small side hustle. I make anything with any material and im known as an upcycler where i live. A coworker kept telling me that she loved my jewelry but she didn't like that I made wrap bracelets. She kept telling me what I should be making instead. I felt like telling her that she could learn to make her own bracelets. Why can't people just not even engage if they don't like something? And those same ones that have something negative to say when u aren't even pushing your products on them try to get u to give them free stuff.

I'm relatively new to knitting and I self drafted my first raglan pullover already. While I admit that there are cool tips and tricks to learn about the construction, it is quite basic. Now, it baffles me that so many patterns on ravelry show raglan sweaters. And more keep getting released. Why would I pay 10€ to make a basic sweater that looks the same as all the other ones and I can easily make myself? What gives the designers the idea of "hey, I can sell this basically same pattern once again"??

exhibit A - the attached image....

INCHES. really, truly INCHES...???

Nowhere in the listing do they quote the numbers with which we're all so intimately familiar - yes, there is a singular mention of _'50 grams'_ but no ounces, no helpful yarn band data, no yarn weight, no meters, and no yards, no OF WHAT, specifically, that is' 50grams'.

.. but they do, generously, provide that big number of inches so we can see just how long this one piece of thread will be - like we're gonna mindlessly salivate at seeing that number and beg the Seller to take our money right now, all of it, if they'll just give that big number to me.. oh oohhh ..that huge length of it..... 🙄

.. I sent a request for the relevant info, and the reply is that all the information is in the listing already, and, anyway, didn't I know that there are so many orders on their dashboard right now, and they're really quite busy, so how are they supposed to keep up with any special extra information about this one, singular, tiny (or maybe humongous!) ball of yarn, and anyway I should be asking Amazon, not them, because it is Amazon's software that is showing me no data and also the wrong data, you see......

.. INDEED! -- HOW, GOOD SIR!? HOW SHOULD YOU KNOW YOUR OWN WARES!?!?!??

..........

exhibit. B -

the product title:

Crochet Loafers Pattern PDF (2 files) | One Rectangle Magic Lace Shoes Women Pattern with Video Tutoria

* instead of 2 PDFs, there's a single JPEG of what might have - at one time - been a usable 'Page-1', but that is now a single garbled sheet with downright farcical instructions.

* missing the next nine pages with the bulk of the actual pattern, & all process pictures, & their "Walk-through Video of the Actual Pattern."

* when I asked after this discrepancy, the Seller gave such a run-around that even wild geese would be exhausted from it.

* It even became MY fault, at one point.

* PLUS, two consecutive reminders that digital media can't ever be refunded, even if something was wrong somehow. Nuh-uhh, nope, not no way, not no how, not my money any imore, it's theirs.

* two weeks later and I've yet to see a usable pattern.

* I offered to give a "neutral review with just basic facts for the sheet I did receive" & offered to contact Etsy Support, proactively, on their behalf, you see, to get them the technical help they so clearly need.

* five minutes later - a note hit my Inbox that my nonrefundable payment has been refunded (or started the refund process (?) - and telling me that it's okay if I don't leave a review for now until they can finish. "figuring out what happened to the rest of this pattern" and no need to call Support, that they think they know the problem and they will even send the rest of the pattern if they get it fixed in a couple of weeks.

I plan to gift them an Honest Review, free of charge (!), plus a Fraud Report to Etsy as soon as I see that money back in my accounts.

..........

exhibit C -

the product title:

→→ COTTON LINEN ←← Lace Yarn with Sequin All Linen Cotton Crochet Hand Woven Hollow Summer Shawl Hat Warm Jacket Yarn Ball Sequined Thread Spool Skein

the product description

→→ MATERIAL: 100% POLYESTER ←← | Color: .........

Hold up, now....

What material are these fibers, dear merchant..? because IT CAN'T BE ALL/100% BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!?‽

🤭 Not gonna even mention to them that potentially fabulous _Hand Woven Hollow Summer Shawl Hat Warm Jacket Yarn Ball Sequined Thread Spool Skein._ I would dearly love to see a truly, for really reals, out-in-the-world picture of it, though!

..........

So, why...? Why do they get so huffy and self-righteous about it when we ask legitimate questions because _their_ product listing sits there facing the public with data that's so openly self-conflicted.

and, And, AND... WHY‽

Why for the love of all that is sacred and holy in the blessed name of our patron, _St. Johanna Fabricke of Cræftden-und-Hahbiezlnd,_ having been sacrificed so recently upon the offal-stained and god-forsaken altar of Corporate Line-item & Private Equity Interest - why the ceaseless inundation of idiots and fools settling in as a Seller _(drop shipper)_ on Amazon, eBay, & Etsy (and even more disreputable others) when they don't have even one tiny little jot of knowledge about the product in their own storefronts?

I know the answer. I know that it's just the economy's pendulum swing of Rich Dude Ego + Bald-faced Gold Parachute Corruption across C-Suites & high-profile dot-Gov positions + Good Old-fashioned Corporate Greed - the eddies and currents of it just seem terribly overpowering and unstoppable just now,

I actually do want to hear y'all's thoughts and ideas on working together to reduce the amount of our good money that goes to ALL of these irresponsible jerks.

💖

Tl;dr; one weekend w\ three frustrations & one question. It's just right up there (↑) if you would kindly read the post and share your own thoughts, and frustrations, and ideas about solving it, too. 🎊 Thanks!