A Short History of Femmecraft

If you're just here for the sale code, here it is - HISTORYLESSON. 

Friends, fans, and internet strangers, 

It occured to me the other day to have a bit of a dig and figure out when my first Femmecraft sale was, just out of curiosity, and it turns out I missed my own businesses' ten year anniversary!!

That first little sale set me off on a path filled with glitter, resin, frustration, joy, and so many friends, so let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?

I've always had a real creative fire, a drive to make and create. One of the highlights of my childhood was when my grandfather built me and my younger siblings a cubby house. I was a bit old for a cubby house per se by then (at the grand old age of 14), but my siblings didn't really like playing in it so it became my itty bitty teeny weeny art studio in the backyard. I spent countless hours out there up to my elbows in clay, or covered in paint from fingers to toes, and it was absolutely glorious.

One of the earliest works of mine I still have, as yet Untitled

Unfortunately, when you grow up and are declared too big for the cubby house, those beautiful feasts of creative passion are harder to indulge in.

Instead of making physical objects, I turned for a long time to writing to stoke my creative fire. Eventually I decided to launch my own blog, called The Reluctant Femme. Some of you might even rermember it! I poured my little heart into that blog, posting endless rants and musings and swatches of makeup and nail polish all jumbled together in a mess that was miraculously appealling to a reasonable audience. (You must remember this was way back in the way back times when people still read blogs) 

I was working a full time corporate jon while writing The Reluctant Femme, and after a while the corproate job burned me out so badly I had to quit. I thus found myself in need of a new income stream, and even back in the halycon days of blogging, I was never going to be able to live off it. But I've always been resourceful, if nothing else. It occurred to me that I was kinda good at making pretty things, and while people aren't interested in paying money for pretty words via blog, they WILL pay for a pretty object.

I was lucky enough to be referred to the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme that's run through unemployment services where I live, which gives you nine months of (measly) government payments, while you set up a new business. I honestly don't think I could have gotten Femmecraft properly off the ground without it, and if I had it would have taken much longer. I had nine months of unbridled creative freedom (within my tiny budget) and it was incredible. My little business hummed along for a while, and after a couple of months I stepped up from online selling to tabling at small local markets, and then the unbridled chaos of local pop culture convention Supanova. The nine months of that program were like my own financial cubby house, and I could feast creatively inside the freedom it offered.

Unfortunately, Femmecraft has never been profitable enough to support me entirely, so when my nine months were up I had to go get another day job, but I've managed to keep Femmecraft more or less alive regardless.There have been more Supanova tables, and a few at other local markets, and then the launch of my own standalone site once Etsy's fees made staying there entirely unfeasible. 

There are some really fucking tough days doing this, I gotta be honest with you. Some days it's all executive disfunction and being overwhelmed and thinking you'll never have another idea because there's not even enough time to do what needs to be done. Some days you launch something you've worked really hard on that you think is awesome, and the response is crickets. I think if my work didn't mean anything to me it would be different. If I was just selling what sells to make some cash, and wasn't personally invested, I think I would have a much tougher skin when new designs are met with silence, or when the orders dry up. But that's not how I work - Femmecraft as an entity has always been primarily about what sparks joy in me. Whether that's nerding out over pop culture or celebrating gender diversity or just something really freaking sparkly, the diversity of my interests ha always been reflected in my work, because everything I make means something to me, there's a little bit of me in all of it. 

The most special and precious experiences I've had with Femmecraft so far have been with custom requests - I honestly can't tell you how much these mean to me. I get an enormous amount of satisfaction and joy from helping people when I can, so to be able to take a vague idea that someone has and make it into an actual thing feels brilliant every single time. I've been extraordinarily lucky so far in that all the people who've approached me for customs have been a joy to work with. It's always felt like a collaboration, never a job, and I've done some of my best work for these projects.  

A custom Discworld pendant made for Jay. The scythes glow in the dark!

A MLP themed compact mirror I made for my most frequent collaborator Katie

This is the thing though, circling back to my earlier point. Everything I make means something to me, and some things mean a great deal. My heart is in this all the way. Which really hurts sometimes, but it's ultimately why I keep coming back to making things again and again. I've wanted to shutter Femmecraft so many times, and effectively have fshuttered it or not insignificant chunks of the last ten years when it did become too hard. But I always come back to it - I keep getting new ideas, and I keep getting back on that bike again with skinned knees and all. 

Here's hoping these skinned knees hold out for another ten years at least! Thank you so much to everyone who's ever bought something from me, be it on Etsy or from a table at Supanova or with cash. You are such a huge part of why I keep creating - I know there are only like, ten people out there who really dig what I'm doing, so just know that you (yes, you) are so, so appreciated. Extra special thanks to Katie and Jay, who are both absolute superstar fans.

Let me know if y'all want to see more stuff from the archives!