I have a problem with narrowing it down. When it comes to writing, I haven’t found a niche, because I don’t want to limit myself to only one type of writing/ fiction/ genre. Or maybe it’s just that I haven’t found that niche yet, the one that clicks and says ‘yes, this is it.’
But I have the same problem with other creative outlets. I don’t just make cards, or just stick to crochet and knitting, I dabble. I do some sewing (not very well), some knitting (which is getting slowly more sophisticated), crochet I learned. I don’t only sketch with pencils, but with biros, I use watercolours, acrylics… I’m never quite sure which route is best, is me, the one that best expresses myself. I even tried doing a big cross-stitch like the ones my Granny made, of children under umbrellas recently. (Let me tell you it takes a long time to get very far).
It’s not that I get easily bored; I made cards and crocheted for months before my most recent craft fairs, but I like to be able to spread my net wide, because I do genuinely enjoy all the different things I do. Some days I have more of an urge to draw or write than to crochet my hundreth granny square for Phoebe’s blanket- other days I make seven squares in an evening because I just want to get it done before she moves into her toddler bed.
Sometimes, when I’m doing my cardmaking/ drawing/ writing/ sewing, I dream of having a job or a business, something which means I can do this- create– for my livelihood. But therein lies a large problem; I would have to narrow it down. The answer to ‘what do you do?’ can’t really be ‘Oh, I’m a writer, crafter and I paint’ or something equally vague. I would have to concentrate my energies down one path, and a niche down that path, in order for it to work, surely? It seems to me that most successful businesses, particulary small creative ones don’t make or sell everything they could possibly sell, but focus in on one area. I don’t know that I would be able to pick that area though. I could write for a living (what, I don’t know?) and then craft as a hobby, or vice versa, or something that doesn’t involve either!
I don’t know what the future holds, and I hope that there might be some way of living from creating, even if it is me just continuing to do it all and dabbling in my free time, not being able to call it my job. At the moment I’m grateful for a few custom orders for my shop, and being able to have a creative outlet at all. After a creative lull post craft fair and in the first few weeks of university, I’m starting to get that itch to create again, and it feels good.
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