Do handmade items/ crafts make any money??

InsideInsurance

It is certainly possible to make money from crafts, the missus has made enough in a couple of years to be able to fund herself to go through 4 years of uni to get more formal training in design etc

Firstly, you need to remember this is a business and really you need to treat it as such. You cannot buy some pretty paper/ yarn/ fabric that is 5 times the amount as the normal stuff if your not going to be able to add the same to the sales price. Wastage needs to be kept to a minimum etc etc

Secondly, you need to understand how long it takes to make your products and this should be reflected in the pricing. The missus grossly under estimated the production time initially, especially of little embellishments that took masses of time to do. It resulted in backlog, complaints and sometime working for less than £1 an hour

Thirdly, good photos are really important. There is a reason why Channel doesnt use a camera phone to do their product shots. We did an A B test with basic photos and semi-pro shots of the same product and the pro shots got 4 times the sales

Finally, you cannot compete on price in a global market and so dont try. Sell on quality, "made in britain", organic, recycled or whatever else you can use to convince people to pay more than the overseas factory