Crafty People

So I was in line for the annual holiday craft show at the old neighborhood high school this past weekend. This is by far the biggest local event of the year. Outside it's bumper to bumper. Inside, it's elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Very crowded. And of course, almost all women.

So I am in line and the lady taking the $3 entrance fee asks, "Aren't you a crafter?" I tell her, no. She responds, "Oh, I'm sorry", as if the question were offensive somehow.

Hea, what can I say. Somewhere muddled in my double helix of DNA there's a shopping gene.

Besides, I like to Xmas shop for my own people, co-workers and the like. The big attraction at this particular craft show is any non-electrical outdoor Christmas decoration on a pole--something you can drive into the ground. Snowman birdfeeders, Santa on a stick . . . stuff like that.

Last year I ordered from a crafter about a dozen hand-painted Christmas boxes for my colleagues at work. I planned to fill each with Christmas candy. But this lady didn't have enough on hand; she would have to make them first. We arranged to meet at a local coffeehouse then for the delivery.

A couple weeks later, as I approached the coffee shop from across the street, I spied a little girl about seven years old whose nose was pressed against the glass inside and whose eyes got bigger as she watched me approach. Then a big smile crossed her face, almost as if I were Santa himself coming to meet her. It was the crafter's daughter. To watch her mother make a "big" $60 transaction was obviously too cool for her.

I thought about all the time this lady put into these boxes, not to mention paying for the raw materials, then driving about 30 miles one-way to deliver them to my town. It makes me wonder how much money these crafters make. Just purchasing space for a booth can run easily over $100 for the local show.

A co-worker of mine says his wife is a crafter herself, displaying her home-made scarves and comforters at various craft shows. When my colleague asked her what her financial goal was at the latest event, she said her primary goal was to pay back her set-up fee and break even. But he said this was pretty much the financial equivalent of buying all the materials, spending hours creating the crafts, then going down to the local streetcorner and giving them away free.

This didn't seem to phase his crafty spouse. Afterall, it's the thrill of creating something personal, then knowing that somebody is paying for the privilege of putting it into their own house for everyone's enjoyment.

Guess this is a difference between men and women. The joy of sharing around the holidays is enough for women. For men, there's got to be a profit in it too.