What does it really mean one-of-a-kind?

We make assumptions every day. And especially we makers and artists, tend to think that the world out there understands our artwork as we do. But we couldn’t be more wrong.

If you sell your art on your website or any other e-commerce platform, you have the advantage of being able to describe your beautiful products in full detail. List all the materials you used, share inspiration about how to use the product and of course tell about your story and the making process behind.

Whether the customers read it before pressing the “order now” button, we don’t know. Or if such a detailed description helps customers to make a buying decision… probably. I certainly find a well-written product description, which goes further than just listing the size and weight of the items very powerful.

But when you are standing on a market or craft fair you usually have a very limited or no space at all to display a long, detailed description of every piece of artwork you are selling there. People are passing by and they either get attracted by your artwork or not. If they do, you might have a little chance of starting a conversation and sharing your making process and the benefits of getting one of your products instead of something else with them. But let’s be honest, not all makers are the conversation kind of person. And not all customers are willing to stand up for a couple of minutes and listen to your story.

This beautiful Japanese book is part of my hand-marbled Stationery collection – check more colours and formats here.

One thing I found pretty difficult when doing markets and craft fairs, was telling potential customers that my artwork was one-of-a-kind and not a digital printed version of my art. They looked astonished to the bright colours and beautiful marbled patterns and 9 out of 10 times they muttered something like “oh, this has to be printed”.

I am not doing any markets or craft fairs now, but I wish I had come up with some ideas back in that time to tell people about the nature of my artwork more easily. Maybe marbling some papers live at the fair? Making a demo so they know how the process works? Having pictures of the process displayed next to the products? Well, that ship has sailed now.

But if you are reading this and wondered what one-of-a-kind means, here it is:

My artwork is unique, and I am not saying this just because I love it and I think it’s awesome. Each piece of paper that goes out of the craft room, either as a notebook, photo album or as part of a DIY bookbinding kit, has been hand-marbled. There aren’t two of the same. There might be similar papers, hand-marbled in the same colour combination and pattern, but none of them is the same.

Two traditional techniques combined in one product: Marbling and Japanese Binding.  Check more one-of-a-kind books here.

I like to emphasize this because there are many digitalized versions of hand-marbled papers out there. They can be very useful when producing large quantities of stationery or home décor items. But that has never been my goal. Sure, that would make things easier here in the craft room and I could scale my handmade business. But it wouldn’t be the same.

I might be losing business opportunities and market share, but I want to keep Indigo Craft Room a handcrafted business from start to end. Unique and limited: one-of-a-kind.

In a world where it seems that all living rooms look the same and there is no party where two ladies aren’t wearing the same dress, I want to make sure that you as customers of Indigo Craft Room hold something unique in your hands. And therefore all my artwork is and will be hand-marbled, handcrafted.

Do you want to know more about the creation process in the Craft Room or have questions about my hand-marbled papers? Feel free to share your doubts by email or have a look at this live marbling session on Instagram.

Your crafty fellow,

Karen