Musings on Moustaches and the Sin of Unoriginality

Being an Etsian (and Etsy being one of my favorite sites), besides browing the listings and continually adding hip modern dresses and one-of-a-kind jewelry to my Favorites list, I spend a lot of my time on the forums and on the Storque blog reading up on how to improve my shop, business, photographs, etc.

One of the pieces of advice I saw given a few days ago, to a new shop owner, was "to make things with moustaches on them."  As you may or may not know, moustaches are apparently HUGE. Everywhere there are moustache cards, prints, shirts, and little moustaches on sticks for posing with.

I would post pictures of such items, but I'm sure you, Beloved Reader, are perfectly capable of going to Etsy and searching 'moustache.'  And I'm pretty sure no one wants to be featured in a blog with the theme of "I hate moustaches."

That's right.  I think this moustache trend is ridiculous.  However, that's not what bothers me.  What bothers me is those that cater to the trend.  It's one thing for someone who makes t-shirts or maybe even letterpress prints.  But to tell a new Etsian, one who is just starting out and hoping someone will love their hard-made creation, to make something merely because it's popular?  It kind of goes against the whole point for me.

I love Etsy for it's originality.  I love it because I can find such wonderful things as these:

Arboouricon I from PistolesPress.

Felt donut charm in Eclair from mayene

Beanzilla dog hat from BeanTownHandmade

   Now that's some work.  Someone took hours to carve out all the little trees in Arbouricon.  Another loved eclairs enough to make felt ones (and I understand that love, oh yes I do).  And the dog hat?  Honestly, I'm surprised my fiance hasn't already bought one for our dog and started building little cities in the living room. 

So my message to you, fellow crafters (and those buying said crafts) is this:  There is so much out there that is truly unique.  Be yourself, create what you want to create.  You'll find more success in that way, in the end.  And you won't have a bunch of useless stock when moustaches go out of fashion in a month.

Besides, if you wouldn't put it on your face, should you be putting it on your art?