The Crafts Council is currently running a Maker Survey to help inform the work they do. If you have time, please do complete their questionnaire, so they can tailor their support to meet your needs.
“Whether you’re a hobbyist crafter looking to sell work, you make some or all of your income from craft, or you run an established craft business” they want to hear about your experiences.
Deadline: midnight on Monday 23 September
I filled most of it in but found a lot of their questions a bit intrusive and so I cancelled it right at the end.
Some of the questions were not relevant to me and some I had no idea about…I felt it was for those who wanted to be BIG Business… and wanted to expand a lot…which is not for me as a pensioner .
That was very interesting.
The Crafts Council feels fairly non-relevant to me, whether or not they know it or intend it (which I’m sure they don’t!). I do value their work on the broader spectrum, but I don’t believe they can really bring any value to saddo little micro business makers like me - they seem so much ‘loftier’ than that. Perhaps if I was involved in a more traditional craft like metal working, glass blowing, painting etc., I would feel differently about it.
It mostly wasn’t relevant to me either, and I couldn’t complete it anyway because I haven’t shown work internationally, only sold the occasional piece internationally, but it was trying to make me select where I’d shown work and there wasn’t an option for ‘none of the above’… I crashed it while trying to find one and couldn’t be bothered doing the whole thing again 
Oh, how irritating! I must admit that I didn’t see that - I wonder if I misread that question as “sold” rather than “shown”! 
Done it…
@LooneySpoons i just put united kingdom for that one as I don’t show my work anywhere now.
I must admit other than on Folksy I never take part in surveys as it annoys me when the phone calls and emails start coming in for things I am not interested in. On some of the questions to do with the craft council I just put N/A as my answer as I don’t really know much about them yet.
Debby @Bearlescent …I am quite broad minded and take every individual as I find them but couldn’t understand why they wanted to know my sexual orientation and beliefs…what does THAT have to do with my crocheting a baby jumper or painting a floral card?
I agree completely @teabreaks I nearly put that in my reply, I was surprised to see those questions as well and did wonder what that had to do with anything, I’m ok with them asking whether I am male or female as they gather info to see how many makers are male or female but whether hetrosexual or not i didnt understand and that question seems to come up everywhere nowadays. Normally I wouldn’t even do a survey but I thought it was in some way helping Folksy as Camilla had asked if we could take part otherwise I would have ignored it. I did put N/A for some answers as it wouldn’t let me leave the box blank.