We live in a much different world than we did 10 to 20 years ago.  Many people in the United States are angry at large businesses and our government, for letting jobs that use to be done in the US go overseas.  The US was a major manufacturer in the world at one time but things have changed.  Now just about any job that can be done by a worker in a country outside of the US is being done in other countries.  Even technical support phone centers have move out of the US and into other countries.

Providence, Rhode Island was once the jewelry manufacturing capital of the world, but now the jewelry business there is just a skeleton of what it once was with warehouses of left over jewelry scattered throughout the city.

If you are thinking about making just about any product in the US, you have to consider the foreign competition for that product.  It is harder and harder to make a product in the US that will sell for a price that can compete with a similar product that is made outside of the United States.

What does this mean for an individual that has a love for making unique products with their own artistic flair?  I believe that there is and will always be a market for US hand made items.  The big difference between now and years ago is that there has to be a perceived difference between the US made goods and the foreign made good before the customers are going to buy the US goods.

It is not good enough to say that this was made in the USA.  Buyers in the US have lots of choices about where and what they want to buy.  The internet has opened up a huge new marketplace where anything can be purchased.  Buyers are becoming smarter about what they buy.  At the same time, there is a large group of people in the US that have the money and the desire to purchase special and unique items.

There are so many mass produces goods pouring into the US that many people are hungry for the unusual.  This is a way that they can express their own identity.  This is where an artistic person can fill a need in the market.  Items produced overseas are mass produced and therefore less artistic.

A good example of where US artists are doing very well is in the lamp work glass bead field.  There are a number of people that make and sell their beads for a very good price even though there are lamp work glass beads made overseas.  The artistic expression in the US made glass beads is superior to the foreign mass produces lamp work beads and the buyers recognize and appreciate the difference.

If you are going to make a product, you are competing in a world market whether you like it or not.  You can not just make a product that looks like something that is made outside of the US.  You have to make something that has an artistic difference so that it stands out from the mass produced market.

There is still a place for US made products to be sold in the United States today and there will be for a long time.  The difference now is that, you have to be more selective in what you make and more creative.