Works-in-Progress Wednesday (10/21/26)

What's going on at HaldeCraft this week? This is the second day in about two weeks I've had the full day for in-studio work, and I almost don't even know what to do. Yesterday I just handbuilt something I didn't need to make but wanted to, just because it had been too long since I'd had my hands in clay. Today, I'm trying to figure out where I am and what I need to get done before the end of the year.

I was accepted into GLAM in December, and it's six and a half weeks from today. I have so many things I want to make for it, new things I've been thinking about making for the shop next year. So I'm trying to do one thing for the show every day, even if that thing is a small thing like stamping bags with my logo. Anything, even small things, I can do now means I won't be fussing trying to get them done at the last minute (like usual, haha). Wish me luck! After I finish writing this post and getting orders together, I plan to go handbuild another thing. Maybe two of the same thing if I have time.

Meanwhile, something else I'm trying to get sorted and done in order, is my video-to-picture-to-post-to-listing pipeline. Honestly I think I've given up on getting everything done in order for the rest of the year, so if you follow me on socials, you may see something listed, and then a week later see a video about it, and then a week or two later, photos showing up on Socials. Sorry/not sorry if that's maddening - believe me, it's maddening to me to not have things in order - but things have just been pulling me in so many different directions the last few months. When I get pulled in different directions, I get distracted, and when I get distracted, I lose focus, and then things that are only scheduled in my head go all haywire. Right now I think my plan is to get a certain number of things up and posted however I can, and then in January work on getting things more in order.

Speaking of socials, though, one thing that's causing me distraction is Facebook's upcoming changes to business pages.

This is a brief list of upcoming changes, and I am cool with... none of them.

I work hard on writing my listings using my own voice, my own bad puns, my own joy and my own frustration in running out of things to say about the same thing. I don't want Meta training their Ai models on my hard work - especially when I'm not getting a bunch of free work from them in return.

I am a Non-Meta Verified business. I do not want to verify my business with Meta. Why not? Here's the current chart of their prices and what they offer for that (clicking should get you a larger version):

They say on their website that if you have your Facebook business page and Instagram linked, you "might" be able to "apply" for a "small discount" on two plans. That's right; even though they're rolling everything into one soon, they want you to pay for two plans if you want all the special stuff on both FB and Insta. I've known this was coming for a while, I just wasn't sure when they were starting it - that's why for the most part I've stopped putting links in my posts there directing you to my website. According to this, for $50/month I'll be able to make eight posts that have links in them on Facebook per month. I really don't want to give Meta $50/month. Or $100/month for both Facebook and Instagram. Yes, I believe in spending money for advertising, but this is barely even advertising - it's basically what I've been doing for years, taking time away from making things to make my own posts about making things, only now I'll have to pay for it? If I want to, that is. I don't think I'm required to - it's just that less people will see my stuff if I don't. I'm torn between "fight The Man, keep doing what I'm doing!" and "is this even worth it." I've seen a LOT of posts by other crafters, artists, and makers this week saying they're leaving Facebook because of this. I.... I can't. I do one, maybe two shows a year - other than that, my business is entirely online. I need every online avenue I can use.

I do not want Ai integration on my Facebook messages. Leaving aside the whole "destroying the ecosystem" thing, I just don't trust Ai to do a good job. I don't trust it to use my voice. I don't trust it to know what I know. I don't trust it to not hallucinate answers and then have customers get mad at me for Ai steering them wrong.

I don't want product browsing in ads. I want to show a picture or a video, and if people are intrigued they can look at my website or ask me questions. Plus, here's what they're not telling you about Meta ads but that I've been seeing a lot of chatter about this week on anti-Ai platforms... meta is using Ai to modify ("optimize") ads on FB. Small makers like myself are making ads by actually photographing their product and maybe using a program to add text to the picture, and then Meta uses generative Ai tools to alter backgrounds, adjust formats, target audiences, add animations, write headlines or text, adjust ad delivery, make variants, and change placement based on "real time user activity." What does that mean? Small businesses like myself are being blasted on Socials for using Ai in their ads when "claiming to be anti-Ai", when really they ARE anti Ai and what's happening is that their ads are being changed without permission.

I have so many thoughts about this I am almost speechless with frustration.

Heavy sigh. ..... ............... I just want to make art, man. I just want to bring good art into a world that needs it. I want to bring pieces into being that make people feel connected. Are you a left-handed person who wants to tell people to fuck off? I have a mug for you! Are you a weirdo who likes skulls and thinks having one in bright pretty colors that you can stick a candle into would be awesome? You are my kind of weirdo and I have a luminary for you! Are you looking for a gift for a yarn lover? I dye yarn, and I make yarn bowls! Let me put a gift basket together for you! I just want to connect with people who want my art and I want their days to be a little bit better for having some of my art in it.

Sigh.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go on for quite so long about that, but... there we go. As far as the rest of the week? More handbuilding, some glazing, working on a couple of delayed custom orders, and when everything gets to be too much, snuggling with my dogs on the couch.

Oh! And while I'm in the studio this week, I'm listening to an audio book called "18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics" by Bruce Goldfarb. I've always been fascinated by her miniatures, as I also love dollhouses and miniatures, and getting to learn how she shaped forensic science is a real treat.

So.

How about you? What are you working on this week?