I'm taking an anticapitalist marketing class

Whenever my friend from forever ago in college, Liz, and I get together across many states, we talk about being a creative, caring person in the world, and how we are working to show up to the challenge of making a living in a way that doesn't feel demoralizing and feeds our purpose. She has studied both art education and social work, given her time and energy to several different non profits trying to make Maine a better place for all types of folks, and now runs a creative co-working space in Brunswick, Maine that she opened about a year and a half ago, and I am so so inspired by and proud of her for doing something that helps the community thrive and that feeds her purpose of supporting artists and creating the world she wants to live in, where we all have opportunities to feel good in our bodies and be well taken care of. Its called Electric Cottage Collective, if you wanna check it out! So when she told me about an online course that had a sliding scale fee ($0-$$$) about how to do business in an anticapitalist way, I jumped on the opportunity immediately. 

Emily Eley is teaching the class, and she reminds us first and foremost that being an anticapitalist isn't about tearing things down, its more about what we are bringing to the marketplace, and whether or not that's something that is actually useful to and needed by the public. The problem with the marketplace is not that it exists- markets have been the location for sharing good and supporting survival for millllennnnnnia; the problem is when its flooded with things people don't need that are actually causing harm to be produced. Its such a good reminder to me because sometimes I really question whether I'm making myself busy doing the right thing, and its nuanced too because no, jewelry is not needed for survival. But as I say often, humans have been adorning themselves as long as we know- beads for adornments have been found to be at least a hundred thousand years old! Because it is so ingrained in our beings to make meaning through decorating our bodies, we might as well do it in an ethical way that supports life rather than disrupts it. 

And that's where my soapbox comes in. A lot of jewelry, both cheap and expensive, is made at odds with what is fair to humans and our precious eco systems, from strip mining, destroying thousands and thousands of acres of wild lands to scoop a few handfuls of diamonds out of the ground, to the way that the humans who live there are forced through colonialism to make ends meet working perilously and for very little subsistence to get those gems and food for their families. Or what is made cheaply in sweat shop factories from weak, cheap metals and then gold plated in toxic conditions, which wears away becoming trash, either broken or tarnished before too long, a waste of energy spent on trend-chasing deals. 

Altar Metals are made with recycled materials whenever possible, sturdy materials that last or can be replaced, stones that have been bought second hand or were taken from old or broken jewelry, and with studio practices that are the least extractive that I can effectively come up with given current circumstances, and I am always trying to improve my practice by creating less waste and using less electricity and compressed gas. And then there is the design work- I put a lot of intention into creating designs that support strength and spiritual growth for people both in my production line and custom work, so that the clients I serve are supported in showing up for their purposeful roles in the world. 

So this class is just about showing up honestly, and efficiently, so that we can get our needs met as business owners who are doing their best to meet the needs of the marketplace because we too matter and deserve to thrive. And it is often those who care the most who are afraid to ask for more money for what they do. I struggle with this all the time- even though I have had lots of happy custom clients I still always under estimate the work I will put in and end up making way less than minimum wage. I have started to offer the client a sliding scale price for the final payment to try to cover more of the time I spent working on their piece, instead of just raising my ask. I find that most people are willing to pay more than expected, but this is how I can live with myself and acknowledge that my original estimate was what this client agreed to.