What will they think?

This is the question that probably runs through every designer's mind at least once. What will the client think of the finished product?

This can be quite gruelling when you are just starting out in the handmade business, making a couple of things here and there, most as presents, because then you know for sure they will not easily refuse or criticise your work. It is a time of great doubt, when your confidence is below sea level and when you find a hundred little flaws in everything you make.

I have felt this every time, especially since I had been keeping my little craft more or less a secret from my family and friends. This is another issue. Making things by hand and especially making lace is mostly viewed as quaint at best and a ridiculous waste of time at worst. "Why don't you do this other thing if you want to make money? It would be more profitable." Well, I am mostly doing this because I enjoy it. Money comes second and I definitely will not quit my day job for this, or I will be broke.

So when someone does decide to ask for a piece made by you, you will try to make sure it is perfect, or else you wouldn't be able to live with yourself, even if the client might never show again in your life.

It is very difficult to shake all this doubt off and put on the "client-vision" glasses. You will often find flaw in your own work, although the flaws are almost invisible. Try to see things from the point of view of your client and see that you made something exceptional and the flaws disappear or even become part of the design and give it "that little something".

Indeed, what will they think?