Craft Artists

Tasks largely resist digitisation. Centering clay, kiln-firing to a target cone, bezel-setting a cabochon, and hand-sanding a joint through grits are sequential physical judgments with no digital substitute, but the design sketching, pattern drafting, and Etsy listing work that fills the other half of the week is already being done by generative tools, which is what holds this at 14 rather than 18.

Hands-on in uncontrolled environments. You work standing at a wheel, loom, bench, or bandsaw with variable material stock — wood that moves with humidity, clay that flops, stone with hidden fractures — and adapt mid-motion by feel; the 17 rather than 20 reflects that most of it happens in your own studio rather than on unpredictable jobsites.

No licence, no signature requirement. There is no licence, board, or continuing-education requirement to sell hand-thrown mugs or silver rings, and the only statutory hooks are CPSIA lead limits on children's items and FTC country-of-origin labeling — neither of which requires a credentialed human, hence 1.

The human relationship is the product. Repeat collectors, gallery reps, and craft-fair regulars buy your hand specifically — the maker's story and the fact that you touched the object is the price premium over an identical import — but a large share of sales are still one-off booth transactions with strangers, which keeps this at 14 instead of the high teens.

Meaningful discretion. You decide glaze combinations, price points, which commission to accept, and when a piece gets scrapped rather than sold — real discretion over your own reputation and inventory — but nobody else's money, safety, or legal position turns on those calls, so 9 rather than 14.