Selling handmade products and paintings: how to sell more with creators

Selling handmade products rarely fails because of the quality of the work. More often, too few people know it exists. Handmade jewellery, ceramics, candles, macramé or paintings sell when someone sees them in a real home, on a real person, and hears how they are made. So besides choosing where to sell, plan who will show your work to people who don’t know you yet. Online creators do this job remarkably well.

Where to sell handmade products and paintings

Most makers start with one or more of these channels:

• Your own Instagram, TikTok or Facebook profile – orders via direct messages. A quick start, but reach depends on how many people already follow you.
• Handmade marketplaces and general sales platforms – ready buyer traffic, but also dozens of similar listings next to yours.
• Your own online store – full control over brand and price, but you have to bring customers yourself.
• Fairs, craft markets and design shops – direct contact with buyers, limited by date and place.

All these channels share one weakness: none of them builds awareness on its own. Even the best shop sells nothing if nobody finds it. If you sell on a large platform, also read how to increase Allegro sales with creators.

Why handmade sells through people, not catalogue photos

When buying something handmade, customers pay not only for the object but for the story, the style and the certainty that it is unique. A photo on a white background cannot convey that. A video can: a creator wearing your earrings in an everyday outfit, hanging a painting above the sofa or lighting a candle in the evening with a book.

A creator shows the product in context and in their own words, and their audience trusts their taste. For a small studio, it is the shortest route to people who like similar things but would never find your profile on their own. The content created along the way can also be reused as UGC on your profile and in your shop.

If you offer classes alongside finished pottery, commission a different demonstration: a participant’s first attempt and the instructor’s guidance. See how to promote pottery workshops for beginners, including what participants make during the visit and what they collect later.

How to choose creators for handmade products

Follower count matters less than a matching style. Look for people whose content makes your work look natural:

• Ceramics, candles, macramé, paintings, decor – creators in the home and interiors niche.
• Jewellery, bags, handmade clothing – creators in the fashion niche.
• Paintings, prints, illustrations – creators in the culture niche who talk about art and design.
• Natural cosmetics and soaps – skincare creators; toys and children’s accessories – parenting creators; pet accessories – creators with pets.

Before deciding, watch a few of the creator’s recent posts. Check whether the visual style fits your work, whether real conversations happen in the comments and whether followers ask where the featured items come from.

Formats that sell handmade items

• The making process – a short studio video: shaping, painting, sewing. It shows the time and skill behind the price.
• Unboxing – opening a parcel with your packaging and a handwritten note.
• Product in use – a painting on the wall, a mug with morning coffee, a necklace in an outfit.
• Gift ideas – content before Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day: who the item would suit as a present.
• Personalisation – the creator orders a version with a name or in a chosen colour and shows how ordering works.

Barter or paid collaboration

For handmade products, barter is a natural starting point: the creator receives your work in exchange for content. It works when the product appeals to the creator’s audience and the scope is simple, such as one story or post. When you need specific formats, a deadline before gift season or the right to use the content in ads, paying is fairer and more effective. In both cases the content should be labelled as a collaboration – see the glossary entry on advertising disclosure.

How to prepare your first campaign

1. Pick one product or collection – ideally something available in several pieces or made to order, so you can fulfil orders after publication.
2. Describe the task: what the creator receives, which format they record, what they must show (e.g. hand finishing) and by when.
3. Give the audience a reason to buy now – a separate discount code or UTM-tagged link for each creator.
4. Approve the content before publication so colours, studio name and ordering details are correct.
5. Measure the result – orders from codes and links, new followers, questions in messages. Many people buy only after a few days, so judge results over a longer period.

If you have never written a brief for a creator, use our guide on how to write a brief for a creator.

How Blogger Bank helps you sell handmade products with creators

The owner of a small studio or a painter usually has no time to message dozens of profiles and settle terms in DMs. Blogger Bank is the simplest way to get your work shown by the right people – the whole collaboration cycle happens in one place:

• Instead of messaging every creator separately – you describe the task once, and creators who like your work apply on their own.
• Instead of guessing who really fits your aesthetic – you browse profiles filled in by the creators themselves and choose people from the home, fashion or culture niches.
• Instead of terms scattered across messages – the contract with the chosen creator is generated automatically, and barter and paid briefs run in the same place.
• Instead of paying upfront and hoping the content appears – for paid briefs, secure payment reaches the creator after you approve the content.
• Instead of chaos before gift season – chats, contracts and terms with many creators at once sit in one dashboard.

Browse the influencer catalogue by niche and city. Create a business account and describe in your first brief which piece of your work you want to show to new customers.