I wrote this as a response to a thread on the Etsy forums. A seller was feeling down about a critique that she felt told her that her stuff sucked. I thought I'd post it here for you.----
The hardest thing any artist or craftsman has to face is her(his) critics. Whether you choose to believe or not is what will define you.
One thing you will do well to learn is how to take 'no' for an answer without crumpling. Lots of people will love your stuff or tell you they do because they empathize with you. That's wonderful and it's why we love what we do.
But there are going to be those who don't like it, can't understand it, or just don't get excited by it. Those are the people you can learn from. Ask what it is that they don't like. Maybe it's the color, maybe it reminds them of their mother in law; for whatever reason- you can try to take these as constructive criticisms.
Learn from them how to do better without taking it personally. If the critique is given more as a personal attack at you than a criticism of your work, you can just tell yourself that person is an assh*le and thank god you don't have to see or work with them every day. Life's little blessings, eh?
