But even the full-time job doesn't pay that well: $60K/year, after bonuses. And the company recently had layoffs and moved the plant an hour west, from North Adams, Mass., to Albany, New York. And you have to stand eight hours a day, and half of people drop out of the apprenticeship for whatever reason.

The fact is that an artistically skilled person in the Northeast could find better-paying, less physically taxing, and probably more stable work.