I was reading along at the Etsy forums as I do and saw someone request a definition of handmade. Almost everyone responded with the Etsy market definition of handmade, which as we know makes no distinctions between handmade, handcrafted, assembled or embellished.
The topic has always come up, but in the past there used to be a variety of voices piping in with definitions that included "alteration of a material's basic form" and so on. Today there were no alternative definitions offered - and it looks like _a lot_ more folks are now willing to accept the definition that, for logistic and profit reasons, Etsy has put forward and promoted.
There is definitely a generational shift happening and a lot of young people's first exposure to commercial craft is through Etsy and its sellers marketing themselves online. The meanings of words do change. (And I hope this paragraph doesn't read as a suggestion of an 'us' and 'them' - what I mean to point out is how an idea and definition spreads)
Are artisans, artists and artisan craft lovers doing enough to "protect" and promote the definition of handmade? Are we doing enough to educate when it comes to our definitions? Is it time to think about adopting or emphasizing different words for what traditional hand-makers do? Maybe the term has finally become too watered down to be meaningful. (Remember what happened to "Green" and "Eco-friendly"?)
I couldn't find a perfect forum fit for this topic, so I thought I'd add it the "Marketing" forum since that's one of the main guiding forces behind the changes we're seeing.
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I have a question for Barrie. I looked at your blog spot and saw photos of you working on your frames. How are those not custom frames? I know that this is off topic but from the looks of all the work you do, they sure look like custom frames to me.
Hey there, Jacki. Thanks for reading the thread and asking about my statement upthread. Yes, I make custom frames. But I am a frame designer and maker, not a custom framer. I am a carver and gilder as well.
If you went to a frame shop wherein the proprietor cut and chop moulding purchased from a moulding supplier, she'd refer to herself as a custom framer. A custom framer buys ready made picture frame moulding from a supplier like Larson & Juhl and then chops it to size, glues the miters toghether, and then installs the artwork in the frame. They cut mats and all that stuff, too. Some get fancier than others since they have the new Wizard computer mat cutters. But they rarely have the opportunity to get very far outside the box if ever they get outside of the box.
I rarely buy moulding from a supplier and do the traditional chop and join. There's some beautiful moulding out there, but I handcraft picture frames instead. I am continuously studying picture frame history in order to advance my art and craft of frame making. I also study art and architecture since plenty of those principles apply to me. Carving is akin to drawing and sculpting.
Assemblage is a valid form of art wherein the artist arranges found objects to create two or three dimensional compositions. Enter Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. How about Louise Nevelson? Fast forward to now and you'll see some artists at BIG art fairs whose creative spirit is with creating new objects from found stuff. I haven't seen much that is art for art's sake since that's harder to sell at an art fair than an object of utility, such as a lamp or something decorative for the yard. But I'll mention some art of art's sake in a bit.
Collage is a type of assemblage and I know of a few artists off hand who've been doing this a long time. Holly Hambrick is one of 'em and Parry Dolle is another.
Check out two of my favorite artists who'll be at Winter Park in a few weeks. John Petrey created a woman's dress series completely from assembled found objects. If you aren't aware of his art, check it out on his website at Johnpetrey dot com. Simply amazing. And then there's Nancy Cervenka who creates sculpture with photographic movie film complete with part of the actual production exposed on it. Hers is more an appropriation than assemblage, but the concept is similar since she didn't make the motion picture. She bought it and then worked it into a new form altogether. You'll either have to see her work at Winter Park or elsewhere since I don't think she has a website. You can certainly see one of hers on the Winter Park website. Again, simply amazing art.
So valid assemblage abounds. Just forget about those others who merely decorate purses and shirts and whatnot. They certainly never enter my mind when it comes to thinking about art. They'll slip in to shows here and there. So what. Sometimes shows do what they have to do to survive. Just like Etsy. It does lower their integrity if they specify NO BUY/SELL. But hey, embellished stuff goes a step beyond BUY/SELL. It might not be art, but it might still be valid.
I go to Etsy and see plenty of B/S. They don't even pretend to make it. It's crap from China.
Etsy is in business to make money, not jury "shops". So it seems they modified their criteria to get more business for themselves.
Maybe times have changed, but to me handcrafted or handmade means only one thing. You get raw material and fashion your product from that. I take steel sheets and bars and make my product. Some woodworkers take trees, cut them and turn them on a lathe into art. Fiber artists take bolts of material and create from there, or some actually weave the material. Leatherworkers take raw leather and create beauty from that.
But that's at our level.
The beginners or those doing it for just a few bucks aren't into this. So they will buy something from Craft Wholesalers, embellish it, and call it handcrafted.
And at the beginners craft show world where I started out, and 90% of Etsy, that's acceptable.
Tina, I see it all the time at my filler shows. There are people who will indeed buy blanks and embellish them with as many plastic beads or crystals as they can fit. There are craft forums/blogs on that very subject.
And most shows will allow them every time. It's something you will just have to get used to in this business. You just deal with it, and scratch that show off your schedule for next year. It's called a learning experience. We all go through it until we find our niche. Some decide to go head to head with it, and others find shows that jury it out. It just depends on how much they are wiling to pay for a space.
For whatever reason, ETSY changed its definition of handmade at the beginning of the year. Now if you design it and have it made (manufactured) elsewhere as long as you divulge that, ETSY will consider it handmade. I immediately closed my ETSY shop and opened a Zibbet shop instead. Etsy may have done it to create new revenue streams for themselves or because they had people already on the site doing that and it was easier to embrace it than to police it. I would now be very suspect of items sold on Etsy as to their handcrafted-ness although some are. Regardless, just because Etsy has done that does not mean any art shows are changing their definition of artist made.
Handmade is nothing but a word – I think it is up to us to SHOW that our products are “handmade”. Instead of educating people about definitions I think its of greater value to educate about our particular craft, it’s history and the process we use. When we do those things then I think the customer will assign the appropriate title to the product.
I don’t know how many artists/artisan websites / Facebook pages I’ve been to that show nothing but finished product. The finished product of course is important – however if we’re selling “handmade” products shouldn’t we be showing and describing the process we go through in order to make that product?
I show and describe my process on my blog rather than website. For quite a while I have had a blog with blogspot dot com (as mentioned upthread), but I'm about to integrate the blog with my website and ditch blogspot dot com. SO then I'll have the process "on my website" in my blog rather than as a link to my blog at blogspot dot com. I don't have a facebook page, but if I did I probably would only show finished work there as well.
I have seldom looked at Etsy. What is the Etsy market definition of handmade?
If I said to you that I design and handcraft picture frames, what would you think that I do? Would you also call me a custom framer? Some might, but I certainly wouldn't. You can see what I mean by looking at merglenn dot blogspot dot com.
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