2012-04-26

WHAT HANDMADE IS ALL ABOUT?




Today I am not going to show much - I am going to ask you a question instead:

What do you understand by handmade and what does it mean to you?

I am going to provoke you a bit.

Pretty much everything can be considered handmade, it all depends on the point of view.
Sometimes the point of view can be such that it puts artists and crafters into a very small niche of ridiculous people who can't really be taken seriously, leaving all the rest of the 'handmade selling space' to manufacturers and resellers who claim their products have been made by hand. Who's hand? It does not seem to matter...

Now, to me it certainly does matter who's hand has been involved into making a piece I believe is handmade.

Like this one:




Do you like these hair sticks?
I like them very much myself.
Now, let me present you the hand that has made them:




It's the artist's or the crafter's hand that makes the difference between the handmade and the rest of the world.
Or, at least, it should be...
______________________________
Wooden hair forks by The Ancient Muse
The photo of  The Muse's hand is borrowed from her blog.



9 comments:

  1. Dear Jagna it bough tears in my eyes thank you for sharing. AS artists all we want is appreciation and be more priced then resellers:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I read and re-read your post today. As a jewelry designer who just got back from a craft show with barely any sales, your last line made me feel so much better! Its resonating and I wish more people would read this post. Tweeting it now!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm with you. I make every single piece by hand, and I while I was at a wedding expo last weekend I had a "high end" shoe and accessory designer come up to my booth and ask if I had them manufactured. Obviously I said no, and I was really confused about why he would even ask. But then I went over to his booth later and there was no way he made any of the stuff himself. And to make it even more insulting, he was charging about 5x what I was for ACTUAL handmade goods.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this. and that hand has so much character.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post, Jagna! You are right, it is matter who's hands makes things.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post Jagna! And lovely hands Isil !;)

    ReplyDelete