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Does Handmade Matter?

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Categories: Instruction and information; Jewelry

Word count/read time: 500 words; 2 minutes

FYI WARNING: Most people who claim to have handmade jewelry defined under Code of Federal Regulations, Title 16, Chapter I, Subchapter B, Part 23, Section 23.3 are lying.

See another few blogs about handmade jewelry here and here.

Handmade does matter, especially to the sellers who illegally use the word to make their products more appealing. To those who do it right, handmade carries prestige. Crafted from raw materials, it expresses the artist's style, their insatiable lust for perfection, and exhibits something remarkable using manual construction methods.

Machines generally make the best chains, findings, clasps, and whatnot. Humans excel because we can improvise and eventually get it done. Disregarding the junk, there are some impressive artists and pieces. Machine- or man-made, it's neither a scarlet letter nor a badge of honor.

"Organic" has been defined for food as concisely as "handmade" has for jewelry. Pesticide-laced, GMO-laden, preservative-stuffed, additive-drowned, chemically flavored and colored food products can't be called organic. Likewise, an MDF kit from IKEA can't be called custom, solid wood, locally sourced, or handmade. Commercial findings are inexpensive and take seconds to install but using those means the item is not handmade.

In reality, the law is completely ignored. How liberating it must be to have no ethical constraints! Failing being a responsible, intelligent, and lawful seller, at the very least common sense should say, "Wait. I didn't make any of these parts by hand."

So much for handmade being handmade! At best it's a lucky coincidence with little significance or relevance in the grand picture. As long as it looks good at a fair price, does anyone care if they're being blatantly conned? With the value placed on money and possessions, everyone should hate being scammed.

The lawyer at the USA government that handles this regulation was stunned into silence after a cyber tour of the industry. Not one of the hundreds of "handmade" listings we looked at was handmade.

Federal law allows anyone to sue these liars for damages...maybe I could make a living like this? Being found legally culpable and paying damages in excess of their profits would "encourage" responsible behavior. Until then, it's the Wild West.

Some may think handmade is an automatic quality boost, that their workmanship won't be judged too harshly. The opposite is true: You have to exceed every expectation because seeking protection behind the label is what posers do. Custom, museum-quality...these principles epitomize and embody handmade so make it look that way.

To summarize, much to my consternation, customers don't care about handmade. They also don't care how many lies the seller told, which tribes were murdered to get the raw materials, the environmental or habitat destruction caused by mining, whether sweatshops or forced labor manufactured it, fake metals, locally owned, IT DOESN'T MATTER! Their desires or a good price trumps everything.

Not handmade means it is another copy drowning in a sea of ordinariness. No originality, an over-glorified lemmings' toy. Handmade thrives here and that's how I've always done things.

Posted by M: December 6, 2019

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