I got a very nice invitation in my inbox today, from my spectacular Mom.And, holy shit did it bring up a lot stuff in my brain today, as communication with my Mom sometimes(often) does. And this was just an e-vite...that's it. But it was an e-vite to a home jewelry party, for a company that sounds like it was named after a steamy, Latin dance step, that specializes in 'hand-crafted' sterling silver jewelry. Low growl. Groan. Facepalm. To be honest, and that's all I'm being here, while I totally want to hang out with my Mom, and would do so at a ghastly home sales party if it was the only opportunity to see her (awww...) I really wouldn't attend a home jewelry party like this because of a few reasons. First, my ego. I'd totally look at everything thinking "I could prolly make that" even if I couldn't. I'm kind of irritating that way. Secondly, my doubt.
Though they claim that their jewelry is 'hand crafted by artisans', these companies manufacture (yes, manufacture) most of their jewelry in places like Mexico and China, and while the designs were often created by the people who own or direct the company, the pieces are produced en mass by poorly-paid crafts people...one can only assume women and children because they have smaller hands to do delicate work. I say assume because I just don't know, and can't confirm who the acting jewelry-making workforce for these companies is, mostly because they refuse to be transparent about their manufacturing. There is generally next to no information about it on their website, and on the web generally the links you will find are for the independent sales reps. However, if you spend any time in the Etsy forums, you will find nothing but pages and pages of artisans ranting about these kinds of companies trying to sell on Etsy, ebay and in community shows and how Etsians can't stand their constant misrepresentation of the term 'handmade'.
I did a holiday craft-show-from-hell last November and part of the 'from hell' bit was that I was stuck next to a shitty, smelly vintage reseller who way overstepped their booth limits and blew some of my visibility, and the fact that there was a Steamy-Latin-Dance-Step rep there making tons of sales hand over fist for 'hand-made' mass-produced jewelry...at an event that was being advertised as a Hand Made Craft and Design holiday sale! I tore a strip off the show organizers for allowing them in...they said that they just assumed that in their case 'handmade by crafted artisans' was true...even though they had met the sales rep at the show, not the actual crafted artisan. How much of a bigger hint does a person need? And I'm not gonna lie here; I was fucking jealous of the sales that rep was getting, which made me wicked mad at myself for being jealous. Two big fat negative emotions plus a super-crappy craft show equals a good time had by all...
This brings me to the point that I guess I take more to heart, selfish being that I am. These companies tout their mass produced goods as handmade, when they aren't, and they charge a pretty penny for them to support the pyramid scheme that is their marketing system. And they always do well at parties, shows, etc, because people see the pieces as functional, pretty, unique etc...even when they are seeing that piece on someone else who wears it, or in a catalog. That's fine. Buy what you like, and if what you like is dictated somehow by forces outside of you, then maybe you need to try harder, Homer. This mindless consumption (meaning: not thinking about the process it takes to bring something into being) fuels entities like Steamy-Latin-Dance-Step, fuels 'sameness' and conformity and general boringness and a normalized a lack of respect for art and the artist. It directly hurts the handmade movement that I am a part of. I dedicate an insane amount of time, energy and spirit into my craft, which truly is handmade. Steamy-Latin-Dance-Step isn't handmade by artisans. It's made, partially by hand, possibly by people who have no choice or care in the matter of whether it gets made or not, over and over and over and over again. What I find beyond creepy is that there is absolutely no information out there (that I have been able to find, and I consider myself a pretty resourceful finder of information) that states 'where' the jewelry is made. As a craftsperson, I am VERY proud to advertise that I am the person who makes this jewelry, here in Canada, with my own two hands, brain and heart. Any company that isn't making that kind of information readily available to the public has something to hide. Whether that's a big thing or a small thing is up to you, but to me, it's a big thing. I want transparency. I don't want to wear jewelry on myself that has been made by hands that didn't want to make it. That's it.
I am happy(ish) to be transparent myself. I am by no means innocent of buying less-than-equal products, I shop several times a year at Walmart to buy the one cut of jeans that actually fits my ass and my waist at the same time, or the 900 lbs of kitty litter for $3 when my wallet has only moths in it...I hang-headedly admit it. Cheap-ass, totally inethical Walmart sometimes makes my life easier...probably at the expense of making someone else's a little harder. Which sucks to me. Hell, I work for companies that do or buy ALL of their manufacturing and inventory overseas. "Made in ..." is written on everyone of those things...if it isn't, the web or the company or someone will tell you where it was made. It bugs me that these jewelry company sales reps don't themselves know where the pieces are made. This is a common joke on the Etsy forums: "Ask the sales rep where the pieces are made. They can't answer you." If you're ever at a home party, I ask you to try it, just for shits and giggles. Why don't they just proudly say where it was made, especially if it's handmade by artisans? Seriously, why? The artisans themselves would want people to know...well, I would want people to know. Allow me a "Barts People" moment here (btw, I love you if you get that reference): I imagine a girl in a "Made in..." country might really love making things with her hands like I do, and might one day find herself in a situation where she would get to do that all day, and even get a bit of money for it, in a kind-of-ok environment. And she would do it because it kinda beats the alternatives by a long-shot, and because money really helps make life easier. And I imagine that after being a faceless-brilliant-just-getting-by-jewelry-maker for a few years, knowing your work was undoubtably being enjoyed by someone out there, but never hearing thank-you, or wow, or i-really-want-this, never actually knowing, would eventually make me want to die. And I just started crying typing that sentence. Obviously, I'm worked up about this. Buy what you want to buy, and know what you want to know. Awesome things can happen if you combine the possibilities of both. Please help support handmade. It brings respect and energy to people who actually make things that we all need with their love and their hands, which in turn makes the movement stronger and more widely respected, enveloping and supporting more and more craftspeople into sustainable, creative lives. It's not a fucking pipe-dream, it does actually work this way, but you actually have to make the choice to support it however you can, whenever you can. End of 'Bart's People' moment. Thanks for reading and feeling however you are feeling about what I just wrote. And Mom, I hope you'll still invite me to things...