In my grandmother’s era there was no need to question what was authentically handmade – an item was either made by hand or it was commercially produced by machine or on a factory line in large batches for the consumer.
In my mother’s era, people stopped doing many things themselves – why bother to make something when you could buy it much cheaper and spend the time and money on something else?Now there is a resurgence of crafting and making and DIY culture: a quick search online for handmade will give you hundreds of thousands of hits – add “marketplace” and you’ll find Etsy at the top of a growing list – Artfire, Zibbet, Folksy and so on. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to use Etsy as the example, but the issue applies to all of these sites. If there is any one thing that Etsy can really take credit for it’s this: raising the question of what exactly is handmade.Etsy allows sellers to list in one of three categories: handmade, supplies, and vintage. To be vintage, the item must be at least 20 years old – which means that original NKOTB tshirt your local neighbourhood hipster found at the thriftstore but couldn’t bear to wear, even ironically, is now being flipped for a $20 profit. Supplies may be either mass produced or handmade but are intended for the use of other crafters to make products that likely they in turn may sell for a suitable profit. Etsy’s terms of service state: “Handmade items must be created by the seller (or a member of the collective) operating the Etsy shop. Production assistance for certain intermediary tasks in some crafts may be acceptable.” Also, “ the term "handmade" can additionally be interpreted as "hand-assembled" or "hand-altered."” Now, a quick search for knit cardigans in handmade may bring up any and all of the following:• a cardigan hand knit using a commercial pattern (whether revealed or not) and commercial yarn
• a cardigan hand knit from the knitter’s own pattern using commercial yarn
• a cardigan hand knit from the knitter’s own pattern using yarn she spun and dyed in her own back yard.
• an upcycled cardigan from the thrift store with some sort of adornment tacked on – new buttons, a lace flower, or otherwise altered in some way All of these items count as handmade under Etsy’s terms of service – even if very little work was done to alter an otherwise commercial item. This is where people start to question and complain. Which of these items is more authentically handmade? Most would argue that the third item – hand knit from hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn – is the most authentic but why?Is it handmade if you are knitting from a pattern that someone else designed? Sure! Is that meal you cooked at home handmade if you followed a recipe from Good Housekeeping? Is it handmade if you use commercial products? Why not? If you were to replace the alternator in your car, would you discount your effort simply because you bought the part at Canadian Tire?But what about that last one? Here’s where it gets tricky – can an altered item really handmade? I’d argue that it is, in the same way that a mashup of two songs becomes a new piece of music. If I’d created any of the above, I’d be proud to sell it under the handmade heading. To me, it’s all authentically handmade. Purists, however, seem to argue that if you didn’t do it ALL yourself, it’s somehow less authentic. Poppycock. These are the same type of people who insist that there is only one way to grow an urban garden, or cook a meal, or commute to work, or practice yoga. Authentically handmade may be a little more complex than it was in my grandmother’s era, but it is no less authentic. If you use your own hands to bring something into being, it’s handmade and that’s that. No one else can judge your handmade experience but yourself – and maybe Etsy.
--Cheryl DeWolfe (@victriviaqueen)
• a cardigan hand knit from the knitter’s own pattern using commercial yarn
• a cardigan hand knit from the knitter’s own pattern using yarn she spun and dyed in her own back yard.
• an upcycled cardigan from the thrift store with some sort of adornment tacked on – new buttons, a lace flower, or otherwise altered in some way All of these items count as handmade under Etsy’s terms of service – even if very little work was done to alter an otherwise commercial item. This is where people start to question and complain. Which of these items is more authentically handmade? Most would argue that the third item – hand knit from hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn – is the most authentic but why?Is it handmade if you are knitting from a pattern that someone else designed? Sure! Is that meal you cooked at home handmade if you followed a recipe from Good Housekeeping? Is it handmade if you use commercial products? Why not? If you were to replace the alternator in your car, would you discount your effort simply because you bought the part at Canadian Tire?But what about that last one? Here’s where it gets tricky – can an altered item really handmade? I’d argue that it is, in the same way that a mashup of two songs becomes a new piece of music. If I’d created any of the above, I’d be proud to sell it under the handmade heading. To me, it’s all authentically handmade. Purists, however, seem to argue that if you didn’t do it ALL yourself, it’s somehow less authentic. Poppycock. These are the same type of people who insist that there is only one way to grow an urban garden, or cook a meal, or commute to work, or practice yoga. Authentically handmade may be a little more complex than it was in my grandmother’s era, but it is no less authentic. If you use your own hands to bring something into being, it’s handmade and that’s that. No one else can judge your handmade experience but yourself – and maybe Etsy.
--Cheryl DeWolfe (@victriviaqueen)
