Hand made is hand made, from beginning to end the piece must be
fabricated by hand. No casting, molding, drawing waxes, buying
premade findings, etc. Nothing can be purchased or cast in
order for it to be considered, and to be stamped, hand made.
Mr. Hansen,
In the interest of being more specific. Do you start out with
individual atoms and build by hand from there or start at the
sub atomic level? Do you create your own gemstones in a lab
environment or just cut by hand the rough you mine? I would
suppose this means you made your own tools also. This also means
you do not use a torch to attach and form metal as in casting
either since there is no hand contact here. Actually you should
have a rather clean “bench” since you would be using your hands
and no tools. The question is at what point is a piece of
jewelry not “Hand Made” and I disagree in your answer. I would
say that an item is not handmade when hands on skills are no
longer required, such as in dies and molds and purchased pieces.
I do believe that a person who spends the time to carve an
original piece from wax with thier own hands and then invests
that piece and burns it out and then casts it himself can call
that piece handmade or hand crafted. One other question do you
still call a piece hand made after you have set a gemstone in the
piece, even if you did not mine and cut the stone?
Joe B.
Hand made is hand made, from beginning to end the piece must be >
fabricated by hand. No casting, molding, drawing waxes, buying
premade findings, etc. Nothing can be purchased or cast in >
order for it to be considered, and to be stamped, hand made.
The question is at what point is a
piece of jewelry not “Hand Made” and I disagree in your answer.
I am a ‘newbie’ to jewelry, using this and other forum threads
as a means to help find out who I am in this area. I also
disagree with your answer, because I cannot but see casting as
another skill that I can use to create a piece of jewelry. I can
also see that the ENTIRE PROCESS must be controlled by ME in
order to meet the ‘hand made’ criteria as I perceive it. I do
agree there should be no “buying premade findings, etc.”. This
would violate the precept that the creation is entirely
controlled by ME. However, that “Nothing can be purchased…” is
going a bit far, IMHO! I can’t buy silver or gold? I can’t buy
stones? I can’t buy the paper, or the computer diskette on
which to record my ideas? I can’t buy the pencil to commit
these ideas to paper?
Like others, I believe there HAS to be a middle ground. Are you
actually quoting or paraphrasing the rules of one or more shows
or fairs with this definition? If so, perhaps they need to
review their own criteria by performing a ‘sanity check’! If
so, perhaps it could be the function of the artists to point out
the impracticallity of these criteria! Perhaps the exhibitors
at these shows should read the very fine print of the rules to
make SURE what the criteria are, just in case.
As a ‘newbie’, I’ll certainly read the fine print, thanks to you
folks!