[Leica] Re: Depression

[Teresa299 at aol.com (Teresa299@aol.com)]

In a message dated 6/4/04 2:51:47 PM, abridge@mac.com writes:

<< On Thursday, June 3, 2004 Teresa299@aol.com thoughtfully wrote:

> talk about inexpensive....  I've seen folks selling their photos on ebay 
for 
>$5 and $10.  And then there are the folks selling (what I assume are 
>stolen) 
>images for 2 to 4 times that.   This happens in the crafts industry as 
>well. 
 
>In the days before NAFTA there used to be a much larger number of potters 
who 
>hand made functional items such as water crocks, planters, dinnerware.   
>Now 
>having to compete with 3 cents an hour workers, many functional potters 
(unless 
>they developed a fervent following) have had to abandon 
>those areas to imports or amateurs who can afford to sell their wares at 
>import pricing.

Riiiiiiiight. NAFTA doesn't have diddly to do with it - they compete in 
totally
different markets although they perceive themselves competing in the same
market.

You're telling me that a hand-thrown, hand glazed pot is a direct competitor
with a molded piece of production made in the zillions. If  you and your 
potter
think that then you deserve the results. Or your potter may make inferior
products.

It's like weavers complaining they can't compete with machine-made frabrics.
Well DUH, of course they can't - directly because the economy of scale, at 
the
very least is against them.

But I don't notice a lot of Hopi and Navajo potters and weavers going out of
business because of NAFTA. That's just knee-jerk thinking.

Adam >>

Adam, stick to whatever field you are in and try not to lecture me on my 
craft.  I don't really know what you do for a living but I make pots.  I've 
made 
them for over 20 years.  Not to restate the obvious but aparently I have 
to....Hopi potters are just that, Hopi potters.   I'm not sure if you've 
considered 
this, but pottery imported from china is not hopi pottery, therefore it 
doesn't displace hopi pottery.    Import pottery has not affected pottery 
made by 
indigenous groups because collectors of those pots are paying $500 to $1,000 
a 
pot so they can have a very specific item, oft times by a specific artist, 
and 
not a chinese import pot.  Does that make sense to you? 

In the 60's and 70's and 80's there was a sizeable number of American 
craftsmen who made functional items such as dinnerware, crocks, garden pots, 
etc.   
Increasingly mass produced imported items (some made by machines, some made 
by 
equally talented foreign potters who make much less money) have taken over 
markets that used to be dominated by functional potters who resided in the 
United 
States.   You find it hard to believe that that a hand-thrown, hand glazed 
pot is a direct competitor with a molded piece of production made in the 
zillions. But that was part of my point....that to an uneducated buyer, a 
cup is a 
cup is a cup.  What is the difference between a plastic mug, a machine mug 
and a 
hand thrown mug?  If one is a philistine, the cheapest mug wins.   Unless 
you 
have moved from the anonymous craftsman to the celebrity artiste you 
couldn't 
command the same collector's following that follow Hopi or San Ildefonso 
pottery. The second part of my point, the part that you edited out so you 
can 
lecture me on supposed knee jerk thinking, is that  art education makes a 
difference between a philistine vs someone who can see the difference and 
value in 
handcraftsmanship.

Incidentallly, I don't consider it snobbish to make the point that neither I 
nor any of my friends make inferior products though most of us have long 
since 
stopped our masochistic tendencies and moved from making functional items as 
a livelihood.  

-kim