@ the Market

If you’ve ever been to a craft fair, purchased a craft or piece of art, or sold at a fair, you’ll want to read the following two posts and the comments on them. This is the sort of post to inspire a new appreciation of artisans and handmade items -  a great deal goes into the production of these items and what goes into being the person producing them.

Margaux’s Craft Experience

Reply to Margaux

I was really sorry to hear about Margaux’s experience at the Crafty Bastards fair in DC. As a regular Barbie-defacer when I was young, I am quite taken with Margaux’s work and the statements she makes with it. I really wish she made something with Barbie hair, as that was my favorite aspect to deface.

I am really disappointed in the show attendees.  I am a former DC resident, and although it’s not probably the artsiest place around, it’s not a void, either, so why the unfriendlies?  Plus,I’m sure the show attracted plenty of non-residents as well.  So why so many people who came to a craft fair and made stupid, insensitive comments.  Were they not expecting artisans?  And for pete’s sake - the artist is right there and you’re being rude about her art to her face?  Hello basic politeness?  Plus, what’s up with people telling an artist what she “should” and “should not” be creative about?  I think Margaux (and the other artists who put up with this crap) had tremendous restraint.

I have quite a few more thoughts about all this, and hey! I have a blog, so I can sit down and tell all of you all about them. If you want to read (and I am somewhat garrulous), then the rest is after the jump.

1. Margaux’s Barbie-inspired jewelry pieces are exactly the kind of thing that keeps bringing me to craft fairs and markets. I enjoy looking for one-of-a-kind artisan pieces that are created with thought and craftsmanship behind them. I look for the things that took effort and time to create, and are quality items. I enjoy being able to find things that no one else will have (or maybe limited editions ). I love the ones that make statements, and the purely purposeless and decorative things, too. What I like is that someone took the time to make it - an actual person, a body, not a machine.  There’s something about handmade that’s different.

2. That said, I’m often disappointed at markets and fairs. It often seems as though craft fairs are being overtaken by resellers of cheap crap - no different than the stuff in box stores. It just looks kinda different because it’s on a fair table. But it’s still cheap stuff - in price and quality. And boy do people flock to it! Good lord, the women I see clustered like hens around cheap, uninspired jewelry!

And of course this is Tejas, so they’re often clustered around the most goddawful, trashy, flashy, bright, shiny, cheap, HUGE trinkets. And by the word “trinket” I mean to remind you of the sound of a long painted nail tapping on cheap painted tin while the woman decides whether to part with her $10. Makes me think of the quintessential tacky white Cadillacs with longhorn hood decorations. Argh.

3. Both of the above are why I go almost exclusively to JURIED fairs. You know, where a panel of people has selected the fair entries. Not just everyone can participate ’cause they have an entry fee. The work is reviewed at these, at least a little.

4. I do hope that not everyone who makes art-craft pieces stops participating in markets, although I can see why you’d think it’s pointless. It’s not only the purchasing that makes fairs valuable - it’s also marketing and publicity.  I believe many people who commented on Margaux’s post noted that they don’t necessarily buy there, they just scope out what they like. So definitely - have biz cards!  Flyers!

I became interested in much of the crafting I do today through looking at pieces at fairs and markets. Seeing what others are capable of is incredibly inspiring. I have been doing the fair-and-consignment-store thing for longer than there’s been a working Web, and I like the personal contact with both the artisans and with the items that the internet doesn’t provide. Meeting the makers is truly wonderful. Although I love the internets, it’s just not the same.

5. I have to say that it was only by doing some of it myself that I began to have an appreciation for what it takes to create these things. Looking around didn’t do it, and I imagine that I have been disrespectful. I apologize to all those whose art/craft I may not have properly appreciated.  AndI know - because I have aspirations of being one of these persons at the fairs should I ever get the nerve - that I still don’t really appreciate what it takes to be a one-woman portable sales show, or what it takes to stand there for 2 days listening to comments about your art.  Whew!  Daunting!  Scary!

But in terms of craftsmanship:  I - and so many others - are very used to mass-produced, machine-made items. You purchase your items for dirt cheap at your local department/big box store and that’s it. You’re able to buy multiple, throwaway pieces of jewelry, clothing, or art because they’re cheap enough that you can discard them without too much grief.  And they won’t last long, anyway - and they’re just this season’s fad so it doesn’t matter, right?  With this sort of consumer culture, why would any of us appreciate the hard work of an artisan piece? What in our often commercialized, consumer-oriented backgrounds would prepare us for such an appreciation? Nada.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t appreciate them.

6. I have put a lot of thought into what makes something Art vs. Craft. I certainly won’t be solving that issue in three lines or less. What I do have to say is that I think that the “line” between them is fuzzy, if it exists at all. Maybe more of a continuum.

For me, I studied so-called medieval “crafts” in graduate school - specifically 8th-10th c. Carolingian and insular illuminated manuscripts (think Book of Kells). Book illumination in those days was considered a craft. As if a page of incredibly precise calligraphy and illumination is less than art. But truly, when the pages were created it was indeed considered only a craft and certainly lesser than art. Today, pages of illuminated manuscripts (and I wish people would stop ripping apart manuscripts for the illuminations - bad people!) are collectible, valuable art pieces.  It mostly goes to show that art and craft are ways of organizing our thoughts about certain items. The definitions change over time with our own perceptions of beauty and utility and skill.

I get the idea a lot of the time that people perceive craft to be “lesser” than art somehow. I think assigning a value judgment is silly and a waste of time for pretentious people. So where’s that fuzzy line? Well, I think that not all crafts are art and not all art is craft. Sometimes they overlap. Crafts to me must be made by hand. A craft is, to me, a skill, which one can have to varying degrees. Art is neither necessarily handmade nor skilled - but it can be.

On the other hand, I don’t think crafting is necessarily always a creative effort, while art does seem to have that characteristic. Sometimes I absolutely craft by rote and pattern - it’s not art, but it is skill-building crafting. BUT - that skill at crafting is what permits me to be creative with it, because without the technical ability I would be quite stuck. I think, truly, that the best examples are both art AND craft. Creative, skilled, made with care, fabricated under close supervision - mostly by hand.

So there’s just a few thoughts.  What an interesting discussion.  I absolutely should’ve broken this up into multiple posts.