Original Art vs Prints

I've been writing for another blog about the benefits of buying handmade. Tara over at Scoutiegirl had a wonderful blog post about why she buys handmade:

"... but I feel pretty good when I walk out of the house wearing something that no one else in my county has in their closet. No amount of Louis Vuittons or Chanel suits or t-shirts plastered with chain store logos make up for the sameness that the rest of the world lives in." - Tara from Scoutiegirl

Well said! Do you like to be 100% original? I get tired of seeing the same things everywhere. I hate walking into someone's home and seeing the exact same print that was available at Pier One, or Pottery Barn, or Ikea, or, or, or. Trust your instincts, be yourself, have an opinion and be original!

So what is the difference in between a print and an original painting? Well, a print is a reproduction of a painting. Virtually all of the artwork that you see available in chain stores are prints. This means that at least one other person, if not hundreds of other people, have the exact same thing hanging on their walls. On the positive side, if you absolutely love a very popular artist and their artwork is super expensive, prints are an affordable way to have something of theirs hanging on your wall.

An original painting is exactly what it says that it is - original. You can smell the paint, feel the texture, see the brilliant colors and brush strokes in a way that is impossible to capture with a print. You can feel the hard work and energy that went into creating the painting. Sometimes you can even see the process that the artist had in creating the painting when you look at the original. Many of the Great Masters even have brush bristles that got caught in the painting. Can you imagine having a brush bristle from Monet?!?! (But then again, I can't quite imagine owning a multi-million dollar painting by Monet either).

Perhaps the best part of owning an original is the feeling that nobody else has the same thing that you have. You, and only you, have that one piece of artwork, and you don't have to share. Others may like that artist as well, but no two will be exactly the same.

The Buyers Guide to Handmade

When we were 7 we were getting in trouble for doodling in the margins during class.  Our feet were tapping, dreaming about getting home and opening up the craft closet to make friendship bracelets, crocheting, collaging - just creating - anything.  Some of us took a detour through the corporate world, others figured it out earlier - but we all have learned to make a living doing what we love.  It isn't easy, a thread running around our email chain is currently talking about how one of our members works from 12am-12am.  Last time I checked, that was 24 hours.  Another member counts it a lucky day when she gets 1-2 hours sleep.  Me?  I'm starting all over again, so the challenge is getting my store back up and running.  Almost from scratch.  

We do this full-time because we love it.  We would have it no other way.  If we were back in the cubicle, we'd be getting in trouble for doodling in the margins again.  Daydreaming about creating when we should be filing a TPS report.  

Handmade.  It is what drives us.  

So what makes handmade stand out from mass-produced items?  It has to do with the individual vision of the maker.  The care that goes into the entire process, from design through crafting, the hard work that we put in to ensure our product is made with the utmost care and quality.  We don't ship our idea off to someone else to complete.  You won't see our items in Target or Ikea or in every other person's house.  That is a totally different market.  

And yes, there are some casualties of things being handmade.  But there are casualties of things manufactured everywhere.  (Chinese drywall anyone?)  Over the next few months I'm going to be working with our team (Full Time Etsy Crafters) to help educate everyone on how to be a smarter buyer - how to tell the good from the bad, the original from the mass produced.  

But in the meantime, I'd love to know - why do you buy handmade?  What is the value you see in it?

By the way, the image above is one of my teammates whose work I am currently drooling over - JPatPurses