Jewellery & Jewelry

Today’s world is getting more high tech all the time. Products are mass produced. Goods that used to have individual character are devolving into commodities. Manufactured goods getting slicker and slicker. What is this doing to our individuality? Individuality has not disappeared. The human drive for individuality is being encouraged by the growth of interest in handmade crafts. More and more people are showing an interest in handcrafts as a way of expressing their artistic individuality. But these handcrafts can’t be just the same old yadda-yadda that your grandmother made. No antimacassars here. New craft items are being dreamed up every day. For example, what about the purse dangle ? No? It’s the same as a handbag pendant. Adornment for your purse. Doesn’t that sound fun?

But there’s not really a bottomless chasm between the world of high technology and the world of handmade crafts. As it turns out, it is the world of high technology that is nurturing the world of handmade crafts. The most effective way to sell handmade crafts is to sell them directly on the Internet. Sure, there are stores out there that sell craft items, but the buyers have to know where they are and have to travel there. And for the seller, the process from making the item to putting the item in the buyer’s shopping bag can be complicated. The artist has to meet with the store owner—on the store owner’s time. The store owner surely will want to evaluate the item and either accept it for sale or reject it. Then there are the terms of the sale. A store owner has to pay overhead. That overhead will consume a large portion of the artist’s profits. There can be many other complications in the contract, such as obligations for promotional activities.

Selling on the Internet is much easier. The buyer can just sit at home and browse the sites. And even finding the sites is easy. Just do a search for the item that you are looking for, and the site where it is located will come up. One of the best known sites, eBay, allows anyone to sell just about anything to any buyer. Its fame makes it a go-to place for people looking for handmade crafts. The artist doesn’t have to make herself known to the world because the world knows eBay. Other sites are more specifically targeted to the crafter. For example, Etsy is a site that is becoming more and more well known as a place to find just handmade crafts and vintage items. On Etsy, the artist has full control of a personal shop. She can develop an identity consisting of a profile, a photograph, and a logo. The selling process is also inexpensive. The cost is just twenty cents per item for a three-month period, and Etsy’s commission is only 3.5 per cent. The artist can upload a number of photographs of each item.

People are excited to find handmade objects because unique possessions allow them to express their individuality in a truly modern way.