The Art Of Production

I have been trying to instigate a meet=up group for hand crafted productions at http://www.meetup.com/The-Art-of-Hand-Crafted-Production. The idea was first inspired when we joined Etsy.com. Etsy is an online open market for handcrafted items. It is often referenced in Design blogs. The cost is very reasonable but one has to promote oneself to be noticed in the thousands of handcrafted items on the site. Etsy has provided various tools for that purpose. One of those tools are the teams, but when I looked at all the existing teams, there was only one in which I felt that we fit and that is the Maine team.


I have a vision of a team that would focus on handcrafted productions. This is because I am aware of the misunderstanding of handcrafted production work that we have encountered throughout our history. I was not surprised, when, shortly after joining Etsy. I received a email from Etsy management asking that I answer a few questions-purportedly because Etsy wanted to know more about us so that they would better know how to place us.


True, or false, I instinctively identified the questionnaire as having been instigated by another crafter challenging our handcrafted status due to the reproducible nature of our product. I responded in the spirit of that instinct, knowing full well that we satisfy the guidelines posted on the Etsy website. Perhaps my interpretation of the request was transmitted because the simple response was that we comply with the guidelines of Etsy.


I have no idea how many handcrafted productions exist in the United States. I tried googling the term without satisfactory results. If there are statistics on handcrafted productions, those statistics are not using the language that I am using and I have no idea what that language would be. I have not ever encountered this category in common usage. There seems to be a huge gap between large automated craft productions such as in the dinner ware industry- and one of a kind crafted products. The concept of small scale handcrafted productions deserves it's own category.

The category is more identifiable in the global-tribal community- American Indian pottery and basket weaving is a contemporary hand crafted production, and there are similar global crafts from all over the world. I once contacted a website dealing with global handcrafts but they didn't represent handcrafts made in the USA- which seems to be excluded from the category of "global crafts- but then so is most of Western Europe, with the possible exception of some Italian pottery.

Technically, in terms of the team I have in mind for Etsy, all of the above can all be included, but for other purposes, having to do with our national economy, I am interested in the hand crafted productions in the United States because, quite frankly, it is one of the few remaining manufacturing bases in The United States as hand crafted products are , after all. "manufactured" - or made by man.

Regionally we have many small slip-casting ceramic productions with Edgecomb Potters and Sheepscot River Pottery coming immediately to mind. I have noticed that you will not find these potteries listed as members of The Maine Crafts Association, for good reason- The Maine Crafts Association has little to offer production crafters and I have never seen the MCA grant recognition to the professional production crafters community. In fact there seem to be many unspoken categories of crafters who do not mix, mingle or recognize each other as though we all belong in separate worlds even as we all share the art of hand crafting.

Hodgdon Brothers Shipbuilders are handcrafters- marvelous ones. I don't know that they are technically production crafters. It depends on of you define production crafts by a product that is reproduced or if you define it by a production process. I believe that Hodgdon Brothers must have a well organized production process. I do not know if they ever repeat the same boat twice.

Then there are the fine furniture makers- Thomas Moser produces a line of furniture that they market in a catalog and so they are production crafters. You probably wouldn't find Moser on Etsy though. I don't think they need Etsy as a marketing venue. Nor would you find them on the Maine Crafts Association - this probably because Moser doesn't need to be there, although they are in fact crafters.

Both Hodgdon Brothers and Mosers are small businesses but their high end products and international markets places them in a unique category from other small craft businesses.

I'll save more thoughts on this subject for another post and for now I will close by going back to the beginning- when the term "The Art Of Production- American Style" first came to mind. This was when I was adding the photo of two bowls that you see on the page to my Politico profile. The form asked for a title and, as I was at that moment involved with a conversation on socialism vs the United States Constitution, I called it "The Art of production- American Style"- and why did I call it that? Because the American Constitution is based in individualism versus the collectivism of socialism- and because Andersen Design is not tribal art- it is individualistic, which makes it culturally American (meaning here - the United States) art- as the United States Constitution is founded on the principles of individualism.