Yes, it explains, but does not excuse a one line put-down (always a
dangerous response to people who do not know you, but especialy in print
where it can seem crass).

Abrasha's predicament is not uncommon.
I spent my entire working life as a retail jeweller, the latter half at the
top end of the London trade. In that time I have seen the new designer come
and capture the imagination of the time: he has exhibitions, he and his
work is featured in the glossy magazines, and he spawns a host of copies.
Then a new star appears and he vanishes from the public consciousness. Ten
or fifteen years later something brings his name to mind, and you find that
he is still in business making much the same things as before for a very
small but loyal band of patrons who just about keep his head above water.
In the mean time the same same thing has happened to the new star.
Of course the ones who always win are the copiers. This is becaue they have
no emotional capital tide up in the designs and are prepared to move on when
fashion and the market demands it. The same applies to the retailer. I
have often seen pieces that I liked very much, had interesting and original
design, were very well made, but which I had to decline because I could not
have resold them to my customers.
In my experience most artist-craftsmen have only one style. If they are very
fortunate, that might last them their working life, but in most cases they
are passe in five to ten years if they do not re-invent themselves.
Also too many artists ask what the patron can (should) do for them rather
than what they can do for the patron. (Imagine Michaelangelo's fate if he
had got really uppity with Pope Julius).

I looked at the website cited by Abrasha.
What is he complaining about?
The design? That is purely a matter of opinion, a value judgement.
The quality of craftsmanship? Having seen illustations of his work I would
say that he has an unquestionable right to comment.
The fact that it is selling? I'm sorry, but that is just green-eyed
jealousy.

In your last paragraph you ask how craftsmen can compete.
For the straight craftsman there will always be a demand for top quality
work.
The artist-craftsman has to learn to change his style to meet the fashionof
his day, and to listen to the demands of his patrons.
It would help if part of their training included some basic salemanship and
PR.
I have known some top-rate craftsmen where I would want a whole Western
Front of trenches and barbed wire between them and the public.

Looking back I wonder if things have really changed that much, although
craftsmen certainly earn better money now in real terms than they did fifty
years ago.
Regards
Ben Smith

"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:00:44 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Marilee J.
Layman"
wrote:

Did you read this all the way to the end before you approved it?

Yes. Carefully, and with interest.

To be sure, I can't say I greatly approve of the profanity used, but it's
not
prohibited in the charter, and frankly, were I writing such a post, I might
well
have felt inclined to say much the same.

Though I might have worded it differently.

Yes, it's an angry and rather depressing or depressed posting, but it seems
a
pertenant part of the ongoing discussion, and in fact, a whole new aspectto
that discussion. Perhaps even the most valuable point made yet in the
thread.

Frankly, I'm glad Abrasha shared the increased insight into his prior
postings
and reactions to the other posts, explaining just why he feels as he does.

And given that, I must say that I feel I owe Abrasha a sincere apology for
misinterpreting his prior posts. I'd thought them dismissive or eliteist
regarding beginner work, and now see I was wrong, totally, about what he was
reacting to.

So Abrasha, I apologize. Please forgive my lack of understanding.

Really.

And I sympathize as well. You're in a position faced by many artists with
integrity in their work, as well as the large number of other small
retailers
faced with things like competition from Walmart or Costco, including many
jewelers who now find their livelihood threatened by mass marking of cheap
imports, knockoff copies of good designs for less, and a general perfusion
of
mediocrity into the marketplace that makes it more difficult for people to
sell
quality work.

I'm reminded of similar concerns expressed already when I was in grad school
in
the 80s, by my major professor. One of his practices was to totally
refrain,
despite numerous requests, from doing the common workshops one finds,
including
those short courses at places like Haystack, or the like, some of which have
fine reputations. He felt that as a professor at a full university level
program, he has students who were paying full tuition for multiple years to
learn from him, and that for him to go do workshops giving away even a small
part of that knowledge to those taking that quick route, would be a conflict
of
interest, against the interests of those full time students who'd then have
to
compete with the workshop students. As such, on the very few occasions
when
he'd bend his own rule (such as a workshop in CAD at a SNAG conference one
year)
he'd require participants to the workshop to be those who already held a
find
arts degree of some sort, ie those who had already "paid their dues".

He illustrated these concerns with those semi pros or advanced hobbyists
who'd
take a couple workshops, learn one or two neat tech tricks and dive right
into
production without any training or real care in actually making new work,
but
rather just doing lots of what they'd been shown. We see such folks doing
PMC
work, granulation, Mokume, wire wrapping, and who knows what all other
narrow
technical niches, and sometimes doing them very well, but to the exclusion
of a
full understanding of the field or even the history of what they are working
with. And having learned it not by actual research and experimentation, but
by
being spoon fed the methods, they also end up being the ones who post oddly
simple tech questions to this group or Orchid, on matters that they could
easily
solve themselves with just a little experimentation. But they've never
learned
to think this way, wanting to be simply shown the answers someone else has
already found, rather than earning their own way to the knowledge. Such
people
are common on the craft show circuit, and on the web and other sales venues,
often sell for less than those truly comitted to doing worthy unique work,
and
take dollars away from those more committed artists. The lack of training
these
people have in design, art history, and arts ethics often means they lack
some
of the inhibitions in doing yet more knock offs, and they sometimes,
ironically,
seem more prolific and sucessful than the much more fully trained graduates
of
full arts training programs. And one unfortunate consequence is that even
the
well trained artists with really good work, may have to downgrade their own
work
ethics just to be able to compete in the marketplace with the poorer work
out
there.

It seems to me that this situation is not going to change markedly. This
level
of competition, whether from some well meaning but unsophisticated beginner,
some marketer who's sole aim is to make lots of money without regard to
quality,
or simply from the big boys like Costco and Wal mart, is simply There now,
and
won't go away.

So the question for many of us then becomes one of how to compete. It's no
longer, it seems, enough to just produce really good work and hope the world
finds it's way to your door. There's so much info out there flooding the
awareness of the public that a merely hopeful artists is going to get lost
in
the clutter.

What we need is to consider how to compete, and how to better market
ourselves.
We need to increase the number of consumers who understand the difference
between really good work and kitschy or commonplace but still attractive
work,
and are willing to pay for the difference. And these people then need tobe
able to find us.

So then.

Here's the question for the group.

How can someone like Abrasha, or other fine artists who's integrity and
skills
with their craft lead them to put quality first, and thus produce a really
high
end product, but in perhaps more limited quantitites, suceed in today's
marketplace? It's not enough to just have a good web site, since as anyone
who's looked at Abrasha's can see, he's done that part already. So what
else?

Peter Rowe