Learn how to tell What is Hand made, and What is Assembled

Have you ever found yourself shopping around for jewelry and noticed that several artists, who claim to make their work by hand, are offering exactly the same ring?  How does that happen? This is most evident on popular websites like Etsy and Artfire in which users create profiles and mini stores to sell their handmade goods.

A quick side track about the hand made requirement:  To be considered hand made, the item must have been put together, by you, from two or more parts.  Hmm, by this logic I could slap a sticker on a Trek mountain bike and sell it as hand made, by me.  I could take a sharpie and draw a stick figure on a coffee mug, and call it "Hand made" by me.  In the case of jewelry, many people will buy pre-made rings and pendants, and simple insert a gemstone, and call it "Hand made".

This being the case, if you want to make sure that a person makes their jewelry by hand, you can do several things to find out.  Read their profile, look to see if they have their own website.  Do they have a workshop?  Do they do custom work?  Have they made odd and unusual things?

Unfortunately you cant trust that if they say that them making things by hand, that they really actually do make them by hand.  Because they believe that just popping a gemstone into a setting counts as being hand made.  Don't be fooled!

Published!

I've Been Published! Four Page Spread including an article I wrote and Pictures I took about silver smithing. Rock & Gem Magazine, February Issue!  The article is pretty much a shortened version of the "How To" page I posted here about making a turquoise ring.