by Lynn Mohney of
Prunella’s Workshop
The definitions of handmade and
mass-produced are not as clear-cut as they may originally sound. Can
something be handmade and mass-produced? When is the fact that an
item is handmade special, and when is it just a process? These
questions are not easily answered, and seem to have different answers
depending on the medium of choice.
For example, take a photographer or a
print artist. By their very nature, there is a suggestion that
multiples of one piece may and probably do exist, as the task of
reproduction is simple. However, an artist may do limited editions
and guarantee they will not make more than a certain number, whereas
a mass production outfit would make no such guarantee. While the cost
of one from the individual artist may be defrayed across the cost of
several, it may be more expensive than what one could purchase from a
department store. The department store can sell limitless numbers of
one print as long as the marketplace demands it, whereas regardless
of demand, the artist has made a promise to you that there will be a
limited number in existence regardless of demand.
There are companies that claim handmade
status of mass-produced items. A designer creates a design and
several people do their part in touching and creating the item,
sometimes with and often times without the designer’s supervision.
Technically, the item has been touched by multiple hands, and may
have slight variations between each one. They are not one of a kind,
nor are such companies sporting claims of such. Can they claim
handmade status? This can be highly debatable. Does the artist have
to be the one who actually made the item? What if there is an
assistant? Or a team of assistants? It is an interesting question.
Where do we draw the line?
There are artists, to be certain, who
cannot not physically make every part of an item with their own two
hands as it requires a team. For example, there are glass blowers who
design very one of a kind work and supervise a team of assistants who
do parts of the work. The artist’s hand is in every stage of the
work. One only has to look at the Italian Renaissance to see how fine
artists have utilized apprentices to complete a larger body of work
than they may have been able to complete on their own. A painter
would draw the design of a fresco painting, and apprentices would
work on various parts. The most central part of the work would be
completed by the artist himself. The work is credited to the artist,
and no one questions it is handmade status as it is indeed one of a
kind.
On another note,
there is the jewelry artist and casting. There are types of jewelry
that are not effectively hand fabricated. An artist can carve a wax
mold with dental tools and send it out to a caster. The caster can
create as many copies of the wax as the artist pays them, at any
level of finish. In other words, it can arrive back to the artist
ready to be sold, some clean up may be required, or the artist may
have further work to be completed such as stone setting. As the piece
leaves the hands of the artist, one could argue this to be a
mass-produced item with aspects that are handmade. However, some
jewelry artists do the casting in-house. Prunella’s Workshop is one
such business. Cast items still may not be one of a kind, unless
only one is made; therefore mass production is still a possibility.
However, every cast item from Prunella’s has two co-creators. One
designs and carves the wax while the other does the casting. The
process is seen by both creators.
Therefore, if it is acceptable for an
artist to have a small team of assistants as long as the artist
participates in the process, and multiples of one piece are
acceptable in the art world in media where multiples are as simple as
another sheet of paper, where do we draw the line and say, that is
not handmade, that is mass-produced? Can something be mass-produced
and hand made? Can something be handmade and mass-produced? Are they
one and the same? There is no one answer.
