Amelia Lipkind
Graphic Design Major
Professor Norman, Dr. Spicer, Dr. Persinger, and Dr. Fox
Keywords: handcrafted, appreciation, emotional response

Abstract
In this paper, I explore a topic about which I am passionate: handmade goods. The
focus started out as being just about greeting cards, but now the idea has expanded further
into the entire handmade industry. Handmade cards, pins, buttons, etc. make us stop and
think and enjoy the simple things from life. The majority of us grouped in the millennial
age range have grown up in an era where we rely on technology more than hands-on
experiences. In an era of technology, people have learned to “stop and smell the roses” of
the handmade trend that continues to be a part of our lives. Sites such as Etsy, Amazon
Handmade, and even individual small business sites would not be this successful if
people were not interested in this phenomenon. The main focus of my research has
become looking at the appreciation and emotional response that people, as a whole, have
during this era of technology where our eyes are trained to barely leave a screen. Walter
Benjamin’s (1968) article on the age of mechanical reproduction talks about the loss of
aura and authenticity because of the use of machinery, and his content ties into what I am
trying to talk about here. In this paper I ultimately argue that some people today are
seeking out tactile goods that have been crafted by an individual person because of the
humanistic traits these objects possess which helps us to understand on a deeper level
their uniqueness and authenticity. Through the use of case studies and theorist’s opinions,
I have built up my argument that handmade goods are making a comeback, but also an
impact on our lives where technology has lacked.

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Appreciation for & the Emotional Response We Have
Toward Handmade Goods in a Technological Era
Technology has become such a massive part of our everyday lives, and sometimes
I wish it was not. We have become slaves to our screens of varying sizes, whether it is a
television, laptop, tablet, or phone; we all rely on them in our day to day experiences. The
majority of people born in the millennial era started life with minimal technological
interferences. Television shows were the main brain-numbing outlets of the time because
in the 90s, Wi-Fi was not yet a household staple. In the 22 years I have been alive, I have
seen technology skyrocket to new heights, and it is truly amazing to see the advances
people have made across the industry. We went from waiting for painfully slow dial-up
internet, so we could “surf the web” to now having it on at all times with Wi-Fi
capabilities and to access any source of information in seconds. If it takes longer, our
patience usually wears thin. Over my lifetime, I have seen people adapt to being so
reliant on their phones and devices that I sometimes wonder if people try to enjoy the life
around them anymore or just the virtual one they create online.
Social media may have been helpful in linking us to old friends who moved away
or people we have not seen in years, but the amount of advertising that is bombarding
people using those platforms is astounding. People flood ‘likes’ to beautiful photographs
and nowadays with how advanced our cell phone’s cameras are, anyone can be a
“photographer” and shoot images for media content, but that is what people look for.
They do not look for what is real; they are trained to look for the pretty things that catch
their eyes and hold their attention. They desire all the little perfect details. Why are some
people so fixated on these “perfect lifestyles” when they know no one is perfect? It’s

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because media has gotten stronger by using the internet and social media to bombard
everyone with their trends and agendas. Social media is readily accessible by anyone in
the world with a cell phone, tablet, or a computer and the more viral a post becomes, the
more people are seeing it, recognizing it, and wanting that or to be it.
Thankfully, there is some good that comes from using social media, and that good
is how it helps empower small businesses and crafters. Before, it was much harder to get
your name out there as a creator of something handmade or even as a designer, but now
with the use of social media, if you know how to work the system in your favor, get the
right followers to promote you, you too can be just as popular as the celebrities in
Hollywood. This exposure is a huge benefit for the Indie art industry to help rising
creators get established. What is it about their done-by-hand, letterpress cards and their
macramé plant holders, or their hand thrown ashtray that gets us to purchase them and
want them? Most have seen the mass production industry flourish and still stock the
never-ending retail superpowers of our world, but what I have started to realize is that
people miss certain values that are put into something crafted by hand.
Walter Benjamin was a philosopher born in the late 19th century who addressed
something of the sort during the modern era. In his essay; The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction, first published in German in 1935, he argued that these new
mechanical technologies caused the things they produce to lose their sense of
authenticity, their auras are diminishing or we only see them in a work of art. Benjamin
(1968) states; “…the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the
domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for
a unique existence” (p. 4). By making something with a machine and being totally mass

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produced, you lose that unique and authentic feel that one finds when experiencing
something made by another human. Its mechanical perfection is actually lacking because
it’s missing the aura that is brought about through a human’s touch. In the early times of
mass production, Benjamin noticed a change in how art was viewed. When discussing the
value of film, Benjamin (1968) argued that “The mass is a matrix from which all
traditional behavior toward works of art issues today in a new form. Quantity has been
transmuted into quality” (p. 17). At the time, Benjamin was valuing the potential of
quantity, especially reaching a mass audience. He was viewing the advances during
modern times where industrialization and factories were new and increasing.
However, today I want to suggest that is in fact the opposite. In the age of
technological reproduction, quality is not seen as a high quantity, but rather a unique,
individual item that one thinks is true to them. It may have bumps or ridges in it, but it is
those human qualities that some people are looking for again. Similarly, Benjamin (1968)
described the differences between concentration and distraction; he stated that “… A man
who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it…In contrast, the distracted mass
absorbs the work of art” (p. 18). During our current heightened technological era, we
experience something like this. Technology has become our distraction from the real
world and life around us, but when we look up from those screens and experience
something created by an artist or craftsman, we are encouraged to concentrate on that.
Some people want to know about the creator, their other pieces, and what speaks to us on
that unique level of connection. There are so many different elements that have come into
play with how people are subconsciously revolting against manufactured goods and
technology. Some people are seeking out tactile goods that have been produced by a

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person because of the humanistic traits they possess which helps us to understand on a
deeper level their uniqueness and authenticity.
History of the Handcrafted
It is hard to directly pin-point one bit of history and say it is the start of the
handcrafted industry, since there are so many components to it. Letterpress, enamel pin
creation, greeting cards, and goods made from other materials like clay and leather, are
just a few of the handmade goods that make up the thousands of Etsy shops, brick &
mortars, and online stores we have access to now. People are not limited to what they
create or their components, and that is what really makes this industry so unique. It is not
a corporate or industrialized thing; it is handmade, and the creator puts an immense
amount of effort and love into what they are creating. At this point, I am sure many of
these creatives could find a retailer or factory to mass produce their product, but they do
not want that because it loses its story and becomes just another boring product you could
buy at a TJ Maxx or Walmart. It loses the effort, the love, and distinctiveness as soon as
it becomes something that runs off a conveyor belt.
Technology Takedown & Resurrecting the Handcrafted Industry
But how has the handcrafted movement made such a noticeable comeback in the
past few years? In the late 80s to the early 90s, computers started to flood into schools,
and technology instantly started taking off, kicking back the crafters because these
intelligent machines were the move of the future. Who cared how many days it took you
to position and set every word and letter in the sentence you stamped onto that piece of
paper? Letterpress was slow and tedious. You could write that same sentence, and have it
printed through an inkjet printer in a matter of minutes. Cooper, Gridneff, and Haslam

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(2014) explain that in 1983, the universities found in the UK struggled to determine
whether or not to keep their letterpresses with the invention of the Mac computer. The
western world as a whole decided to dispose of most if not all of their presses thinking
that they would be obsolete in a short amount of time with the invention of these
computers (Cooper et al., 2014, p. 55). The convenience of this new technology has taken
over and most are now engulfed daily, surrounded by technology everywhere we look.
Whether it is our laptop, cell phone, television, or anything else that exists with the RGB
screen, our eyes are bound to be glued to it. Benjamin (1968) makes the point:
“Reception in a state of distraction, which is increasing noticeably in all fields of art and
is symptomatic of profound changes in apperception…” (p. 19). We are continuing to
live in this distracting era that is driven by technology so when something tactile gets us
to look up, we become more interested and immersed in it.
However, with that level of convenience and accessibility, the things we can
produce with the few clicks of our keys and a send to the printer are so lifeless, or in
Benjamin’s terms, lacking an aura. Anything can be printed from a computer nowadays
and the fact that it is done so easily and quickly has made some people aware of how
stale and unappealing these things are. Whether it is the computer we are working with or
the paper it comes out on, there is more of a struggle to breathe life into the work we
create this way. As the post-industrial world knows how to use a computer to some extent
and create or print things to use. What emotion or genuine feeling does that give off?
Nothing, it is lifeless unless you are one of the creative minded people of the world that
knows how to take that lifeless print out and make it speak to someone.

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And that is where the crafts industry comes back into play. Many people today are
already fed up with the lack of emotion found on screens. Most people are conditioned to
glaze over the content we view because no matter how crazy-amazing it is, the next thing
will always be better. Nothing tangible or emotional; it is flat, it is an image and we
cannot enjoy it like we can when we go somewhere and experience it. Marshall
McLuhan’s famous statement: “The medium is the message” really pertains to this. Some
have started to miss the tangible when so many are sucked into their screens and not
experiencing real life. As I talked about before with Benjamin’s arguments (1968), we
experience distractions and concentrations. Technology has proven to be a total
distraction and we absorb what we are experiencing whereas handmade, tactile goods
have become something we concentrate on and become immersed in (Benjamin, 1968, p.
18). People have begun to realize this and have reached out to different creators who can
be found all over the world in search of tangible goods that hold that emotion, soul, and
life that some people look for. It is one thing to own things, but it is another to have
something that holds meaning to the creator and even better if it holds meaning to you.
Some like to know the story of how something came to be; it makes us want it that much
more knowing that a human took the time to create something with their two hands for
another human to use and enjoy. This is a disconnect with technology and possibly
something that will never be achieved. Handcrafted items can give us a story and deepen
our appreciation for it and also allows us to see its unique being, whereas technology
keeps it as a flat, lifeless image that we cannot experience on a further level. Most people
might be absorbed in technology and the things it has shown us, but really it is just a
distraction to the tactile objects that people are creating for us to appreciate.

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The Story Behind the Saucer
Arguably, human beings enjoy accumulating things. Whether it is tchotchkes that
sit and collect dust on a shelf or something more usable like a ceramic mug, if it has a
story that is important to us, we are more than likely to keep it for years to come. People
like things for a lot of reasons, whether it’s the story, the effort and time poured into
creating it, the person who gave it to us, the personality the piece holds, or if we attach it
to some sort of style we believe encompasses us as a person. There are many reasons
regarding why people want to keep and hold onto things, even though it varies from
person to person. It mainly comes back to the aura and authentic feelings one gets from
experiencing a handmade good done by another person and not a machine. Benjamin
explains; “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity”
(p. 3). If something is not original and unique, it will lack the authentic feeling that
Benjamin is talking about. Aesthetics will always play a role, but if someone knows the
amount of time and effort someone put into creating it, or if a loved one sought this
item out for months for you, they are more likely to hold that object more near and
dear to them.
Sincere Ceramics: We Design Things for a Reason
In 2009, a case study was conducted to look at meaningful interactions and
durability of our emotions kept in mind in the creation of ceramic wares (Lacey, 2009, p.
87). Lacey received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to conduct
this case study; “In a world saturated with products – many of which are used briefly and
then thrown away – this project aims at producing ‘fewer better things’, for example
ceramic objects which transcend the fast-moving home-ware trends and remain loved and

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relevant over extended time” (p. 87). Not only did she want to create pieces that could
withstand the trends and time, she wanted to create pieces that people would tie their
emotions to and connect with on that level. With pottery being a very different craft field,
like all of the crafts are, they are able to wield clay into different shapes and structures for
their customers to experience. If they pay attention to the small details like leaving a part
of their mug intentionally unglazed or making hand-carved designs into the surface,
people take note of those nuances and explore the object more. It gets the potential
customer to explore the creator’s work on a deeper level and build on that experience.
These little finite details get the buyer to come back and remember those little details
anytime they go to use that ceramic piece, and that is a part of what handmade crafters
depend on. Building that experience, story, or relationship with the inanimate object for
the customer is what the craftsman has created (Lacey, 2009, p. 89).
Almost everyone you meet has a favorite ceramic mug. If you have not received a
good mug as a gift or bought one for yourself, you are certainly missing out. People pick
them like they pick cards; they encompass that person they are buying it for. They like
the color, look, weight, etc. of that mug. Mugs have been proven to be very customizable
and not just ceramic ones, but ones made out of plastic, steel, and other materials to
create something that we fall in love with having. I personally have two favorites, one
that is a plastic travel mug and one that is a typical mass-produced ceramic mug. I like
them though for what is on them visually, but others want that mug to be exciting
visually and be crafted by someone’s hands. A machine is not going to recognize
different tiny details that a potter is going to know from years of practice. A machine will
only produce what it is told to create; it does not have a creative freedom like a potter

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does. That potter is able to make design decisions to make his buyers question or
appreciate a small detail that we know a machine could not produce. Benjamin’s point on
authenticity explains: “The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction
can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is
always depreciated” (p. 4). It is that humanistic quality we get when someone creates it
by their own two hands and creates it in a certain way to trigger a response within us.
Most people understand that it is not a flaw they are experiencing, but something that has
made that item unique to them and their experience with it.
Throughout the case study, Lacey created three different mugs that interact with
the customers and their emotions in distinctive ways. The one that stood out the most was
known as the Duo espresso set. The handle on these cups are placed in different locations
on each cup, including being placed off center. The goal is for the customer to grow
accustom to the mug of their choosing for their handle placement. The reason for all of
this is so that the buyers can realize the intention and connect with the potter’s effort and
passion being put into these mugs. A couple had purchased one of the Duo espresso sets
and their statement really rung true in Lacey’s (2009) study;
…I use the 90-degree angled handle, as it feels more practical, more right. He has
chosen the 45-degree angled handle, he’s more experiment and likes the more
obscure objects, but he insists his one is right one. Some mornings we joke about
swapping mugs, but it never happens. (p. 92)
That comment made by a buyer was what really hit home the idea of emotional durability
in this study. They chose which mug is the “right one” based on their own personalities.
They both acknowledge the qualities of the mugs that are different than regular, run-of-

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the-mill mugs, and that is what they like about them. They do not want to try each other’s
mugs; they like their mugs and have claimed that personal preference of them. These
mugs have created an experience and story for this couple thanks to such a minuscule
detail of the placement of handles, yet the potter paid attention to that detail so that his
buyers could experience that attachment.
Preserve the Perfection
Social media platforms, like Instagram especially, have most people trained to
seek perfection and beauty in anything one encounters. So, stores, restaurants, cafes, etc.
are focusing on that aspect and making sure their store is an aesthetic experience just like
Instagram. This goal to reach perfection is seen through tangibles as well as technological
sources. Although some people seek out and look forward to finding aesthetically
beautiful objects, foods, etc. there is a flaw with this. When the object is something that
will deteriorate with use, the beauty of the item will be destroyed, therefore making us
sad and the payoff being less bountiful than if it was an object not ruined with use. As
stated in the case study done by Fitzsimons, Morales, Samper, and Wu (2017) we find
that people tie high aesthetics to high effort. With that being said, people are less likely to
use something or consume the aesthetic object if they understand doing so will damage it.
The consumer feels as though they have actually destroyed the effort someone has put
into creating that consumable, and it affects the person negatively (Fitzsimons et al.,
2017, p. 652). Some people want to preserve the beauty of things that they encounter in
life. Therefore, some people are less inclined to enjoy something that they think they will
ruin with use since it seems that the creator took a lot of time to construct it.

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Too Good to Eat
But as Fitzsimons et al. (2017) explained before, some lose sight of the enjoyment
and happiness they have when experiencing these objects if they know that using them
will ruin them (Fitzsimons et al., 2017, p. 654). Stores like Target and Whole Foods
capitalize on the fact that people seek beautiful tangible items, even if they are food and
we will destroy their beauty. Some people think quickly when shopping for food. Most
look for the best price, the type of food they like, or the food that catches their eye.
Target and Whole Foods are both at higher price points than stores like Walmart or Aldis,
but they focus on the aesthetic factor and create even off brands that are visually
attractive so that their customers feel inclined to purchase them. According to Fitzsimons
et al. (2017),
…marketers invest a lot of resources in product aesthetics and design. These
efforts are not unfounded – the design and aesthetics of products and services are
often considered important predictors of marketing and sales success (Bloch
1995) and are relied upon to evaluate the myriad of product offerings in the
marketplace. (p. 651)
It may cost their customers more to purchase it, but the customers are more inclined to do
so because of that factor. Customers do not consider the fact that eating or using the item
purchased is going to ruin the aesthetic value that they had bought it for in the first place.
The sentimentalism and emotional response some people get when they gravitate
toward beautiful things does not normally come out until they see something that is more
long-lasting than food. Chefs are capable of creating stunning dishes for us to consume,
but meals do not always have such an impact on us as real items that we can take home

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and showcase. Fitzsimons et al. (2017) explains this through their research when people
are given the option to eat one of two cupcakes. One is intricately decorated while the
other is very simple and plain. Their research shows that people are more likely to eat the
less beautiful one so that they do not destroy the beauty of the other. The only way they
might consider consuming it would be if the consumer was convinced that it took little
effort to create the beautiful cupcake or if that person does not easily appreciate one’s
effort (Fitzsimons et al., 2017, p. 654). Meals are not normally able to build a story for
the customers as objects do. They might build a story through the atmosphere and
experience the customers have there, but not usually something that they will remember
long past the visit.
Some people only like to keep things that have a story or some sort of sentimental
value to their lives. The same goes for handcrafted items. People want them for the
passion poured into them, but also the worth that they hold it to. It may cost more than
something that is stamped Made in China, but people are more willing to shell out the
few extra dollars to know that object came from someone’s hard work and ideas to be
bought and shared in another’s home.
For the Love of Goods
Anyone is capable of creating anything, if they have the creativity, passion,
mindset, knowledge, tools… well you get the idea. It takes a lot for someone to create
something by hand for others to purchase and enjoy. We can easily purchase things from
China at big corporate stores, or we can delve into small stores owned by a family that
carry only local artisan works of diverse backgrounds. Are there downfalls to this? The
prices are sometimes astronomically high since the item could be one-of-a-kind, so the

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price will not matter. Some people want to support a person who poured their passion
into creating something with their skill and talent, where they have found their niche in
the craftsman collective. Even if that person has not poured every ounce of their life into
their craft, it is uplifting to see someone explore a passion or a hobby and make
something of it so that others can enjoy what they do. And that is part of the story that the
crafter creates for his customers to experience. The crafter’s motivation, dedication, and
passion in their work can help to attract some people to their home-made goods. Some
people appreciate that; they appreciate the humanist characteristics of these tangible
objects. They are works of art in themselves, yet at prices everyday people can enjoy
along with a loving story built by the creator.
And there is not one certain area that a craftsman must work in. Social media may
be encouraging the fetishization of the impossibly perfect, but this is shaped through the
mediums of digital technologies. As I have mentioned earlier, there is no set area a
creator must work in to get recognized. We have experienced potters, leather-workers,
jewelers, screen printers, letterpress magicians, calligraphers, enamel pin constructors,
quilters and knitting, the list just goes on. Each individual creator experiences their field
of choice in different ways and brings unique concepts to their area of expertise.
Benjamin (1968) explains that; “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the
concept of authenticity” (p. 3). Without that creative variation, I genuinely doubt these
craft industries would be as successful as they are now. There is a reason why people go
to these mom & pop shops to purchase unique sets of mugs with no two that look alike
other than in color palette and size instead of a department store to pick up a perfectly
matched set and that reason is that they want something unique, something authentic that

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they connected with and picked out. Every customer has their own personal preference of
how they want to fill their life and surroundings. We are entitled to our own decisions
and styles just as the creators of the items we purchase. Sometimes the appearance is not
the primary attraction to an object, but rather the history of the item or the story of how it
was acquired. Many people like their items to have meaning or significance or to
somehow provide a familiarity to them. Not every item fulfills these needs, and sadly
some become contributions to the substantial amount of landfills and garbage we have.
(Since we throw out 4.4 pounds of trash a day…yay humans (Aughenbaugh, 2014). But
other objects that hold meaning tend to be passed down through the generations and have
that sentimental story attached to them. People enjoy feeling connected to family or
friends by handing something down with a story and emotion attached to it. When you
see it, it reminds you of a day, a story, or experience that you can cherish forever.
Mail That’s Made to Stay: The Greeting Card
Believe it or not, greeting cards in their earliest form have been around since
1846, but what we know to be greeting cards today came about a little later in the year
1910 by a creator named Joyce Hall. At the young age of 18, he began selling postcards
out of a shoebox. Five years from then he started into greeting cards when a fire had
destroyed his inventory, he decided it was time to purchase his own presses and create his
own. One of the most recognizable actions Hall did was licensing Disney characters for
his cards just a mere four years after the first Disney film was released (Suddath, 2014, p.
84). Hallmark is still a family-owned company, even though it now employs over 11,000
employees to create cards, work in their stores, etc. Even in our current technological era,

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people love and enjoy greeting cards and the different personalities they bring to the table
without having to create it themselves (Suddath, 2014, p. 85).
Lovely Letterpress: Hours of Work Well Spent
A craft that is being brought back to life in recent years is letterpress. People in
the creative industry understand, respect, and love the work done on a letterpress, but few
know actually how to create or work one. As stated before, many schools that had access
to these presses had done away with them when technology was on the rise, so they are
not easily accessible as they were before. But on top of that, letterpress and learning to
use a press teaches a craftsman a whole new realm of trial and error, problem solving,
etc. to help them grow their wheel house of skills, but also appreciation for the style of
work and the time it takes to get something right. Cooper & Gridneff (2010) have
previously stated that processes such as letterpress should be explored beyond the value
of a teaching tool, stating that letterpress is valuable because of the transferable skills it
can equip students with, such as an appreciation of physical space and the slower speed
of work fostering reflection through design (Cooper & Gridneff, 2014, p. 56).
Certainly, letterpress is not a skill necessary for graphic designers, but we do not
want to limit people and require them to learn this or any craft for that matter. With that
being said, it does humble some and helps them to understand on a deeper level the work
that goes into it. “…it made us more conscious designers. You have to make choices
rather than working with defaults on the computer’. The reality of making the artifact, not
a representation of the artifact” (Cooper & Gridneff, 2010, p. 68). It gets them to
understand how much effort is put into creating something of this caliber because it is
done by hand, one at a time normally. And if your layout is off or you misspell a word,

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you cannot just hit a backspace on your keyboard and fix it. The creator has to go in,
realign the letters on the press and correct any other errors such as spacing before trying
to print again. The letterpress allows for so many errors to occur, but it allows you to
grow an understanding for the craft and a respect for it, even if it is not your style of
work. “All of the students took pleasure from the notion that letterpress authorship is a
holistic activity and constitutes an education model that integrates design craft and
production” (Cooper & Gridneff, 2010, p. 68). People, not just students enjoy the
engagement one experiences when crafting something, it does not have to be just
letterpress for that feeling of authorship to be felt.
Hand-Set & Hands Full: People are Hooked
It is no lie when we say that letterpress might have tricked many into believing it
was a trade that died off, but small businesses, craft-hungry crowds, and now even bigname companies want in on it again. In reality though, so many of us are already fed up
with staring at a screen for hours on end, it is nice for graphic designers to have
something to take a break to enjoy and explore the process. One designer by the name of
Donatella Madrigal is finding that love away from her screen and finding it on the press.
She explains; “It’s an excuse to get down and dirty and to get away from the computer,
and I’m always learning from the paper” (Green, 2012, p. 60). Even though the market
for luxury items saw a drop in 2008, letterpress held strong and has increased in
popularity. Even in 2012, Etsy housed over 22,000 letter pressed goods on their site.
Another successful printer, Kimberly Austin, makes up the one woman show of Austin
Press in San Francisco. She quit her regular job to go full time letter pressing with her
three presses in her warehouse. She was lucky enough to build a connection with high-

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end women’s clothing chain, Anthropologie, and sell her cards through them as well as
through her own online shop. With that being said, she was able to make roughly
$250,000 in 2011 with her letterpress goods (Green, 2012, p. 61). People crave the
feeling that we notice when we touch a letter-pressed piece of paper. It is a thick stock,
but the press indents the letters, shapes, or images onto it with light or hard touches of the
roll. And we notice it because we feel it, we see the indentation on the surface. We as the
patrons to this craft enjoy seeing what the craftsman chose to do with that card or poster
that they created. Whether it is bold and in your face, or soft and dainty, letterpress has
many styles just like your typical cards do, but they take on a whole new breath with their
abilities to change the dimension and depth of the card.
The Maker’s Mark Makes a Difference
It really is the effort, time, and passion that the creator puts into the work that
makes their goods unique and people interested. Yes, mass-produced items can look
genuine and seem to have that passion put into it, but they do not. You get a much more
humanistic and genuine feeling when you hold something crafted by another person.
Handmade crafters build that story throughout their lifetime, their style, their voice that
shows through in their work. And if they are like most out in the industry, not only do
they want their work to stand out in the crowd of creators, they also want to leave a
lasting and appreciative impression on their buyers. Benjamin (1968) argues that; “Even
the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time
and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence
of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of
its existence” (p. 3). Once the crafter has that appreciation and understanding of their

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trade, they are able to pass that emotion through their work and onto their audience
through the story, the history that they have built for their crafted goods.
It’s the Little Things
Customers can review their purchases on the websites in which they purchase
from, and the majority of them like to note and acknowledge the effort and details the
creator puts into just packaging their order. Details like; signing their work, a hand
written thank-you note, packaging it to ship to the safest extent, and even making the
packaging itself look beautiful are some of the many details buyers pay attention to when
a seller goes out of their way to do that. It shows the compassion and value they carry in
their work which is then passed to their buyer.
The purchase becomes not only a story, but an experience and that starts the spark
of where it goes from there in the buyer’s hands. Tying back to Benjamin (1968);
The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its
beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history
which it has experienced. Since the historical testimony rests on the authenticity,
the former, too, is jeopardized by reproduction when substantive duration ceases
to matter. And what is really jeopardized when the historical testimony is affected
is the authority of the object. (p. 4)
Benjamin understood that if something did not hold that authenticity, people would be
less inclined to give that item a chance. We want to see the story that one object can hold,
it will not have much of a story or history if it comes off of a conveyor belt. And that is
what people are looking for. People in this day and age like to stop and smell the roses
when they are given the opportunity to do so. Not always are we given the chance, but

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the little details of things tend to catch our eyes, nowadays when they are not glued to a
screen. The people that seek to make these purchases from crafters tend to appreciate
these fine details and understand that the creator took the time and effort to do that
because they care about those little things, but it makes us understand more how much of
what that person created means to them and in turn, hopes to pass that onto to their buyer.
A more realistic situation that everyday people encounter would be receiving a
letter in the mail with your name and address written by hand on the front or having a
letter of some sort inside but seeing that they signed their name in pen. People can
distinguish pen ink, from an ink stamp, and from a printer’s ink. When someone takes the
time to sign their name with their ballpoint pen on a letter printed off of a machine that
probably printed thousands of copies, it is nice to know someone took the time to
consider that glimpse of a genuine feeling we receive as customers that they signed their
name personally. It is a personal touch that puts life back into something that lacks it, it
shows that they care far more than someone who just prints their name in a chosen font
off the computer.
Mesmerizing Mom & Pop Shops
E-cards were never something that caught on in the card industry. Studies have
shown that e-cards make up 2-3% of the greeting card market which is nothing. (Veiders,
2013) With that being said, Hallmark and American Greetings are not the only card
providers that are gaining all the revenue. Local stores in small or trendy neighborhoods
tend to pop up more recently, housing local artisans works of all kinds that the owners are
interested in carrying. A local example is a shop called Wildcard located in the
Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. This store has established quite the name for

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itself here in Pittsburgh and has such a following that you must go through basically an
interview process to get your work accepted into their store. But they are not the only
ones that do this, they want to curate their store to the style that their patrons gravitate
towards, the style that they personally want to see, or even have not seen before and want
to bring into their shop. Wildcard has been around since 2009 and thriving even to
today. Consumers miss and want to support the small businesses nowadays, we are not
interested in supporting the big corporations any longer, we want to see the small
guys thrive.
Online Artisans: When Technology & Handmade Collide
With how quickly technology and the use of the internet has taken over, crafters
had to develop and work with it in order to stay relevant. Etsy, Amazon Handmade, and
personal sites linked through social media accounts have become the main ways local
artisans get their name out there and build their name. Etsy was started in 2005 by three
friends named: Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik in their Brooklyn
apartment. They wanted to create a platform that allowed those crafters to sell their goods
without being charged heavily to do so (Reader, 2015). And since their initial launch,
they have done nothing, but grow every year to an all-time high. Within two years of
being open for business, they had acquired roughly 450,000 sellers and over $26 million
in sales. Fast forward to 2015, Etsy has over 54 million members and have gone over the
billion mark in sales (Reader, 2015). But along with those great numbers in 2015 came a
new and daunting contender.
Amazon had decided to launch Handmade at Amazon in October of that year to
compete. And that is no surprise seeing as though they have become one of the top online

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sellers for the decade. With Amazon’s 2-day shipping, good prices, and thousands of
reviews on products, it is no wonder so many people have turned to this online superstore
over the brick and mortars. Right off the bat, Amazon had planned to have more than
80,000 items to showcase in the Handmade launch from sellers all over the world. Etsy
ran into backlash from many of their crafters and artisans when they released the
manufacturers being allowed to sell on what was supposed to be a crafter’s paradise.
With that being done, many looked for a second option and pursued being a seller for
Amazon instead (Weise, 2015). And unlike Etsy, Amazon had actually found a lot of the
crafters on their own through craft fairs, websites, and mom & pop shops. To be included
in their handmade sellers, it is usually a four-week process of them getting to know you,
your work, and how you get to the end result (Weise, 2015). People search and purchase
handmade things for a reason, if they did not want something handmade, they would
not go looking for it.
Manufacturers Beware: Etsy Sellers Don’t Want You Here
After a couple changes in command at Etsy, 2013 had rolled around and the new
CEO had decided to allow manufactured goods also to be sold on their site. Many of the
small business owners that used this platform as a way to get their names out there hated
this, but they had nowhere else to go until 2015 with the start of Handmade at Amazon
(Reader, 2015). Even with all of that being said, small businesses housed on Etsy knew of
the blogs and backlash sellers got if anyone caught wind of them having extra workers or
worse, actually using a manufacturer instead of crafting their goods themselves. Etsy was
meant to be somewhere where a craftsman or artisan could sell original work without
having access to their own or other mom & pop shops, they did not want to see it get

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doused in manufactured goods, it would take away from their handmade wares and the
whole point of this site was to help better the small guys. Wolverson (2013) said;
These days, craftsmanship isn’t just about the quality of work. It’s about selling a
lifestyle as carefully calibrated as any Ralph Lauren scene of equestrian bliss. The
collision between artisanal purity and capitalist ambition is playing out among
thousands of amateur carpenters, potters, and condiment makers who have turned
household arts and hobbies into thriving ventures.
But he is right in saying that. People want to experience that story of how the product you
create came to be. It has to have a story with whimsical soft music playing in the
background of the homepage video; they want to feel your emotion throughout your
work. Arguably, you do not get the same kind of emotion or story with a manufactured
object, or at least not the same kind of emotion or story. It is just like the piece of paper
you type words onto that come out of your printer, it is lifeless, it is effortless, and people
just settle for those types of things. Back to Benjamin (1968), he understood that these
emotional experiences we have are built by an item’s history and what makes it authentic,
but with those comes its aura. When talking about two different times in history, Greeks
viewed a statue of Venus differently than the clerics of the Middle Ages. Benjamin
(1968) explains; “Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness,
that is, its aura…for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates
the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the
work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility” (p. 6).
During the modern era, we had lost track of the craft movement and we pushed into the
industrialization that was now available to us. However, now we are seeing the craft push

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back and customers are all about it. We do not want to experience art or crafts that were
mass produced. We want to experience something unique, feel its aura that radiates off of
it so we can really truly understand where it came from and the work someone put into it.
By far one of the biggest upsets involving manufactured goods in Etsy history
was by a store called Ecologica Malibu. It was owned by a thirty-one year old by the
name of Mariana Schecter who was a Brazilian designer who built eco-friendly furniture
using reclaimed nautical wood that she sold from her California studio. She did have a
brick-and-mortar store running in California first, but decided to list a few things on Etsy
as well. Quickly, her items were flying off the electronic shelves of Etsy and she was
getting contacted by big name companies like Google and ordering large quantities of her
items. With all of this rapid rise to fame, other sellers already disgruntled by Etsy
changing their rules for manufacturers, started to question her business if she was
completing it all on her own. An Etsy critic caught wind of this and decided to do some
digging of her own and found that not only were Schecter’s items listed on
Overstock.com, but also a wholesaler site as well. Schecter was instantly accused by
thousands of distributing mass-produced furniture. From the accusations, it only got
worse with hate mail, petitions, and more to the point that Schecter closed her Etsy store
and moved. The only thing she explained was that when she opened her shop through
Etsy, she did not completely understand the concept of it. She understood that she was
not creating it all herself, but to the level of frustration that the sellers took things to was
ridiculous. (Wolverson, 2013). From that point on, she steered clear of Etsy as a seller
and it seems that others interested in entering the Etsy marketplace understood that if the
site itself does not crack down on you for being one hundred percent a handmade crafter,

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the community will be sure to find you and tear you apart. It may give off a strong
negative connotation to many, but these people making a business for themselves, a
livelihood and name in the creative world. They do not want someone to just jump into
it and go places when they are not even creating it themselves, that goes against their
ideas and putting time and effort into something they care about that they want someone
else to experience.
Conclusion
We have started to miss and want tactile goods that are created by another person
because of their uniqueness, but also their authenticity and humanistic traits we do not
experience on a screen. The handcrafted industry has really stepped up in the past twenty
years to give themselves a name again. When we are living in this era where humans
have grown accustomed to relying on technology to keep us distracted, it is nice to see
something pull us away with a personalized, humanistic feel. Through handmade items
the creator show their personality, passion, skill, and all of those together attract
customers to purchase their goods for themselves and others. Handcrafted goods were
once a largely popular thing before the Industrial Revolution, which was when mankind
started to see what machinery could do for us.
We genuinely miss the connection we had with those items when they are lifeless
as they come off the assembly line. We want to know how that item came to be; how it
started as a thought or dream and turned into a passion project of that creator that then
took off even further. People appreciate the uniqueness of someone’s craft and see the
nuances the creator puts into the object. We want to support the underdog and help
individuals succeed. That story of the object then in turn makes an impact on the buyer’s

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emotions and appreciation for that craft. We crave that tactile experience from a
letterpress card to a hand-thrown mug, or even a journal bound by hand. Technology has
made us glaze over the digital images we see each and every day, but there is something
about those mom & pop shops that draw us in to look at and enjoy the handcrafted items
they carry in their stores. We want to know their stories and where they came from; we
want to experience these items and bring the ones that make an impact on us into our
homes because they hold those humanistic values, that aura, and that authenticity of
being truly created. The creative world is always growing and changing, but it is the
appreciation we have as humans towards these crafts that really hit home for us as
consumers, but also the craftsmen that create them for us to enjoy.

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