Use of technology. Is it 'handmade?' Is it 'Folksy'?

Craft Talk
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I have put this under the Craft Talk heading as it seems most appropriate:

I am slowly learning 3d sculpting and rendering techniques. I should to have some additive manufactured items (3D printed) ready in the next few weeks. These are to be made ready for casting and to experiment and likely sell when further embellished.
In using the technology I am using similar techniques to those I use when working with pen and paper, clay and putty.

My question is partly rhetorical. The essence of skills technique and a certain degree of application come from craft. Every mark is mine. material and substrate positioning is a direct result of my input. Success or failure is mine alone.

Not handmade but definitely coming from me, an extension of me if you will.

Would something manufactured with these techniques be ‘Folksy’? That is what I am pondering at the minute.

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I think you can probably equate it with people using laser cutters or casting things, the design side is original design but the process is mechanised. In this case it sounds like that is all your own work too.
There is plenty of it on Folksy, and it is acceptable as long as the designs are your own.
I think it is the quantity of reproductions possible that can make it look questionable. At what point is something mass produced?

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I saw a 3D printer at a model railway show recently. The man was demonstrating the posibility of this type of printer for the model maker. He had a few key fobs that he had printed, they were quite good and I could see the possibility of using these machines for crafting.
So I think in my personal view it is an art to produce items from a 3D printer. You would probably have to finish the item or paint it, so you will have had a great input into the designing and making of said items.

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You might have to specify that they were limited edition, in the same way that prints of artworks are limited and given a number, otherwise it would be no different to the jewellery factories that produce a mould from a handmade orignal and then knock out unlimited items, all exactly the same.

Sam x

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Sounds perfectly find to me.
I always look at things like that as a business expanding. I personally don’t see it as being the same as factories using moulds, or mass production because you created the Artwork for “mould”- and you are the one that’s with it every step of the way. You are one maker. It isn’t a team of people who hire a designer to create an idea, whilst they they take the profits. You’re the artist, you’re the designer, you are the sales person, you are the packager, you do all the work. It’s still your baby.

Sometimes small businesses like us, can outgrow what their hands can physically make and I don’t see anything wrong with getting a helping hand from technology to allow your business to grow and develop. :slight_smile:

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