This subject cycles every now and then. There is no correct answer.
Please be aware the person working has a job and is happy to have
one. The standards mentioned are ours, there is a difference.
To boycott such products puts the jobs in jeopardy. It is necessary
to take this all in perspective. All is not what it appears on the
surface.
Buy American is fine for those who espouse it, and in many cases can
afford it. I appreciate things made by the hands of man/woman, any
man or woman, all over the world. It is the handwork that should not
be lost. They are treasures.
These artisans are paid nothing for the amazing work that they do
and this is a gross injustice. They deserve to be paid a fair
market value for their work. It also lessens the value of the work
that we do as artisans hoping to be paid a living wage to survive
in an expensive society.
There are a couple of points here which I think deserve comment but
first let me say that I fully agree that good work should bring a
good reward. The payment of wages in foreign countries must be
considered in the light of the overall standards of that particular
society. Just because a worker is only paid a dollar a day it doesn’t
necessarily mean that he is underpaid. The very fact that he is alive
and often supporting a family would suggest that, in his society,
that would represent a ‘living wage’. It may well be that the
standards of that society are different from the consumerist
societies of the west but that is the way these people choose to live
and in which they are happy. This is apparent when you look at the
immigrants to our society where the actual immigrant becomes wealthy
and could well afford to bring the rest of his family over but
doesn’t because the family prefer to continue living in the society
which they have known all their lives and in which they feel
comfortable. If you look at the actual wage structure of many of
these societies, the miners and other artisans are often paid good
wages in comparison to their peers - and, of course, they are doing
the work they choose to do. In our own societies, of course, we have
the ‘starving artists (and jewellers!)’ who work away in their
garrets with a very minimal income and we tend to look up to them
and glamorise their lifestyle as we see them doing just what they
want and being free of the constraints our own rat-race places upon
us. Their work is usually looked upon as more desirable than similar
mass-produced work and will demand a higher price in the open market
but often not until it has been resold a couple of times - the
creator of the work still gets only a minimal share!
In all our societies it is not the actual artisan who sets or
receives the ‘value’ of a work - this is usually the domain of the
‘middleman’ or entrepreneur who will buy for as little as he can and
sell for as much as he can get. So, even if you were to indicate that
you would like to pay more for an object, the difference in cost
would not find its way into the artisan’s pocket.
In a strange and twisted way, the whole problem of ‘exploited
labour’ comes down to sex - if people in the ‘under developed
countries’ could be persuaded to reduce their output of babies, the
pool of available labour would be reduced and so, by the simple laws
of supply and demand, the employers would have to pay more for
workers.
In response to Will’s comment which provided the FTC’s view that an
item using materials produced outside the US cannot be marked ‘made
in USA’ but could be marked ‘assembled in the USA’ …I think this
is bureaucracy gone nuts!!!
If the metal is from another country (maybe even refined there)
…it is simply a raw material and has nothing to do whatsoever with
where or how a finished item was conceived and made, A chunk of
stone that comes from somewhere outside of the US but is sent to the
US and is slabbed and cut by US lapidaries, it is again, a raw
material that has nothing to do with where or how it is cut into a
finished gem…it is simply a raw material. Mother Nature makes ALL
raw materials. They are still raw materials until the artisan
manipulates them into a ‘final’ or ‘finished’ product. Even metal
sheet, wire etc is raw material and it is inmaterial where it
originated. Only when the artisan or craftsman works their
magic…that is where the item is made.
To rule anything else is to be oblivious to reality and represents
pure and simple bureaucratic hogwash!!
My 2c. Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where
simple elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2
Catherine, I fully sympathize with your point of view. However, I
really don’t think that it is realistic to assume that you are going
to get anywhere with a protest against American corporations that
are doing business with overseas low cost labor. Our economy is
deeply rooted in outsourcing labor and the problem is definitely
having an impact on jobs in America. Our best choice is to take this
reality in stride and seek other ways of avoiding that kind of
competition. It behooves us to avoid that confrontation by improving
our own skills and capabilities. If we try to compete at the base
level we will be swallowed by the cheap labor, but if we acheive
higher skill, design and execution levels and, if we employ higher
levels of productivity and technology we will be able to compete
more effectively. This does not mean that we should compete head on;
cheap labor will always prevail in mass markets. We should
concentrate on niche markets, sophisticated designs and superior
finishing. The 'glitter" crap that dazzles with globs of inferior
melee diamonds is not our cup of tea. Unfortunately, however, jewelry
making is an ever more primitive endeavour compared to the
complexities of modern electronic and technologic marvels. We need
to concentrate on participating at the other end of the
technological spectrum. I think that it would be fair to say that
many of us will become vocationally obsolete in the foreseeable
future…Ron at Mills Gem, Los Osos CA.
P.S. I have been dealing lately with the problem of repairing the
"glitter crap" by refusing to work on it. This sends a message to the
consumer, but you have to be careful to gently point out why it is
not feasible to retip the ring that has ten carat yellow gold with
gobs of one point diamonds that need re-tipping. In the eye of the
typical consumer all you have to do is “dip” the ring in a pot of
molten gold and the problem is solved…yeah, sure ! R.M.
Lee, I am passing this on as it tells a great deal about people who
are successful in business, but not so successful in life. Maybe we
need to teach pure old ethics to our youth before they are
indoctrinated into ‘the bigger bang for the buck’ of our society.
Your words are wisdom for the artist who understands that true art
has both a life and a soul regardless of what the finished article
is.
It seems to be back to whining time here on Orchid. Whining
about how someone makes it cheaper, steals the designs, mass
produces, ad nauseum. Why don't you all figure out what you can do
that sets you apart from everyone else. Stop worrying about the
competition.
Daniel, I cannot agree more with you on this. There are so many
things you can do. Improve your skills. Stop producing mass pieces.
Take courses in art. Read and go to musea. Study the work of
contemporary first class jewelry designers. Try to find your own
distinctive way. Try to work with not so common metals or other
things. Try processes like granulation, reticulation, Keum boo,
mokume and so on, processes which cannot be incorporated in mass
produced pieces. Try to find something new. It’s your challenge.
Laugh at the competition and go your own way. If you continue to
produce rings in Sterling which have been here for 20 or 30 years
already, start to forget it. And is that actually a bad thing? Will
None of us wishes to see exploitation, especially that which is
directed toward children. Nonetheless, those of us who enjoy modern
western standards of living would be in a sorry fix if you
scrupulously traced the origin of the product you are enjoying to an
underpaid producer and then boycotted the goods. I wonder how many
jewelers would be willing to stop buying loose stones, drinking hot
chocolate, driving new cars, buying gold and so on , ad infintum !
The truth is that we are a world economy and it is pollyanish to
assume that everything we consume should be traced to its origins
and certified as to compliance with our own parochial points of view!
I wonder how many jewelers would be willing to stop buying loose
stones, drinking hot chocolate, driving new cars, buying gold and
so on , ad infintum ! The truth is that we are a world economy
Of course, of course, but it is all untrue. We might also wonder how
many people would buy stones, drink choc, drive new cars etc., if
they had to pay a honest - by which I mean both fair and economically
rational (leaving the ecological component out of the picture) -
price for these products. Because the truth of the matter is that we
don’t. And the reason for this is that there are no free markets.
There is no free market for coffee, for chocolate, for gold, for
uranium, for copper, for pharmaceuticals, for meat, for milk and
grain - both American and European agriculture would implode immediately if the prices would be determined by supply and demand
on a world market without oligopolies and monopolies. Can send
everyone who’s interested a long list of references. I wrote a book
about it myself back in 1994. Best, Will
Some of the issues raised in this thread are being addressed by Fair
Trade certification organizations–and I agree that we need them in
the US too.
Since I mostly do wirework, I only use Balinese silver beads when I
do stringing for special orders. When I do, I almost always buy from
Rishashay, because they’re certified. I keep old copies of their
catalogs, cut out the explanations (and pictures of the happy
workers), and give them to my customers. It’s not much in the way of
education, but they get some sense of the issues–and understand why
they’re paying premium prices, too.
I tried to find other jewelry-related Fair Trade companies,
especially for gemstone beads, but haven’t had any luck. If anyone
has such please post it.
I think part of why I use so much Swarovski is my assumption that
Austrian factories have unions!
After it was pointed out that virtually all jewelry products made
(except those completely mined, refined, designed, made, cut,
polished, and set exclusively in America) – must be labelled
"Assembled in America" – I would have thought that this thread
would have been dropped.
Instead it has become a forum for political thought.
Every person is welcomed to their own political opinions, but this
is a jewelry bulletin board. I come here to learn and share about
jewelry techniques and actual jewelry-related issues. Once the
labelling legalities were addressed, the question was answered, and
now most of the posts are just inflamitory political jargon, spouted
by people who have no experiencial basis to the opinions they hold
so tightly. Please just loosen up and learn about all sides of the
issue. There are no simple answers.
Dear Daniel I could not resist to applaud you for your comments on
whining to the recent made in the USA-thread on Orchid; - as spoken
out of my heart: I wish my English was so good that I could have
written it myself.
Instead it has become a forum for political thought.
Terri
You can always just ignore any “Made in USA posts”… that’s what I
did when the “Universal Superduper Interfaith Logo” stuff was going
on, as I don’t really care about whose omnipotent imaginary friend is
better than/can beat up someone else’s omnipotent imaginary friend.
At least it’s a change from “I heard there’s a sure-fire way to
avoid firescale, can someone please tell me the trick”, “I just
bought 8 carats of ruby for $15, do you think they’re fake”, and the
weekly request for on ‘x’" (where typing ‘x’ into Google
will return thousands of pages, half of which might even have
something to do with ‘x’).
If all you’re after are tricks and techniques, you’d get a higher
signal to noise ratio by buying some books (many available that are
written by people who post here) or taking some classes (many
available that are taught by people who post here).
For me, the most helpful thing that this eclectic group of people
offers is the realization that “I am not alone” - as in, there are
other people out there who make nice stuff, but also experience the
occasional bad solder day, times when one’s creativity gets stuck in
the Sargasso Sea, gems that grow little crystalline legs and merrily
walk away when you’re not looking, and yes, even a customer or two
who only wants to “buy U.S.”/“buy CDN, eh?”/“buy anywhere not on
Dubya’s current ‘we hate’ list”.
There was a time in American history when technocracy was a
political movement. That you should believe that jewelry making
exists in a vacuum and should not have any political ramifications
is pure myopia. All human endeavours have political
aspects…indeed, all economic activities are saturated with
political impact. Would you believe that cattle diseases have no
political ramifications or that timber cutting policies are
apolitical or that precious metal purity labeling is a non-political
issue ?
The isolationist attitude has been a thorn in the side of American
history from the outset. Our participation in the world economy is
now of the utmost importance and it behooves all of us who pursue
jewelry as a vocation to be politically aware . There has never been
a time when the small entrepreneur has been more threatened than
now. The jewelry market has been systematically and progressively
swallowed up by mega corporations who would like nothing better than
to eliminate small operators. I talked with a customer recently who
told me that she had been an employee of Wal Mart in Oregon and that
it was that companies policy to have an employee party every time a
local hardware store went under ! I doubt very much that Zales would
shed tears over loss of a small competitor…Ron at Mills Gem,
Los Osos, CA