Why do people say "handmade"?

[Spyros]

Handmade as opposed to what? Is there such a machine that you put leather in one end and bags come out of the other?  

If you go to a production line or factory there's a tonne of people working because pretty much everything is done manually. 

There's someone dying edges, punching holes, setting hardware, even a lot of the cutting is done by hand by the time they get dies for every new design.

Even operating a sewing machine is far from automatic, in fact it's a bit of an art in itself.

But if you do all that alone in a one man workshop then it's "handmade".  Why?

 

[chrisash]

It's a open phrase, it means different things to different people 

 

[PastorBob]

2 hours ago, Spyros said:

Handmade as opposed to what? Is there such a machine that you put leather in one end and bags come out of the other?  

If you go to a production line or factory there's a tonne of people working because pretty much everything is done manually. 

There's someone dying edges, punching holes, setting hardware, even a lot of the cutting is done by hand by the time they get dies for every new design.

Even operating a sewing machine is far from automatic, in fact it's a bit of an art in itself.

But if you do all that alone in a one man workshop then it's "handmade".  Why?

 

Yesterday, when I got home from work, my 8 year old granddaughter who is staying with us for a few weeks, let me know that she and my wife made "home made" blueberry muffins.  I asked her if she made the blueberries.  She turned to my wife and asked her if we "planted" the blueberries?  My wife said, "no".  My granddaughter went on to say that "we could have planted them"?  Then I asked her if she made the plant.  She said no, but we planted the seed.  My response was, "who made the seed?"  Then to clarify, my wife said we made it from "scratch" not from a mix.

If anything, we could state our work is "artisan crafted and made" vs. mass produced where, although it may be touched by human hands, it is not start to finish created by a single person.

[Mulesaw]

Interesting question.

If a car is handmade, nobody will expect it to be made by one single person, but more skillfully put together by a dedicated team, and the engine and transmission etc. can be sourced from a regular street model (example:Lotus 7 or Caterham 7)

If a tool or a bag or another smaller item is called handmade I think the general notion is that it is constructed by one person from start till end product. 

My best guess it derives from when automation began, and handmade was a way of signaling that the stuff was made in a traditional way.

[Handstitched]

This topic has come up a few times on here:

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/87397-what-is-handmade/?tab=comments#comment-596404

This was also a a topic of discussion between a few friends at the weekend at a local market. In particular, a friend of mine  makes & sells assorted items that include Swarovski crystals . She buys the components and  creates & makes beautiful  decorative items as well as creating and making  jewellery. However, she doesn't make the crystals, nor does she make the metallic components that holds them together. 

The very same can be said for what I  do. I buy the raw materials, ....leather, and create  and make various leather goods. But I don't have a  herd of cows, or  other animals, I don't tan my own hides,  nor do I make the hardware that go with the leather goods, but what I make is handmade.  And as for using a sewing machine, its just another tool  amongst many others to help make the end product.

But then theres  the " machine vs hand stitched" debate  . Theres a post about that too I'm sure  

To me, hand made is ::  not mass produced , not the same as..., , bespoke,  custom made, with creativity,  love & pride ,  and ....individual  etc . etc.....

HS

[chuck123wapati]

about a year or so ago this very subject was discussed. 

 

[chuck123wapati]

about a year or so ago this very subject was discussed. I believe it top be more of a open phrase, hand tooled , hand stitched, hand cut etc would be more appropriate terms but then again do you write all that down or say all of it if you do all those steps by hand or do you simply say handmade? I know of many knifemakers who source out all their parts then assemble the knives and put a final edge on them and still call themselves knifemakers isn't that the same thing?

 

[Spyros]

My point is, I can't think of any leathercraft item that is not handmade.

[chuck123wapati]

2 hours ago, Spyros said:

My point is, I can't think of any leathercraft item that is not handmade.

Whats you definition of hand process? running a clicker press or sewing machine? There are also rules concerning truthfulness in selling that would decide if you item was handmade, jewelry especially has those rules quite stringent.

merriam Webster says    

handmade

 adjective

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hand·made | \ ˈhan(d)-ˈmād  \

Definition of handmade: made by hand or by a hand process

 

dictionary .com    SAYS    handmade[ hand-meyd ]SHOW IPA

adjective

made by hand, rather than by machine:the luxury of handmade shoes.

[Viles]

I think it is an old throwback phrase from the 80's when we were competing with Japan and China. I think in our minds back then we thought there were massive cold machines crafting different things at the touch of a button. Things, the world, and individual knowledge has moved so fast in the past 30 years that it's hard to imagine that we could believe that. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Viles