Contributing Member fredk Posted June 11, 2021 Contributing Member Report Posted June 11, 2021 5 hours ago, Handstitched said: The added bonus about what I do, is that I can have a beer ..at lunch time How many employers let you drink on the job? Just .....thought I'd throw that into the discussion . 2 hours ago, Klara said: Everybody I ever worked for in Germany and France (there the red wine was at one point included in the meal paid for by the company). No drinking alcohol during working hours with most businesses in N.I. Very much frowned upon here 2 hours ago, Klara said: @fredk How long did the 1000-Club stay in business? And how did they manage to get any customers? That's the sort of cheek that drives me crazy... About 5 years. There were about 6 photographers. Yes, they got plenty of customers. They cleaned up in the wedding photos scene. £1000 to attend the wedding, £1000 for small album with proof photos (30 to 36 of 5 x 5 inch) and £1000 per finished album with 24 main photos (8 x8 or 8 x 10 inch). For that I charged a total of £250-ish, £200 was profit. 7 times out of 10 the photos were rubbish. When the wedding people tried to sue they lost and we, other photographers, got the job of re-doing the photos as far as could be done, which cost the couple another £2000 or so, for hiring suits, venues, new cake etc. To put this in more context; average weekly wage was about £160 then Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Members Handstitched Posted June 11, 2021 Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 @Klara I stand corrected , I'm quite partial to a nice Shiraz HS Quote ' I have a very gweat friend in Wome called Biggus Dickus, He has a wife you know, do you know whats she's called? Incontinentia.......Incontinentia Buttocks '
Members Handstitched Posted June 11, 2021 Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 5 minutes ago, fredk said: No drinking alcohol during working hours with most businesses in N.I. Very much frowned upon here A'h the joys of being my own boss HS Quote ' I have a very gweat friend in Wome called Biggus Dickus, He has a wife you know, do you know whats she's called? Incontinentia.......Incontinentia Buttocks '
Members Spyros Posted June 11, 2021 Author Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 15 hours ago, Klara said: I dare say people in France and Germany see it the same way. Since things are beginning to clear up, I'll throw another term into the discussion: Home made. Which for some reason is bad ("Make your work look hand made, not home made") - unless it's cooking or baking. Home made bread is a good thing (well...), a home-knitted sweater not so much... Given that quite a number of craftspeople and artists work from home, I assume that home-made is short for "know-nothing no-skills hobbyist made"? I call all my bags "Mimby". Mimby#53, Mimby#62 etc. Only one person ever asked my where the name came from, I said "Made In My Back Yard". Quote
Members Tugadude Posted June 11, 2021 Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 5 hours ago, Constabulary said: Definitions may differ in different countries but a term you often read in terms of small business made items in MANUFATUR. I know the translations may throw out different meaning. A MANUFAKTUR may differ in sizes (number of employees and so forth) depending on the branch but usually - nowadays - when you read MANUFAKTUR over here (like leather MANUFAKTUR, Glass MANUFAKTUR....) is most of the time is associated with a small business producing high quality goods in a rather small volume (again - depends on the definition) with a high amount of hand and / or art work. Not sure if MANUFAKTUR has the same meaning worldwide and history for has changed the meaning but that pretty much the definition in the "old world" nowadays: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufaktur#Der_moderne_Begriff (use googel translate) We don´t have to look far - same with sewing machine like ARTISAN or COWBOY or THOR. No one in Europe (I guess) would call his sewing Machine Co. COWBOY - of course it´s a different story in the US. It gives you a certain association with something most folks (in the US) are familiar with - the original Co. name is HIGHTEX IIRC - so calling it COWBOY is a marketing name tailored to the US market. THOR and ARTISAN of course gives certain associations with something else. Thats marketing! Not meant as an offense to the brand names! In the U.S. we use the term manufacturer, but it doesn't carry the connotation of a small company. It really doesn't have any definition of size attached to it. Quote
Members Spyros Posted June 11, 2021 Author Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 (edited) I think producing leather items in general is very very much behind other industries in terms of automation. I've seen products where someone stands behind a glass window, presses the start button and the next time a human hand touches the product is at some supermarket on the other side of the planet when they unwrap the pallets. Despite the sewing machines and skiving machines, leatherworking is still very much a manual process. In my professional world, which is mainly manufacturing/industrial, when they say handmade they mean a product where the ratio of manual labour Vs machine/automation is heavily towards the former. And every single leather item that I've seen how it's made meets this definition, in fact it's a prime example. When a bag has 10 hours of pure manual labour in it with tools that are pretty much the same as a couple of centuries ago, you can't tell me it's not handmade because there was also 20 minutes of sewing machine somewhere in between, that's ridiculous. Call it almost entirely handmade or something silly like that if you must. The fact that some leatherworkers are in some sort of competition with each other who will consume the least electricity doesn't mean that the rest of the world also sees things the same way. Edited June 11, 2021 by Spyros Quote
Contributing Member fredk Posted June 11, 2021 Contributing Member Report Posted June 11, 2021 40 minutes ago, Tugadude said: In the U.S. we use the term manufacturer, but it doesn't carry the connotation of a small company. It really doesn't have any definition of size attached to it. Its not a word we think about here, but generally 'manufacturer' means a big company. eg BMW is a manufacturer, the truck building place near me which builds about 20 trucks a month is not Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Members Tugadude Posted June 11, 2021 Members Report Posted June 11, 2021 58 minutes ago, fredk said: Its not a word we think about here, but generally 'manufacturer' means a big company. eg BMW is a manufacturer, the truck building place near me which builds about 20 trucks a month is not Interesting. That just goes to show that although we both speak English, the words can have vastly different meanings. Quote
Contributing Member fredk Posted June 11, 2021 Contributing Member Report Posted June 11, 2021 @Tugadude and that is why we must be careful what we write. An ordinary word to me/you might be honestly offensive to someone else. I was taken to task on another forum for calling people 'plebs'. I learnt that at school; its Latin (plebeian) for the common person, but to the English its an insult. Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Contributing Member fredk Posted June 11, 2021 Contributing Member Report Posted June 11, 2021 3 hours ago, Spyros said: I call all my bags "Mimby". Mimby#53, Mimby#62 etc. Only one person ever asked my where the name came from, I said "Made In My Back Yard". teehee. that be funny mmmm, what might my code be? MIMA? Made In My Apartment? We call it a 'Flat' but MIMF doesn't work so good Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
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