Artisans distressed by influx of manufactured items at craft shows

and LUCAS BLAISE
Contributing Writer

May 12, 2008 04:00 am

— Local craft shows selling vendors'
mass-produced items among original work
PLATTSBURGH -- One the many crafts Tamara Thompson makes are mini punched rugs that involve 10 to 12 hours' work and sell for between $30 and $45 each.
"The fakes are $10," said the Peru woman, who will set up at maybe 10 shows this year. "I just take offense."
It's a growing problem at craft shows -- vendors come in with cheap, mass-produced items that they can be priced far lower than hand-produced products.
"They're buying in lots of 100 or 200," Thompson said. "They can sell it for little or nothing and still make a tremendous profit."
NOT A FLEA MARKET
Many shows have guidelines that forbid such merchandise, including those held spring and fall at Plattsburgh State Field House.
"We have tried to attack it, but we haven't had a lot of success," said Melanie Wyand, who with Scott Johnson organizes those shows. "We've sent letters the last couple of years explaining the problem, asking for compliance with our policies."
They have even approached vendors who seem to be selling mass-produced merchandise -- sometimes that works.
"Then we have had (vendors) who have really challenged us," Wyand continued. "Some say they have made (the items) or embellished them."
The definition of embellish is debatable, she said, but for Thompson, it's very clear.
"A true crafter makes 95 percent then adds a bow or maybe a rusty star," she said.
Sticking a ribbon on a manufactured piece shouldn't qualify, she said.
The Essex Masonic Lodge also struggles with the issue of hand-crafted versus machine.
At last July's show, said Mason Allan Clark, some vendors "were bringing in junk. "We're trying to present quality crafts -- it's a craft show, not a flea market."
Show organizers rely on what potential vendors submit on the application, which doesn't always reflect the truth. For example, one applicant described his merchandise as Russian crafts.
"But you turned it over and it said, made in China,'" Clark said. "We asked them to leave."
"I do think the promoters are trying," said Thompson. "It's the people who are doing the wholesale -- they need to step up and think what they're doing."
There are shows that welcome both hand-crafted and wholesale items, she noted, so it's not as if there's no venue for the latter.
FAMILY BUSINESS
Thompson has been a crafter for 18 years; her passion for the hand work surfaced after visiting just one craft show.
"I was hooked," she laughed. "My husband said, I can see it in your eyes -- you're going to quit your job."
She did so, and asked her father, Philip Gebo, to do the same to go into business with her. He made frames for her artwork, preparing the lumber from scratch. Thompson branched out to make numerous kinds of crafts, from dolls to birdhouses made of antique ceiling tile to one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture adorned with her folk art.
"When you walk in my booth, I want you to feel like you're walking into a general store," she said.
Her niece Meghan Burgess shares her space, selling crafts she first started making at age 5.
"Shows are fun," said the Peru Elementary School fourth-grader. "I like seeing other people's work."
She makes magnets, embroiders small samplers, stencils words such as "Hope" and "Simplify" on small wooden signs that can be tied on gifts.
"I paint 20 with one color then let them dry. Then 20 with another color then paint the words on them," she said.
A more challenging project she's undertaken recently is an embroidery of a cat wearing a dress decorated with flowers.
"She probably had four hours in it; it sold for $20," her aunt said.

IFFY FUTURE
Meghan, Tamara said, "is a little entrepreneur. At her age, she has an unbelievable work ethic."
Last year, at age 9, the girl earned $1,200 selling her crafts.
"I put some in the bank, and I use other money for the craft supplies," she said.
"And sometimes, I buy something for myself."
It gives Meghan a thrill of pride when someone chooses something she labored over -- recently, a customer even asked her to sign an item.
"It feels special that they like my artwork," she said.
Hard work should yield success, but Tamara Thompson says that's a lesson that can't quite hit home with Meghan, not when others profit by far less industry.
"I just wish these people who do wholesale would think of the next generation," Thompson said. "The way that the craft shows are going, I don't know if there's going to be a place for her."
smoore@pressrepublican.com

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