"Hand made"

[John Noell]

We do laser cut jewelry and some people think "hand made" is better some how than what we do (although we spend at least 20x longer on the hand finishing part than the laser part). This picture is of 'hand made' earrings from Thailand. Funny how they have those black edges and scorch marks. Must have been somebody with hot hands making them.

[Anthony Scira]

There is a new laser line by the Korean manufacturer "Hand". It was lasered and it is Hand Made.

Yeah that is laser work if I ever saw it.

[Tim Bateson]

• That's an example that shows a total lack of being hand made. They were too lazy to even clean up their work before posting a picture,

[John Noell]

There is a new laser line by the Korean manufacturer "Hand". It was lasered and it is Hand Made.

Doh!! Of course! Gotta get one of those for myself!

[Dan Hintz]

During my last trip to the Bahamas about a year ago, there was a gentleman on the streets using a fine coping saw to cut out designs... very intricate designs... out of pewter spoons, silver dollars, etc. I estimate it took him several hours to cut out the larger designs, and he was selling his stuff for $30-$50. Tough to compete with that kind of pricing, and he did requests.

[Frank Corker]

John the design in that one is nice, but the quality is not a patch on the stuff that you are doing, your stuff is leaps and bounds ahead of that stuff!

[Guy Mathews]

During my last trip to the Bahamas about a year ago, there was a gentleman on the streets using a fine coping saw to cut out designs... very intricate designs... out of pewter spoons, silver dollars, etc. I estimate it took him several hours to cut out the larger designs, and he was selling his stuff for $30-$50. Tough to compete with that kind of pricing, and he did requests.

While my wife and I were in Cancun 2 years ago, we saw his cousin doing the same thing on coins. He had a whole bunch that were on display. He was actually taking request as well. He made a Broken Heart penadant with a couples intials in a quarter. When finished, he had two pieces that fit together perfectly from the same quarter. It took him about 20 minutes total and he only charged the guy 20 bucks. My wife and I were so amazed we searched the internet and finally found the tools he was using. An ebay search of "Jewelers Saw" will put you in the right direction. He also had a clamp that he attached to the table. There was a small pair of vise grips welded to the clamp with a rubber tip.

If the lasers can cut through coins it is just a matter of time before these things are everywhere.

If you Google Coin Cutting you will find links like this one.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/shoporego...ants_on_e.html

I get the same huff from people with my CNC machines and laser scanner. I can reproduce just about any piece of furniture 1 time or 1,000 times and the only time people care is when our hand carver puts the finishing touches on stuff. I'm just the computer geek!

Dee, I liked your perspective on the whole hand made thing. It reminds me of the debate between film and digital cameras! If you really want to get people fighting in a photo forum, just post this question, "Which is better, Canon or Nikon?" Or, "will digital replace film?" People wiil come to cyberblows in minutes over these!

Guy

[John Noell]

It reminds me of the debate between film and digital cameras!

With 25+ megapixels DSLRs, still picture film is dead. And, if you haven't heard already, there is a new "video" camera (all digital) that is replacing film cameras for big ticket movie productions. For many years the movie industry has said that 'video' cannot replace film but when they started doing blind comparison with the new RED camera, it came out as more film-like than film. Faster, cheaper, more flexible. In five years I doubt any big ticket productions will actually use film. But I expect the debate about it will last a lot longer than that.

[Rodne Gold]

I think in this modern age some of us slightly older folk (im 50) are overwhelmed by technology and hanker after the "old days" when things were simpler... like "hand made"
I have an overhaulin' business and there is a big demand for 60's and 70's muscle , regardless of the fact that a modern compact car will mostly outperform em. Even the youngsters these days appreciate retro...
So in essence I think the apprecaition and desire for actual hand made stuff is a reaction to the electronic age..

[John Barton]

We are busy making a little Celtic Knot embossing plate for a customer's case. My wife just peeled the tape off of the inner parts on one of the rejected pieces of acrylic. She went and drilled a hole in it - strung a piece of leather through it and made a pretty little pendant.

It made her smile. That's art. I don't care how it's made. She smiles, it's art.

[Dan Hintz]

With 25+ megapixels DSLRs, still picture film is dead.

Check out the Hasselblad H4D-60... 60Mpixels... now that's a beast!

[Tim Bateson]

Check out the Hasselblad H4D-60... 60Mpixels... now that's a beast!

Hmmm there's one I don't own. Maybe with all this money I'm making on my "hand made" laser products, I'll buy one. At $36,0000, I should be able to pay it off in maybe 50 years!

Oh... Is that camera "hand made" too?

[Dan Hintz]

Oh... Is that camera "hand made" too?

I'm sure it was "hand-assembled"

[Jeff Mohr]

I think what some of you are forgetting is that there is a portion of the laser people who buy bulk boxes (or insert thing here) and merely laser a picture or word on the top and then sell it as hand made. I'm not buying the hand made part there. For what it is worth, I'd complain about a marquetry person doing the same thing.

In my opinion, however, the person who makes the box and then carves/inlays the top has more of a right to call it hand made than the bulk purchaser or the add-on people.

[David Fairfield]

Nostalgia for simpler times is an ever changing concept. Eventually people will consider what we do a hand craft. By then, most will have a replicator hooked up to their computer that reacts to a voice command to rearrange molecules into any product imagined or desired. That's what some people think we do now, when you tell 'em you made it on a laser.

Dave

PS Hey Peck, I asked my Laser for a cheeseburger and a Coke, and nothing happened!