Works in progress upcycling vintage to Shabby Chic with paint, bees wax and elbow grease.
Etsy Vintage vs Etsy Handmade
When I tried to list my first upcycled vintage jewerly box on Etsy I ran into the problem of classifying items correctly. I thought if something was vintage when I started repairing, sanding, painting it that it would still be vintage when I was done. I was wrong... apparently. " Vintage is vintage and handmade is handmade" or so I have been told. This still mystifies me. Many old vintage and even antique items have been repaired, painted, fixed up, given new life over the decades. We still call them antiques and vintage. If you do it on etsy you have somehow falsified the 'vintage' aspect and made something else, something new, something handmade. I might even be brave enough or foolish enough to call it OOAK... an Etsy anagram for One Of A Kind.
Now I have to come to terms with this as Etsy is inflexible on some points while it flexes wildly on others.
I don't plan to rock the boat.
I just do. I step in a new boat...this time the boat of 'upcycling vintage' and the boat tips.
My survival will depend on how I manouver in this new boat. The boat will not change it will still float. I will be the one tossed about and possibly drown. Well isn't that a little melodramatic, but that is me always with the drama.
I still call it upcycled Vintage. After all that is exactly what it is. I will list it under handmade and tag it with both. I just can't add my favorite teams tag to it as that has too much Integrity in it to go on something once vintag(still vintage) and now handmade. I was told this today. Remove the team's tag. It stung like a slap in the face. I have never been good at following rules. It is in my nature to see things from many aspects, many angles, in many lights. I am terrible at black and white, right and wrong, I always find other ways. I am tolerent of others. I am forgiving to a fault. Something my mother told me could bite me in the butt.
I probably should have been sent to a military school...gotten the rules drilled into me. Instead I grew up Unitarian with some Quaker tossed in here and there. So I give in and bend allow them to have their views of what is vintage and I will live with mine.
This is my latest finished piece of Upcycled Shabby Chic
My recipe.
lightly sand
paint,
sand,
x 2
lovingly rub in bees wax and polish to a rich patina.
Add TLC
decorate with pearls
photograph
be true to your God and your own compass it is probably pointing you in the right direction as God guides you on your way.
Anne
 |
| VINTAGE SHELF BEING MADE INTO HANDMADE SHELF?? |
Etsy Vintage vs Etsy Handmade
When I tried to list my first upcycled vintage jewerly box on Etsy I ran into the problem of classifying items correctly. I thought if something was vintage when I started repairing, sanding, painting it that it would still be vintage when I was done. I was wrong... apparently. " Vintage is vintage and handmade is handmade" or so I have been told. This still mystifies me. Many old vintage and even antique items have been repaired, painted, fixed up, given new life over the decades. We still call them antiques and vintage. If you do it on etsy you have somehow falsified the 'vintage' aspect and made something else, something new, something handmade. I might even be brave enough or foolish enough to call it OOAK... an Etsy anagram for One Of A Kind.
Now I have to come to terms with this as Etsy is inflexible on some points while it flexes wildly on others.
I don't plan to rock the boat.
I just do. I step in a new boat...this time the boat of 'upcycling vintage' and the boat tips.
My survival will depend on how I manouver in this new boat. The boat will not change it will still float. I will be the one tossed about and possibly drown. Well isn't that a little melodramatic, but that is me always with the drama.
I still call it upcycled Vintage. After all that is exactly what it is. I will list it under handmade and tag it with both. I just can't add my favorite teams tag to it as that has too much Integrity in it to go on something once vintag(still vintage) and now handmade. I was told this today. Remove the team's tag. It stung like a slap in the face. I have never been good at following rules. It is in my nature to see things from many aspects, many angles, in many lights. I am terrible at black and white, right and wrong, I always find other ways. I am tolerent of others. I am forgiving to a fault. Something my mother told me could bite me in the butt.
I probably should have been sent to a military school...gotten the rules drilled into me. Instead I grew up Unitarian with some Quaker tossed in here and there. So I give in and bend allow them to have their views of what is vintage and I will live with mine.
This is my latest finished piece of Upcycled Shabby Chic
 |
| Upcycled Shabby Chic Vintage Jewelry Box |
lightly sand
paint,
sand,
x 2
lovingly rub in bees wax and polish to a rich patina.
Add TLC
decorate with pearls
photograph
be true to your God and your own compass it is probably pointing you in the right direction as God guides you on your way.
Anne
 |
| all hung with pearls and jewels |
3 comments:
Well said! Love it anyway!
Goodness. Those are some pretty complicated rules Etsy has. I had no idea how complicated these things get. I totally understand your need to rock the boat from time to time. I just tipped over a boat myself. I can't talk about it yet for legal reasons but when I do it's going to make a great blog post!
Lambie
The more I've thought about it, and after reading your post here, and Fhi's (Karen)in the thread, I agree with you completely. It's 'upcycled', recycled', 'rescued from a certain death', 'enhanced', but it's still as old as it was. It was 'vintage' and it remains vintage.
It's just a conundrum, which we know Etsy loves to create, and I think our team captain is just caught in the middle of that conundrum.
I LOVE the pieces you're doing. I have done several like that in the past and I still have them and use them in my 'shabby florida' home.
This is funny - you had mentioned in a convo to me last week, that we sound like twins because we've done so many of the same things, and grew up with the same flower child attitudes. Well, I was also raised Unitarian! Haha, go figure! We really must meet somewhere in the middle some day (preferably near a flea market) and spend a day together.
I hope you are not still smarting over the virtual slap in the face. It was most assuredly nothing personal. I would think it caused much angst to make the decision to ask you to remove the team tag.
Blessings to you and your wonderful family,
Gail
Post a Comment