“Don’t be a slave to language, be an ambassador of intention.”
I
have always love going to arts and crafts bazaars and festivals. I really adore
the products that these people are making. Most of them are bloggers having
their own online shops. The reason I’m writing this topic is that I find it
very irritating on the first place when each time I went to these kinds of
festivals or bazaars, almost all of the sellers would enhance that their
products are handmade, including jewelries, felt items, keychains, papercrafts,
etc. The way they enhanced the word ‘handmade’ was very annoying to me at first
because I thought, how could anyone be so dumb to judge a product that is obviously
made by hands and not by machines. Not that its not pretty, in fact it was very
gorgeous and intriguing, but the idea of promoting it kinda make me feel like
cant they be more creative in promoting their stuffs because it is very obvious
that it is handmade, so really you don’t have to promote the word handmade that
often. But that’s just my opinion, no offence to anyone.
So
I did my own research. Wordnetweb defines handmade as items that are entirely
made or prepared by hand. Totally clear. TheFreeDictionary defines homemade as
made or prepared in the home or made by oneself. Hmm..it almost means the same.
But I figured that most people are more excited with the word handmade jewelry
rather than homemade jewelry. Probably it’s just a perception that homemade
always relate to food, muffins, cupcakes, etc. But not to my surprise, it actually
defines the same thing. You can call it whatever you want, handmade, homemade,
crafter, artist, designer, creator, thinker etc but it really means the same.
So
I came to my own conclusion, that what you call it doesn’t really matter, but
your intention does. Someone told me that, if you intend to sell, create what
is valuable in material, utility, or originality. If you intend to use, create
what meets a need, serves a function. If you intend to treasure, create what
you love. Language is powerful, but the intention is even more. The artists’
intentions are defined by things they created. It is felt and experienced. It
is real and requires no language to contain it.
I
guess that when people are promoting their handmade stuffs, it’s not just
because handmade is a trend or cool, but the meaning of each items. I do
believe every handmade item has its own meaning or an idea that the designer
intend to convey. If you speak literally, there are differences in those two
words but we speak with meanings, so there are similarities. Language is just a
tool. In the end, people will value the meaning of the products, and not
because it is handmade.
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