HANDMADE. Who Gets to Use the Word?
- TJAŠA PETRIČ CVET
- Jun 8
- 2 min read
For a long time, I have been carrying around this idea – to start writing.
But I didn't think this would be the topic I would begin with.
And yet, it is a question I think about almost every day and, honestly, it makes me a little angry.
Maybe it will help if I write a bit more about it. Or at least try... 😊
These are photos of my favourite place. My workshop.
This is where all of my one-of-a-kind pieces are made. From granules of pure gold or silver to the finished piece. From the very first idea to the final adjustment, which I often notice only after several days of work.
This is my art.
It is also where sore necks, tired eyes, and hands that spend hours holding files, a jeweller's saw, pliers, and sandpaper come from. Precious metal dust is created here. Mistakes, corrections, and solutions are created here. A process is created here that, despite everything, I genuinely love.
And this process is what we call HANDMADE.
A phrase we hear almost everywhere today. Often used simply to make people stop and think that more personal work has gone into something.
But to what extent?
The reason for writing this post was actually a completely innocent video that, nevertheless, managed to get under my skin.
In the reel, the creator took one of many identical, machine-made, mass-produced pendant necklaces from a shelf, placed it under a laser to engrave something personalised onto it, and then I noticed the hashtag below:
(Of course, this is far from an isolated example.)
And it made me wonder: where do we draw the line today?
Which part of that process was handmade? Moving the necklace from the table to the laser? Entering the personalisation into the machine? Packing the order?
The problem begins when a word loses its meaning.
Why does someone pay €30 for a pendant, while a handmade ring costs €300, €500, or more?
How is a customer supposed to understand the difference if both products carry the same label?
Because for me, handmade means starting with raw material.
It means designing the structure, determining the proportions, creating individual elements, soldering, filing, sanding, polishing, and often starting over more than once.
It means days of work for a single piece. Days that can easily add up to an entire week.
That is why it sometimes bothers me when the term is used for products where most of the process has already been completed in a factory.
Not because there is anything wrong with such products. Everything has its place in the market.
But because words mean something.
And in a world of fast fashion and mass production, we should be protecting the meaning of the word handmade more than ever.
Not only for the makers.
For the customers.
So they know what they are actually buying.
Whether they are looking at a product that was made in production.
Or a product that spent days being created at a workbench.
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