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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/16/maker-or-faker-australia-handicraft-markets-face-rise-in-mass-produced-goods>
"Peggy Byrne was strolling through market stalls held by artisans and makers in
Adelaide. A selection of crocheted flowers and animals caught her eye.
Byrne, the owner of Bowerbird, a design market in the city, asked the
stallholder which pattern was his favourite. “He looked at me like I was an
alien,” she says. “There is no way this guy is the maker of these things.”
Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, an associate professor of fashion at the Queensland
University of Technology, says markets are the “number one place” people go to
find that “special thing”.
But over the past 18 months market organisers and vendors have noticed a rise
in mass-produced goods being bought online, then resold in ways that imply they
are locally handmade.
Georgia Richards, who hosts the Toasty Art market and used to sell handmade
ceramics at several other markets across Brisbane, says many have been “overrun
with resellers”. She has also noticed resellers who claim their goods are
handmade and has seen them at markets that specifically promise local and
artisanal wares.
Jo Harvey, who manages the Kirribilli markets in Sydney, says she has seen
resellers “slapping … little ‘handmade’ signs on everything”.
She believes this practice is wrong: “It’s not fair on those people that put a
lot of time, money and effort into it. Their products are beautiful and it
means something because they are handmade.”
Harvey has strengthened Kirribilli’s stallholder application process to combat
this practice. She now asks would-be vendors to include videos or pictures of
themselves making the product to prove it is handmade. Kirribilli also uses
Google Lens when looking over applications to cross-reference images against
websites including Temu, Alibaba or Aliexpress, where resellers may have
purchased their goods.
“We get the same person applying 20 or 30 times, under different names, under
different emails,” Harvey says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
