[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I sent whoever it is a message asking their name...will see what happens? :P OK this is the answer I got back from him/them 'Hello: I have my own art studio, there are several artists to make these carvings. Thanks for your concerning.Yaoqiang Li ' he should have put 'yall' after that!

[AlArchie]

Not meaning to cause dissention in the ranks, but if someone in China can get 120 bucks for a carving, he's be a fool not to take it! My bet is that that owner of the 'art studio' probably runs a sweat shop operation, where his 'artists' don't ever see much of that 120 bucks, though. If on the other hand he is selling their work on a reasonable commision basis, 'Welcome to the free enterprise system!' Art from the far east and India has sold for scandously low prices for hundreds of years. I still think that the carvings done here, by hand, and not replicators, are far and away more artistic and of better quality than the discount store variety, and worth every nickle the artists ask. You will never find another one exactly like a hand carved, one of a kind piece, and the price is worth it.

Al

[Nancy_G]

Why is this seller living in Spain and his items (carvings) are in China? That's one heckuva commute to work.

We all know what the usual rough-out looks like ... the ones from Little Shavers, Rossiters, etc., right ?
In Russia, Austria, China, etc., they make incredible rough-outs that are completely ready to go - ready for paint, no carving or even sanding required. (One touch with with a knife makes the words 'Hand Carved' legal). They are made with lasers and expensive to buy but worth it if you can find a resale market. eBay isn't the only place these rip offs are being pushed.
They can be painted assembly line style in a sweat shop and still sold as 'hand painted'.
Here's one site I've found.
http://www.russiangift.com/catalog/p...9e9887e2d35185

[AlArchie]

It's not just the 'furrin' manufacturers that do that multiple production scheme. I ran into a local 'carver' of decorative decoys......all 'hand carved' ,and on the bottom was tagged (#14 of 120). That's a production run, not a hand carving. Guess it's the same as buying a print of an original painting, though, but it sure detracts from the 'hand carved' genre! An outfit from Montana is also selling carved fish that have been reproduced on a duplicator from an original and marketed through Cabela's and another major sporting goods outlet in Lower Michigan.

Al

[YellowDog]

Has anyone seen the Jim Shore line of resin casts being marketed by Enesco at greeting card & collectible shops? They look exactly like carvings down to 'knife marks' and cracks in the 'wood' which is what caught my eye while shopping today. The reproductions are beautiful and Jim Shore must be a very talented carver and painter. The orignals must be even more beautiful than the casts. Like mikeg commented on earlier though, I think that these look alikes really negatively impact the average person's abilty to appreciate a unique hand made object as well as all of the hours that get put into making it when they can get one that looks close for a fraction of the price. ...

Kind of a little bit off topic, but not too much. Taiwan, which is or isn't part of China depending on who your talking to, has a carving history. One of the aboriginal tribes (paiwan) still has a carving tradition. Most of their stuff is done is camphor wood. They do have sort of a mass market for tourists going in ' Buddhas.' They are all individually hand carved, but hard to tell apart. Given the price of camphor wood, the Buddhas are probably worth more as wood than as carvings. However, their other carvings are probably worth collecting, if, as with most other collectibles you keep quality in mind. As an aside, they still make many of their day to day necessities (mostly from bamboo), such as combs, spoons, bowls, hunting weapons, etc. The way the Taiwanese population is expanding, it's questionable how long they'll be able to maintain their isolation.

In my opinion, there are two major factors in making a carving that is valuable. One is workmanship (skill of the carver) and the other is creativity (artistry of the carver). Many carvers copy existing work - sometimes even copying their own original creativity over and over - maybe explaining Al Archies' comment of '14 of 200'. The famous caricature carvers do it also - using rough outs as a basis to carve the 'same' item repeatedly. Their original pieces should be valuable as these are expressions of original creativity and great workmanship. The 'reproduced' carvings are still the work of the original artist (craftsmanship), but the creativity has been spread over a number of carvings - making them more affordable for the average customer.

Then we have the 'non-professional' carver that copies the original work of the artists referred to above. I'm no legal professional, but the original artist evidently foregos some 'rights' to the design if the patterns are published or the rough out is purchased from the artist. In my opinion, it should not be legal to duplicate with some type of mass production equipment (rough outs) with out some acknowledgement to the original artist. I do know the that the rights to the original pattern is still with the artist. There is one twist to this - what if the 'non-professional' carver buys multiple rough outs from a source that has been authorized by the artist and then sells high quantities? Sorry, I'm getting a little off topic.

The prices are higher than I would pay for copies of someone else's work. Unfortunately, the average 'buyer' cannot often judge between the two. We can look at these Chinese carvings and recognize that they are copies of someone elses original design with a fairly decent amount of craftsmanship. How many of the people that purchase on Ebay would be able to put the two together????

[BobD]

Alan, our publisher, was telling me about the toy show in New York City. It seems now that most people get searched when they enter the place to make sure they don't have any camera or anyyhing like that. People were snapping photos of interesting toys, e-mailing them off to China where they were reproduce very cheaply.

People who made innovative toys were fine selling the first day, but were suddenly being undercut the next day...

I can see free enterprise, but with free enterprise, I think there needs to be some conscience!

Bob

[AlArchie]

Bob, I hope no one read my post on free enterprise as endorsing the theft of ideas. What I said, and meant was, that if a carver in China, or anywhere else for that matter, can sell his carvings for the price he was asking (a lot of money by Chinese standards) he has every right to do so. BUT, if they are a corporation? running a sweat shop where the actual carvers are getting squat, that's a whole different ball game. That goes for Nike and anyone else who exploits low wage systems for unscrupulous profits. A few years ago, Pendleton, a venerated US wool garment mfg., pulled out to go to Mexico. I didn't see any reduction in price of the end products. It's my opinion that companies have every right to go wherever they want to produce, but to claim that they MUST do that to compete in the world market, when their prices stay the same after gaining huge production cost advantages, just indicates a degree of untruthfullness.

Ethics seems to be a factor which really gets ignored in today's economy!

OK, I'm of my soapbox......sorry about that.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Yeh...and that includes 'heinz' products!!