In Puerto Rico, There was a controversy with duplicarvers.
Some Santeros or Saint-makers were flooding festivals with tons of santos that look very similar. They were selling their carvings cheaper that other artist who brought just a few pieces. Late in the day there was a lot of talking about them using duplicators. A lot of people (specially carvers) where very upset about it. Now I beleive in Hand Carving but I pull out my Dremmel every now and them for some detailing. But Duplicators? I do not know. I talk to the artist about this issue in a later time and he told me that in fact he use duplicator to rough-carve the pieces from pieces he previously made. He then said that he will carve the details himself and give the piece to his daughter to paint. Oh, he signs the pieces. I guess is the eternal battle between capitalism and art. My point is How Duplicators work?
How do you guys feel about the '1 of 1000' issue.?
I guess if I were trying to make a living out of carving Saint I might have to do it. ???

OK...in my opinion...ha ha I seem to have a lot of opinions today..the roughouts I have seen, only really do a very rough shape, you still have to have the talent to get the item out of the rough wood.....an example...what if you build cabinets and someone said to you, buying lumber is cheating, you must go to the forest, cut the tree and mill the log yourself? Seems to me to be the same principle? I don't have a duplicarver and probably never will, but I am not a purist, so I see nothing wrong with it.....I do think they should say they are from roughouts however....especially for the collectors. But even then, no two carvings are going to be exactly the same any more than two paintings can ever be exactly the same. IMHO

[woodenleg]

I have no problem with copies as long as they are sold as duplications. Of course, we may all have bought paintings (which we knew were numbered copies) and feel good about that. As a buyer, however, I will assure you that I would not buy a copy of just any old painting. It would have to have some claim to fame other than the fact that it is an original.

Rough outs don't bother me a bit. However, I carve strictly for enjoyment and not for money (or show) -- for obvious reasons.