Storque: Stop promoting mistagged items

Sunday, July 19, 2009

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6222920
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1 comment

eclipse said...

That is an interesting issue.
If you take a vintage item and just paint it, a solid color, no stencils or flowers or anything fancy, just spray paint it a single color, would that go in handmade or in vintage?
Nothing else about the item is changed, it's not repurposed or reconstructed, it just has a fresh coat of paint.

It seems like not enough altering to call it handmade, but at the same time it's not mint-condition vintage, either. (not everything vintage is mint condition, anyway)
I think that in the Etsy-logic, it would have to go in handmade since you painted it yourself.

Then what if it was a new piece of furniture, (or less than 20 years old) which you painted a single solid color. That would also go in handmade?

Or, what if it was a vintage piece which you bought, and it had already been repainted before you got it? Like say it was made in 1950, and someone painted it white in 1999, and you bought it in 2009.
Could you resell that in the vintage category?
It is vintage, although not unaltered vintage. This gets more common with older pieces, you rarely find them in pristine condition. Often they have been repaired or refinished.

You couldn't list it as handmade, because you are not the person who painted it. But is it still vintage if someone else painted it less than 20 years ago? The structure is unchanged and the paint could be stripped.

It seems like this item would go in vintage, while the one you painted yourself would go in handmade, even though they would look identical.

(this isn't based on any specific item, it's just theoretical musing.)

July 19, 2009 at 11:59:00 PM EDT

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