b'By Jim and Bobbi Jeen Olson,WesternTradingPost.comW hy is it important to know the differenceJust know this; if the item you are between handmade and hand-assembled (orbuying was assembled using parts the hand-crafted)? Value! The differences canartist purchased at the store, it is NOT sometimes be slight, but its worth knowing if youcompletely handmade. Sure, it may have want to be an informed collector. a good look to it and it may be hard to tell at a glance the difference from a completely As savvy collectors, we anticipate the items wehandmade item, but you will most assuredly collect will appreciate over time, or at the very least,realize the difference when you want to resell retain their value. Sometimes that can be difficult (if your buyer is a knowledgeable collector).to predict with market changes and what-not, but one of the things we can do to help sway chances inIn the realm of so-called handmade our favor is to collect better stuff. items, there is a big difference between a true craftsman who An example is the so-called Fred Harveycan take raw materials and era jewelry. We know this refers tobuild a piece of art from scratch turquoise and silver items (mostly jewelry)vs. the person who, although made in the first half of the 20th century.they may have an artistic eye, are In recent years, Fred Harvey era itemsmerely assembling pieces and sayinghave been very popular with collectors.it is handmade. The advanced collectors knowHowever, there are some (bracelets forthe difference.example) from that period that sell in the $100 to $200 range, while others may sellOne of the best ways to describe it I can think of for $1,000 and up. The differencetheis a paint by numbers piece of art. If you have a higher value ones are completely handmadepiece of art whereby the artist sat down with a and discerning collectors know thepaint by numbers kit and it told them where to paint and what colors went difference. Which do you rather grandma have bought back in the day? where and they were just filling in some blanks, you could argue (weakly in The ones now worth $100 or the ones now worth $1,000 or more? my opinion) that it is hand-painted. However, a paint by numbers artwork will never be valued in the collector\'s world in the same way a piece of art So what constitutes handmade? A definition found in the dictionaryis where the artist sat down with a blank canvas and painted a wonderful says handmade (adjective) made by hand, not by machine and typicallyscene from the imagination using an image in their headtherefore of superior quality. Hand-wrought and hand-forged areor perhaps a photo. synonyms. Basically, it means the artist or maker made the item from scratch and did not buy precast parts and assemble them. Hand-assembledWhats worse than or handcrafted items generally consist of items put together from two ornot even being hand-more pre-made or precast pieces (most of the time precasting is done byassembled however is machine or in mass-produced methods). As a matter of disclosure, very,if a piece is completely very few things are completely handmade anymore, but the closer you canmachine-made. With get to being purely handmade, the better off you are. technology the way it is today, they can mass For example, you can have a pair of spurs using precast spur blanks cast inproduce items which to a factory somewhere or you can make a pair of spurs by forging them fromthe untrained eye look like a single piece of steel. You can have belt buckles made using precast bucklethe real deal. My advice blanks bought from a supplier or you can hand forge them from silver (oris to avoid those types of other metals). You can have a turquoise bracelet made from a bracelet blankitems completely as they (bought at the jewelry supply store) or you can start with ingots of silverare rarely collectible and create it yourself. All of the above can then be decorated with precastin the long run. Hand-silver, gold, or other non-precious embellishments, or the artist can cut theassembled is much better embellishments out by hand or even hand engrave the items.than machine-made, but the purist prefers as close to completely handmade as possible. If you are not sure how to tell the difference, start talking to "When you buy something made by a person, there is something specialreputable dealers and collectors who can show you the little tell-tale signs. there, and you do feel it. The consciousness with which a thing is made is often more important than the thing itself." - J. Donald Walters So the next time you see a belt buckle that was made using a buckle blank and then had precast embellishments applied to it, or perhaps a bracelet As a collector, it is important to know the difference between completelymade similarly, think of the difference between a paint by numbers piece handmade and the various stages of hand-assembled for yourself. Doof art vs. a truly hand-drawn, hand-painted masterpiece. Both may have not take anyones word for it unless you know the person knows whata good look to them, but when you go to sell the items in the market of they are talking about and you trust that persons judgment. A lot ofcollectibles, there will be a big difference in price.items will be presented to you as handmade when in fact they are mostly hand-assembled. To some, that is a small difference and they mayOf course, you will likely have to pay more for the completely handmade item think we are splitting hairs, but down the road, it will most definitelyin the beginning, but you are a lot more likely to see appreciation or at least make a difference in value when you present those items to the collectorhave it hold its value when you buy handmade over hand-assembled. marketplace for resale.ArizonaRealCountry.com August 2020 15'