Maker or faker? Australia's handicraft markets face rise in mass-produced goods

The Guardian

3 hours ago

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 Queensland University of Technologysays 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.
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Georgia Richards, who used to sell handmade ceramics at several 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.
Emma Morris, a founder of the design market Makers and Shakers, has also experienced an increase in applications from resellers and says she is surprised at how pervasive the model has become. 'That's the business,' she says. 'It's 'what can I import and sell?'.'
Resale vendors usually sell their goods at low prices, which has left small designers and creatives struggling to compete.
Richards believes that their presence comes at the expense of local artisans.
'I would have times where I would be placed next to a reseller who was selling items at a fifth of the price I was selling my items for.
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'Between vendors it creates … an impossible price comparison. Artists price their work based on their skill, time, materials and much more to create something unique.' This cannot be compared to the cost of mass produced items, she says.
Kai Salvador spends nearly every weekend shopping at markets around Sydney. She agrees with Richards, saying she has noticed a change in the quality of wares being sold at markets. It 'ruins the culture', she says, and to see fewer local, small-scale vendors is 'just a bit … saddening'. She says people go to markets is to support local brands and to find quality items that people pour their time into.
On a wet Sunday, the Kirribilli markets are still busy. People take their time picking up, touching and feeling the items on display.
Two shoppers, Alyssa Ellwood and Annalese Vochteloo, say that they have both noticed more mass-produced items coming into markets, rather than 'little homemade things'.
At Kirribilli markets, artisans and general stallholders are kept separate, in different sections, and most people Guardian Australia spoke to there had not noticed any vendors misrepresenting the origin of their goods.
Maddie Boyd, another shopper, says she has noticed a rise in mass-produced crochet but believes the differences between a handmade item and something that has been bought online are obvious. 'I think you can easily tell … but they're often mixed in with pieces that are genuinely handmade, or made by local artists.' It's something you have to look out for, she says.
Boyd has mixed feelings about whether mass-produced items have a place at markets. 'It also does sometimes provide a cheaper alternative for people to engage in a market,' she says.
Clearly distinguishing artisanal goods from mass-made is something Richards advocates for. She says resellers do have a place. 'They're essentially doing what retail stores do,' she says. 'But 'handmade markets' should be for handmade artists.
'There's nothing worse than going to an artisan market and seeing a table full of Temu wares.'