A new global opertunity for craftsmen

[Sporky McGuffin]

I'm guesing that using a router or table saw will be allowed but using a CNC wont

What if I programme it by hand?

I used to post on a guitar building forum - when they found out I had a CNC machine and did some of the work (about 20% by time) with it, it was made pretty clear that I was "cheating" - but the guy running a pin router on laser-cut templates he bought from eBay was a good honest craftsman!

 

[No skills]

Well I thought that opinion would be a lot more polarised that what has been posted here. Visions of nasty amazon enslaving poor ewoks to make spoons and coasters on the amazon deathstar while they reap the profits have not been mentioned.
Quite surprised am I
So it looks a fairly positive prospect so far, good.
One thing I have learnt is that etsy sells tat (allegedly!) so I should get a shop on there quick smart.

Please take this post with the humour that is ment.

8)

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Etsy has largely been taken over by cheap imported tat - it has very little of the homegrown craft products it was intended to sell.

 

[n0legs]

Visions of nasty amazon enslaving poor ewoks to make spoons and coasters on the amazon deathstar

Do they run open days? :lol:


This is very interesting.
Could anyone who signs up come back and give us a progress report please?

 

[woodaxed]

Etsy has largely been taken over by cheap imported tat - it has very little of the homegrown craft products it was intended to sell.

i wouldnt agree with that yes there is some tat on etsy and some dubious items on there.
Amazon already has a lot of tat on it and handmade items under a different name you had to have a business account.

below is what amazon now define as hand made

What does handmade mean?
All products available in your Handmade at Amazon store must be made entirely by hand, hand-altered, or hand assembled (not from a kit). Products must be handmade by you (the artisan), by one of your employees (if your company has 20 or fewer employees), or a member of your collective with less than 100 people. Mass-produced products or products handmade by a different artisan are not eligible to sell in Handmade.

reading that i would say that using a cnc and then assembling would still be classed as handmade

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Hmm. That's a fair point.

I think what may save this is that Amazon has its main site for the factory produced stuff, so they have a vested interest in keeping to the handmade thing for the new venture. It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

 

[custard]

Take a look at Indigo Furniture as an example. They sell solid Oak furniture for sensible prices and they are going from strength to strength.

Good link, thanks for that, they're like Oak Furniture Land for hipsters! Which I guess isn't a bad place to be.

Indigo's zinc top pieces are interesting, I know zinc top pieces are a strong sellers because I've done quite a few. Zinc top dining tables, desks, coffee tables, even dressing tables like this one,

Zinc tops are reliable turnover items with only two snags. Firstly the weight, which for a guy working alone is an issue, the logistic hassles in dealing with a eight seater zinc top dining table are significant. Secondly, most clients focus on the zinc top and want to drive the price down by simplifying the base. It's all income I suppose, but I'd get bored banging out painted underframes. The one in the photo is Elm with through wedged tenons plus a fair amount of curves and shaping, all of which racks up the £ pretty quickly!

Anyhow I've sent my application form in to Amazon this morning so let's see how we all get on...just got to decide what to make and put up on their website, assuming I get the nod of course!

And well done with your ABW bathroom cabs, more power to your elbow!

Good luck.

 

[shuggy]

Indigo are also recruiting a bench joiner / wood machinist. Nice to see a woodworking shop doing well.

 

[JakeS]

All the artisan needs do is make and carefully photograph.

...and package and ship and issue return authorisations after <insert favourite courier here> backs their truck over your parcel and take returns and deal with irate ex-customers and Amazon's customer service team and list items and do your accounts and...

Not to understate the work that Amazon is doing for you, but Amazon is rather understating the work that you have left, I think.




Anyway. My take on this is apparently more cynical than everyone else in the thread. Remember that we're talking about a company who has largely completely automated their warehousing to save the minimum-wage they'd be paying warehouse workers, and deals in slim margins on massive volume. I am incredibly doubtful that they're 'vetting' anyone at all; they may give a cursory look over your photographs when you first sign up, but imagine the manpower required to properly check and authorise the tens of thousands of artisans from around the world that they'll need on their books to make it worth their while! And then imagine how much easier, cheaper, and like-Amazon it would be to just hand-wave everyone through and only have a human look at things and take action if someone files a complaint that their "handmade in a workshop with fewer than twenty employees" item has "made in China" stamped on the underside.

My suspicion is that they've seen what people don't like about Etsy, and they realise that a) there's a lot of money changing hands on that site all the same, and b) it's easier to pay lip-service to people's complaints than it is to actually address them, and it shuts 95% of the complaints up. A properly curated and policed hand-crafted marketplace isn't going to earn them so much money as a half-arsed Etsy clone that's pushed on the existing huge customer base even after ten percent of the potential customers give up at first sight when they realise it's just as full of tat as Etsy is.