TURNABOUT/GLASS ORNAMENTS not sure if this link will work

Our brethren south of the border (even below California) seem to complaining
that the Chinese are taking their market* (*whose market was it before?)
away by producing EVEN CHEAPER WORK then they do..........

click on the link below and..........ENJOY

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...erstrytohangon
--

In the words of the IMMORTAL USED CAR DEALER:
THERE IS AN ASS FOR EVERY SEAT!

what goes around, comes around. now maybe they will understand how WE feel!
great lead howard. m


"Howard" wrote in message
...
Our brethren south of the border (even below California) seem to
complaining
that the Chinese are taking their market* (*whose market was it before?)
away by producing EVEN CHEAPER WORK then they do..........

click on the link below and..........ENJOY


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...erstrytohangon
--

In the words of the IMMORTAL USED CAR DEALER:
THERE IS AN ASS FOR EVERY SEAT!

In article ,
"Howard" wrote:

Our brethren south of the border (even below California) seem to complaining
that the Chinese are taking their market* (*whose market was it before?)
away by producing EVEN CHEAPER WORK then they do..........

click on the link below and..........ENJOY

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...=3&u=/chitrib_
ts/20031222/ts_chicagotrib/ornamentmakerstrytohangon


Newsflash: SHODDY GOODS GET EVEN CRAPPIER! Story at 11.

At least the Mexican workers were pretty good at what they were doing.

--
-Kalera

---------

http://www.beadwife.com
auctions at http://www.snurl.com/1sfe

In article
,
"Michele Blank"
wrote:

what goes around, comes around. now maybe they will understand how WE feel!
great lead howard. m

Yeah, but WE created the situation by refusing to pay for quality goods
made with American labor. "What, pay $80 for a blender? I'll just take
this $12 and buy a new one when it breaks."

Seriously, folks. I'm tired of seeing people blame the workers in other
countries when it's a decision we made for ourselves. Now it's hard to
buy ANY quality goods because everything's being made in third world
factories where the laborers don't evven know how to use the products
they make, let alone how to make one that works well. Bought a toaster
lately?

--
-Kalera

---------

http://www.beadwife.com
auctions at http://www.snurl.com/1sfe

Howard wrote:
Our brethren south of the border (even below California) seem to complaining
that the Chinese are taking their market* (*whose market was it before?)
away by producing EVEN CHEAPER WORK then they do..........

click on the link below and..........ENJOY

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...erstrytohangon

Friends,

I read the article, and I understand the feeling. Likely YT is simply
the "Lucky One" (sic) with respect to this post-NAFTA marketing issue.
All imports notwithstanding, though, I for one find that even in today's
America (at least in my neck of the woods) folks are still willing (even
in this now-not-so-prosperous plastiqs factory town) to "pop the high
dollah" for a handcrafted "kugel" or suchlike holiday ornament or two
from a local maker such as YT. I am deeply grateful to my loyal
customers for this abiding predisposition; it certainly makes for a
merrier Yuletude for this "master" lampworker (overgrown hobbyist
really) tenaciously ensconced in a fireproof building near the rail line
on the edge of a predominently "Social Services City of Refuge" town.

The character of the town is now shifting away from the "affliction
business" model, more toward art and small business incubation. This is
part of a deliberate policy move on City Hall's end. It is good to take
part. I am glad I decided to stay.

FTR, I now sell by word of mouth and few other means. Website? Maybe
again some day. At least the digital photographic technology and color
ink-jet printing has now become affordable; no more need for
hand-sketched images these days. Now for the Temporal Extension Module
that the fellah with the overlong scarf and the wizzy hair sorta maybe
promised to sell me out of his Police Box roundel... (Reference to the
"Doctor Who" time-travelling character played by one Tom Baker for those
not familiar.) Hey, where'dhego? Oh, well. Still gotta get by with
the same old 24/7 as everyone else has, I reckon. OK by me.

Heritage crafts and ancient technologies are a precious thing to this
lampworker. Why? Because the materials and tooling are so outright
simple in an age of hypercomplicated and therefore mostly (to the
average street kid) intellectually out-of-reach sophistications passing
themselves off as "Progress". Scoph if one must; I intend and expect to
one day demo the making of glass in usable forms from sand, natron and
the like using little but zero-dollar clay for the combustion enclosure
and zero-dollar wood as fuel. (The Holy Community of Beth Shearim did
such a thing for many years, some few thousands of years ago; the
estimated 9-ton memorial slab covering the beloved Master's grave could
not be moved by the largest bulldozer the Israeli Army brought to bear
on it post-rediscovery. It's still there.)

I built up my own shop equipment primarily from low-to-zero-dollah
industrial surplus scratch, starting in high school with a sale-priced
Bernz-O-Matic (tm) torch (the resultant carousel-esque sculpture won
some acclaim at the time) and keeping on steadily (30-plus years now) no
matter who trashed, trolled, or in any other way (of which there are
legion) tried to rob me of my ability-to-produce by means of sweet-talk,
denigration, or direct thievin' jackass action. Now my seasonal line of
handmade original and traditional ornament designs pays its own way just
fine, thank you. Folk who want cheep Chinese flash can still shop
WallyWorld; it's just up the road a ways. (Some few still will drop by
and pick up One Really Nice Thing from /my/ inventory while on the way
there.)

It is wonderful to enjoy the patronage and respect of the local
craft-product /afficionados/ who take leave of hearth and home for a
day, just to see what someone whom they heard understands the properties
of the (to them mysterious) materials and the essential nature of what
can be done with what would count (by and large) as "useless hunks o'
junk" to most others can do. (These formerly non-wanted items are now
my production tools and by no means deserving to become boat-anchors).
Just don't expect the world to beat its path to your floor's door all at
once without cultivating the local soil for initial market-share first.
(It's all in the attention span. Mine apparently covers decades in a
world where an 8-second media sound byte is considered the practical limit.)

It's December 26, and the season is Over for This Year. Not blaring my
mouth, but I did OK again. I really don't have to make a whole lotta
money at this work overall - but oh, the fun! Thanks to All!

- CM -