Arts Profile

Winner - Best Coverage of the Arts - Three part feature: All About the Coin China Series
by Jan DeGrass

Shoppers look for goods from Asia because they are cheap. How is this drive to save dollars affecting local artisans? We have an estimated 600 artists and artisans on the Sunshine Coast who create unique items for a living. How is the availability of cheap Asian goods affecting them? How can they compete? To answer these questions Arts & Entertainment columnist Jan DeGrass talked to those who make jewellery, craft boats, blow glass and build garden décor. For example, potter Marguerite Kotwitz of Halfmoon Bay. Why would we buy a $28 cup from her studio when we can buy a $1 cup from China? The answers were found in the tell tale signs of quality and artistic merit among Sunshine Coast artisans.

All About the Coin by Jan DeGrass

(Originally published in Coast Reporter, November 23, 2007)

Part 1: Shoppers look for goods from Asia because they are cheap. How is this drive to save dollars affecting local artisans?

The film Manufactured Landscapes, that follows photographer Edward Burtynsky's journey around Asia, screened at the Raven's Cry Theatre last spring. The opening shot is stunning-a long look at a factory floor in China. Slowly, the camera dollies along row after row of workers at production lines…and continues repetitiously onward across the vast plant. What goods are being manufactured? Who knows? Perhaps not even the thousands of workers.

An industrial park near Shanghai, built to attract foreign investment, boasts of "3,000 peasant labourers" on hand to produce goods manufactured in standard size workshops of up to 30,000 cubic metres. Some factories are situated in zones dedicated to making export easy, with in-house Customs inspection and other amenities.

How does this affect us in Canada? Big time. The chances are huge that in the past few days you have bought two or more items manufactured in China. A quick ramble through many stores, especially the big box Vancouver outlets, turns up thousands of items mass produced in Asia, mostly in China, although they could also be made in Macau, Indonesia or Taiwan. They include housewares--cups, plates, candles, clothing and other textiles such as place mats and linens, garden décor such as gazebos and trellises, home décor including decorative glass such as vases, ornaments, stained glass, and jewellery or other things that glitter and bling.

The items are often brand names. Check out Zyliss, Swiss Innovators, makers of kitchen equipment-all manufactured in China. Your new Revlon hairbrush? Made in China. The Mattel toys that were recently recalled for shoddy manufacture involving lead paint were American designs-made in Chinese factories. And if you think that Ikea only sells goods made in Sweden, think again. Those decorative bamboo platters are from Vietnam, the cotton mats woven in India.

Consumers want economically priced goods and many of the items are sold at price points far below what we might pay a local artisan to design and make similar products.

We have an estimated 600 artisans on the Sunshine Coast-most are professionals, not hobbyists, and they create unique items for a living. Their art is what feeds them, clothes them, houses them and makes for a good quality of Coast life. How is the availability of cheap Asian goods affecting them? How are they able to compete?

For answers to these questions, I sent out e-mails to as many local artisans and crafters as I could find explaining my article idea and asking for an interview. I would ask how they produced their items, at what cost, and at what quality. I was curious as to whether copies of their unique designs, knock-offs, had ever been mass produced in Asia only to turn up in Canadian stores at much lower prices.

I thought that if I could find four local artisans affected by the China phenomenon I would have an article. My group e-mail blasted off at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday morning in September. By nightfall, I had several written responses and during the next few days half a dozen local artisans stepped forward. These are the people who fuse glass, build garden furniture or boats, throw pots, work fabric or necklaces. All of them were profoundly thoughtful on the subject.


Fine pottery from Marguerite Kotwitz.

Most are confident that the value they give for their goods will keep local shoppers happy. But surprisingly, there is another side to the coin to be described in Part 3. And, in the end, it's all about the coin. Marguerite Kotwitz of Halfmoon Bay has been a potter since 1965. She has moved full circle--from a street artist to wholesaler to her current outlets at craft fairs and studio. Kotwitz was on the gift show circuit for 15 years-big trade shows in which many artisans fill large convention centres, primarily in the States, to sell directly to boutiques, galleries and retail outlets.

Trade shows are risky. The artist must guess what to produce. "You put thousands of dollars into stock hoping that they will like what you produce this year," she says. The variety of items is important but so is the quantity-you must have the desirable items on hand and be prepared to be busy filling orders when you return home.

"Selling wholesale taught me a lot about business," she says. "You're not just competing with many others on price; you're also competing on a design level." Take for example, the cost of a cup, such as Kotwitz makes. A basic mug or cup from China could cost as little as $1. She charges $28.

She points out: "Our supplies are at North American prices; our fuel costs North American prices, our mortgages are at North American prices." As a potter, she must pay for the propane fuel that powers her kiln. She uses a porcelain clay body which is more expensive to make because it fires at 2400 F degrees. (Most low fire pottery is at about 1000 degrees.) The difference is in the tensile strength. Not only is there a depth to the colour under high fire, it is also more durable. Porcelain is one of the more difficult clay bodies to work with-it must be fired twice and there are often kiln failures--but her decision to use it is based on pride in her work. She wants to get the right results.

In addition to the high firing and expensive materials, Kotwitz also carves original design work, images of animals, goddesses, sea creatures, mythological figures or polar bears into each cup, bowl, smudge pot, lamp base or pasta platter. She uses her own designs in a process called scraffitto, meaning to draw by removing some of the slip, as the Greeks did thousands of years ago. The quality materials, plus kiln fuel, plus design, makes the basic cup labour intensive.

"Not many do this kind of work; each cup is unique," she says. Kotwitz is convinced that people don't just want price point. "If they want cheap they can go to a dollar store; if they want special they can go to the potters'guild."

By contrast, in China and Japan, low fire, slip cast (liquid clay in a mold) pottery is mounted on kiln trains to speed through a production line, then it is finished in bright, shiny colours or with pasted-on decals. Has this cheaper pottery cut into sales? No, Kotwitz says. "Either you're an artist or you're not. Chinese stuff is very distinctive. I'm sorry, but it all looks like crap." Kotwitz will be selling her work at this year's Arts & Crafts from the Hood on Dec 1 in Sechelt.


Coast jewellery artist Kerri Luciani.

Next week: Part 2 - When Quality Counts: The tell tale signs of quality and artistic merit among Coast artisans. Fibre artists Yvonne Stowell and Mary Bentley weave unique designs, Pete Unger at Ironwood thrives on custom orders for his garden decor, jewellery artisan Kerri Luciani talks about workmanship and materials and Larry Westlake struggles to find well-made parts for his hand crafted wooden boats.