The fall issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry was on the stands at Borders Saturday afternoon.  When I picked it up, the first thing I turned to was the Letters to the Editor section.  It contained four very brief, nothing-but-praise entries — not even a breath about the negative responses to the Carter Seibels feature in the last issue.  I know that they received critical feedback from several people, including me, but you would never guess from the letters, nor from the Editor’s Comments, nor any indication of any response anywhere from the table of contents.

At first I was a little perturbed, but then I remembered that this IS a Stampington magazine.  In all the years I’ve read their various magazines off and on, I have rarely if ever seen a negative comment.  That seems to be in keeping with their whole editorial philosophy — much of their published artwork has a definite sameness about it; rarely do you see anything outside very narrow boundaries in there.  (There’s a reason I don’t buy many of their magazines any more — in truth they get boring quickly.)

Since they chose not to publish my comments, at the risk of being repetitive I’ll post them here:

Dear Editor,

My delight in seeing a lampwork artist featured in the Summer 08 issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry rapidly turned to dismay as I read Rice Freeman-Zachary’s article on Carter Seibels, for two reasons.  Apparently neither Ms. Seibels nor Ms. Freeman-Zachary fully understands the use of presses in making lampworked beads.  Pressed beads are indeed hand-crafted, formed one at a time at the torch, unlike furnace glass beads which are mass-produced using molds and then cut into individual beads.  In the hands of a lampworker, the press is simply another tool in their arsenal, allowing creation of forms that would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, without their use.  Let us not forget that “hand-formed” beads are actually shaped with tools, not actual hands, as well!  The quality of the resulting bead depends on the skill and vision of the artist, regardless of what tools are used to form the bead — whether pressed or hand-formed, a bead can be exquisite or merely ordinary.

Far more disturbing, though, was the paragraph where Ms. Seibels equates “middle-aged” beadmakers with traditional work, and younger artists with experimental and thus more creative work.  Such generalizations are dangerous! To many people, “traditional” implies boring, stodgy, and ordinary — words which no one wants applied to themself or their work. Had this ageist remark referred to differences in race or gender, I hope it would never have seen the light of print.  As a “middle-aged” artist myself, I hope that the editorial staff, Ms. Freeman-Zachary, and Ms. Seibels will consider their words far more carefully in the future.  Furthermore, I suggest that you take note of such creative lampworking visionaries such as Andrea Guarino-Slemmons and Lydia Muell, both decidedly older than Ms. Seibels herself and both of whom have abandoned eBay for other, more artist-friendly, sales venues.

Sincerely,

It must be too hot to play with glass in many locales, because the blog posting has picked up. After all, it IS usually cooler sitting in front of a computer screen than in front of a torch!

The Carter Seibels feature article in Belle Armoire Jewelry’s Summer issue continues to generate reaction among the lampworkers:

• Susan Lambert takes offense at the characterization of middle-aged lampworkers and points out that the article was a put down of a very significant demographic among BAJ’s readership;
• Andrea’s scholarly analysis shows the flaws in the reasoning behind the ageist comments;
• I’m grumbling that it’s the hands, not the tools, that make the artist.

In other postings:

• Lori Greenberg has not only been busy interviewing Sarah Moran of Z-Beads, she’s been conducting more experiments of her own for Watch Me Create.
• Rachel of Inferno Glass Beads jumps into the blogosphere to try and explain the cost of artist-made lampwork beads to the rest of the world.
• Luann Udell is also blogging about the rise in prices of art along with everything else.
• At the Art Bead Scene, Jennifer Stumpf introduces us to Canary Islands artist Lina Khan.
• An anonymous Etsy Bitch reader shares why, in his opinion, having a sale in your Etsy shop is a Bad Idea (gasp!).
• Even complete flakes need to get things done. Sonia Simone has some ideas on how to make it happen for you.

Perhaps it’s just the Dog Days of Summer, but the lampworking blogosphere has been a little, well, cranky this week. It’s made for some interesting reading, that’s for certain!

• Before we start getting to the cranky stuff, Cindy Gimbrone gives a brief lesson on borosilicate glass beads, with examples, at Art Bead Scene.
• If you’ve been hearing about Mountain Honey and wondering if it’s a new bluegrass group, let Otter educate you about this new color of glass and its possibilities.
• Megan Potter, one of the staff at Just Be Connected, says that it’s not just sleep deficits, it’s creativity deficits as well, that we need to deal with in our lives.
• Now for the crankiness, and yes, it’s all lampwork-related! Andrea’s still contemplating the copying issue,
• I’m annoyed about ageism on Etsy and in print,
• Jelveh’s nailed it on the nose when it comes to new names for old stuff,
• and Andrea’s also miffed about misconceptions on the use of tools in lampworking (yep, she’s on a roll this week — maybe it’s a good thing she’s leaving on vacation next weekend ).

Most of us know better by now than to make racist or sexist comments, at least in public.  Ageism, though, seems to still be considered fair game, at least among certain venues in the craftosphere.

First there was this little gem from the Etsy Forums:

Vanessa says

(snip) Here’s the thing. We really want to represent the older demographic of Etsy sellers. We are not looking for the hip, the indie, or the alt craftster seller for this one (though we love you guys, you know we do)! We are looking for the classic, traditional, old school crafter. We are dreaming of a charming, little old lady who has been quilting for 60 years! Or a blacksmith or a furniture maker whose techniques have been passed down through the ages! Lacemaking, whittling, miniatures (and there are so many more examples…)

If this is you or have noticed a shop like this on Etsy, (or your grandma or grampa or uncle that you’ve been dying to get on Etsy, now is the moment) and you’re in the area, this is your moment to shine!

I wasn’t aware that “classic, traditional, old school” was the sole province of “charming little old ladies.”  In my experience, “the hip, the indie, or the alt craftster” doesn’t imply young.  After all, it’s my generation, the early-to-mid part of the Boomers, that was the ’60s hippie movement.  If that wasn’t hip, indie, and alt, what was?

Other Etsy staff tried to backpedal, but it was too late. The word is out.  Etsy has to make special allowances, as it were, for the older folks who just aren’t as hip as the presumptive target demographic.  I wonder if the Etsy staff has any real idea how old their sellers actually are, or for that matter how old their non-selling buyers are?

Follow that with the recent interview with Carter Seibels in Belle Armoire Jewelry’s latest issue, which adds insult to injury: (emphasis added)

She stays on top of trends in lampwork beads by tracking the listings on eBay, where you can see a huge range of quality and style from the omnipresent mold-pressed beads to one-of-a-kind works of art, from the traditional colors and shapes of beads created by the typical middle-aged bead artist to the more experimental pieces being created by younger artists just starting out.

Does she know the ages of the bead artists on eBay?  I doubt it.  I’m aware of a number of rather young lampworkers selling on eBay that make what most people think of as traditionally colored and shaped beads, because there’s a decent market for them.  I’ve also seen many of the most innovative and creative bead artists that I know of, young and old, leaving eBay for other venues.

Carter was called out on Lampwork Etc. for her comments (not just the one above, but her dismissal of presses and other such tools as producing inferior quality beads — not true, but that’s another post for another time).  Unfortunately, I didn’t read the thread and it’s gone now because it turned rather nasty.  I have it from my reliable source, however, that her attempts to justify her words only showed that she actually believes that young artists are more creative and edgy, more artist-y if you like.  She’s apologized on her blog, but it comes across as damage control more than anything.

Odd, that.  Many of the lampwork artists that I regard as doing truly unique and experimental work left their twenties behind long ago.  Andrea Guarino-Slemmons, Marcy Lamberson, Pam Dugger — those are just three that come immediately to mind.  Their work, for me, is far more innovative than anything Carter Seibels showed in the Belle Armoire article, on her website, or in stock today at Matilda’s Garden in Alpharetta.

Would either statement have been taken differently if the speaker had used women vs. men, or Caucasian vs. African-American, instead of young vs. old?  Would either statement have even seen the light of day?  The fact that Madison Avenue constantly promotes youth, youth, youth does not mean that it’s okay to disrespect anyone over 40 — Madison Avenue is full of crap anyway.

Ageist remarks are just as offensive as racist or sexist ones.  You probably won’t ever change your race or your gender, but you damn well are going to become one of us “middle-aged folks” sooner than you think…and you don’t want to find out just what a bitch karma is when you get here.