Crafters warn of imported 'tat' at festive fairs

BBC

Members of the crafting community in Cornwall have said they are seeing a rise in cheap imported goods being passed off as handmade local produce.

There are concerns some stallholders are bulk-buying mass produced items off the internet, then selling them at a substantial mark-up at events marketed as Cornish craft fairs.

The organisers of some of the fairs say they are carefully checking traders to make sure their wares are genuinely made in Cornwall.

Elinor Lamond from the Cornwall Crafts Association, said: "You have to have some kind of vetting process just to keep the quality up and to spot all those little things coming in from abroad that are being passed off as genuine craft items."

Joanne Bailey, who makes candles and soaps at her home in Redruth, said she was at one fair where shoppers made a beeline for products that were not handmade.

"There's a lot of tat people have bought and are selling at stupid prices," she said.

"It makes you angry, you feel like you have to tell every customer you make it yourself, there's a lot of people out there that buy rubbish in."

She said the traders were marking prices up, sometimes as much as five times more than the going price on cheaper online sites.

"You just go online and find it there and then and they're buying it for pence. It's just so wrong. I've really noticed the difference this year.

"The people who actually do make it, it's quite degrading, you think 'I make all mine, you've got all these customers around your table and it's all bought in'."

Jewellery maker Emma Joyce was selling at the Wynter Fayre in Penzance, and said everything on sale there was handmade but she was aware of unscrupulous sellers at other events.

"They buy it on these online market places and then hoick up the prices but it's devaluing the stuff that is actually handmade," she complained.

"There are some people that can't tell the difference and I think that's a real shame because I can genuinely say here we have some of the best makers in Cornwall.

"We have a team so it's people who know their craft; there's potters, jewellers and printers, so they know the world they live in and how to spot the fakes," she said.

The people who organise craft fairs in Cornwall have been explaining what they are doing to protect the reputation of their events.

Hannah Saint runs Mousehole Market and is determined to support genuine crafters over internet resellers.

"Some people see it as a way to make cash without having to develop any particular skills, it's easy to purchase it and sell it on, and sell it on at a considerable mark-up," she said.

"I have had some applications for stalls like that but I maintain at Mousehole in particular that it's handmade predominately.

"We go for an 85% handmade policy, so even if people who perhaps make soaps, they buy in a soap dish because they're not a ceramicist, that's fine, because it complements the product."

Graham Bradshaw, the chair of the Truro Farmers Market, said: "As organisers we are more and more responsible and what we've done here, we have put a committee together to go through applications.

"We allow a little bit of buying-in because that's just the nature of the business but the majority of it has to be either homemade or made here in Cornwall."

Elinor Lamond, administrator of the Cornwall Crafts Association, said she supported any efforts to check the authenticity of craft sellers, adding: "You have to have some kind of vetting process just to keep the quality up and to spot all those little things coming in from abroad that are being passed off as genuine craft items."

She added it was important to look at exactly what the event was being marketed as before judging the goods on sale.

"The temptation is if it's not called a 'craft fair' and it's called a 'Christmas market' there's more room to bring in work that's not necessarily made in Cornwall by a craftsperson here," she said.

"But I think if you're going to call it a 'craft fair' that implies that it's craft, it's a fair, it's a little higher end than just a Christmas market."