What Counts as a Handmade Product?

More Complicated Than it Sounds

While it might at first glance appear to be a simple question, what does or does not count as a handmade product is a tricky question. For example, does a product made using a 3d printer count as handmade?

Asking this question on social media quickly reveals just how complicated of a subject this is. For small business owners who use cricut machines, 3d printers or laser engraving machines, the concept of handmade goods is completely different from handmade items being produced using handtools or other more “hands-oriented” production processes.

While considering handmade to be any product that has never been touched by a power tool or machine sounds like a good rule, it doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny. Hardly anyone would claim that a crocheted product is not handmade, but the yarn that was utilized isn’t handmade (unless it is), and the wool itself likely wasn’t carded by hand either.

Why it Matters

If a selling platform does not clearly define ‘handmade,’ it is hard to limit mass-produced items in their store. The goal of our marketplace is to offer high-quality products. These items are unique and not found on other sites that sell mass-produced goods.

Additionally, we want sellers to be able to know whether or not their products fit within our guidelines. If the rules behind what is allowed is too opaque, you run the risk of sellers not knowing why their product was deleted. Arbitrary rules are frustrating for sellers and can lead to them leaving the platform or not uploading new products in fear of having those products removed as well.

It is much more clear instead to focus on what the term handmade stands for, and at what point a product’s process is more in-line with mass production.

What My Community Made Considers Handmade

Please feel free to reach out to us if you are unsure whether or not your finished product is allowed to be sold on our store. Please know, that even if your product has been selling on Etsy in the past, that does not mean it complies with our guidelines.

1. Be Designed by the Seller – So, if you use a cricut or a 3D printer to produce products, and you are using a pattern downloaded from the Cricut Design Space, then your product would not be considered handmade under our guidelines. Even if you purchase a pattern for 3d printing, crocheting or engraving, it does not count as handmade or handcrafted under our rules.
2. Be Produced by the Seller – If your product is self-designed, but is printed by another service and is then sent to the end customer. That product is not handmade. Despite being self-designed, the product is being produced by a third party company, not you.
3. Be Transformative – Like the example of the crocheted product, your product might start with a machine produced product like yarn, but through your craft, you have converted that product.

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