Thursday, August 4, 2011

Readers, Help Me Name Things!

Etsy has just added a new way to describe the things you've made to make it easier for people to find them; you choose a "style" that describes the general look of whatever it is you've made.

I like this idea, in theory: anything that will maximize my item's chances of showing up in a search is fine with me!

The only problem is, I have no idea what most of the labels mean. (Sometimes I might have a general idea, or know what it means in one area --- like, say, Art Deco architecture --- but have no idea how that same style translates into another area, like, say, jewelry.)
(One of my favorite bracelets of this type: 5-7 strands of one color of seed beads strung through a series of vertical spacer bars woven out of another, contrasting color of seed beads, with a large focal bead set off by a rectangular frame. This one is indigo/blue-green, with the focal bead made of dichroic glass.)(This bracelet is made from the same general pattern; it's grass-green/golden-yellow for its color scheme, though. I also have this in purple).
(Necklace made along the same lines --- multiple strands of dark red beads threaded through a whole bunch of round beads in square frames woven from beads in contrasting colors. This is one of my favorite necklaces!)

So I'm going to ask you, the readers of this blog --- or those of you who, unlike me, have a working knowledge of art history --- to comment and tell me what art-history/fashion terms they think might pertain to the things I have pictured in this post.
(One of those weird things I am not sure what to call. I love these, but the two names I've seen for them --- "handflower" and "slave bracelet" --- strike me as, respectively, dorky and creepy.)

(Another one!)
(One more!)
(Another recurring pattern: bracelets/necklaces with ribbed panels woven of alternating, vertical columns of seed beads and bugle beads, in different shades of the same color. I have necklaces in blue, blue/black, and green, and bracelets in purple, green and blue/black)
(I've also got a couple necklaces where the focal elements are arranged asymmetrically --- all clustered to one side)

(For the curious, here's the list of labels they suggest you choose from: Abstract, African (yeah ... European art gets all these very specific terms denoting style and historical period; all African art just gets lumped together indiscriminately), Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Asian (d'oh!), Athletic, Avant Garde, Boho, Burlesque, Country and Western, Edwardian, Fantasy, Folk, Goth, High Fashion, Hip Hop, Hippie, Hipster, Historical, Hollywood Regency, Industrial, Kawaii, Kitsch, Mediterranean, Mid-Century, Military, Minimalist, Mod, Modern, Nautical, Neoclassical, Preppy, Primitive, Regency, Renaissance, Resort, Retro, Rocker, Rustic, Sci-Fi, Shabby Chic, Southwestern, Spooky, Steampunk, Techie, Traditional, Tribal, Victorian, Waldorf, Woodland, Zen. You can also add others, but I'm too confused by all of this to try that. Besides, all the words I know that denote a certain style or subculture are obviously inapplicable to my work).

3 comments:

Korena said...

I don't know what categories they'd be in, but the purple hand decoration one is absolutely gorgeous.

Saia Sikira said...

mhhh... this is a very difficult task, because art history terms are quite freely used in fashion. I thik a fashion magazine would call the red-brown-white neclase "trival" (I hope the word also exist in English... it means "related toa a tribe" i Spanish). I don't kow what to say about the rest- but they're gorgeous!

That Hairy Canadian said...

My daughter and I tried unsuccessfully the other day to come up with a better description for the bracelet-ring combo. Today she came to me with this idea; Embracing -> I was thinking it might sound better as Embrace Ring. As for the Etsy descriptions, I gave up right away.