It's so sweet of you to mention me, but there's actually kind of the same ethics problem with a lot of the materials I use!
Disclaimer: Almost all of my materials are thrifted, donated to me, or sourced from Buy Nothing groups where people are giving away art supplies.
The problem with the Buy Nothing groups is that a lot of the stuff people have to offer is from Shein or AliExpress.
People think a decent workaround to this is, "Oh, you can buy the SAME EXACT MATERIALS from this mom and pop Etsy shop or your local craft store," but the thing is, Etsy shops that supply beads and charms are often just curated Shein/AliExpress products that they dropship, and the stuff that the craft stores sell comes from the same manufacturers and is just more expensive. It's not like there's an Evil Factory where Shein an AliExpress get craft supplies, and then a Nice Factory where Michaels and Etsy resellers get craft supplies.
I'm NOT saying this to pull the, "There's no ethical consumption under capitalism," card in a completely misunderstanding way where I think you might as well just buy from Shein because everything sucks; I'm saying that it's just almost impossible to find anything, even if you can afford to pay more, that doesn't come from exploitation.
I personally feel like getting donations of unused stuff or picking things up from craft trades is an okay compromise. I think it's better for me to USE the things someone who totallyyyy thought they were gonna start a jewelry business in quarantine manic spent $500 on than it is for them to be thrown away. But it's not a perfect solution! There isn't one! When people say there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, they mean that no matter how hard we try, we're backed into corners like this every time we need or decide to make a purchase, and the only way to get around it is to not purchase anything. I think it's still important to do what you can when you can when it comes to making educated choices about the companies you support, but it's just that. You can often only make educated choices, not ethical ones.
A lot of people argue that if there's no way to make art that's 100% free of sin, then you just shouldn't be doing it because it's not necessary, but I don't know that I agree with that. A life without art isn't a life I want to live! But then that makes it seem like I think my right to have fun supercedes other people's right to fair working conditions and basic necessities, which obviously isn't what I believe either.
I know that a lot of the time people interpret nuance as neutrality or a lack of opinion altogether, so I'm sure people are gonna get weird about this, but!!!
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