Arch - first, good to see you post. Seems like it has been a while.

I think there will be a flood of low end bowls and turnings from
Indonesia, S. America, etc. if it can be determined that those things
can be made and sold for a profit. The amount of mass produced work
from those places has steadily increased, and certainly their
manufacturing methods and finishing have as well.

But this has always been the case. There is a turner that used to
frequent this group a few years ago that has sold his turnings to make
a living for many years. He told me that if he didn't have the side
income from his own mass bowl and platter turning efforts the he could
not stay afloat. So in effect he was his own competition, and the
there were only three differences in his "studio pieces" and his mass
produced. 1) mass produced was in big volume (I seem to remember a M.
Mahoney-like 600+ a year in addition to his studio work) 2) The
pieces sold at 50% of the studio price, and 3) they weren't signed by
him as an artist

While many people can appreciate good workmanship and a fine chunk of
wood, how many are willing to pay what we might think it is worth? A
pressed monkey wood/acacia/who knows what wood bowl that you can beat
the living crap out of for $20, and buy another if it gets screwed up,
or $200 for a nicely shaped and oiled maple bowl from an artist.

The artist's bowl required special care and feeding, and to some
extent, special handling. The Indonesian bowl can be bounced, kicked,
dropped and then cleaned easily. No oiling necessary, no special
care, no worries. So is the maple artist's bowl worth 10X more? Only
you and your client know.

The prattle about "educating the public about our craft" is an old
saw. And I might add, it is in every aspect of any craft work. You
should have heard the boys I knew (excuse me, artists/crafstmen) that
were making humidors in the cigar days of the late 80's and 90's.
They were selling their boxes (exotic wood on the outside, melamine on
the inside with a humidifier strip) for about $300 to $600, and
couldn't keep up with the orders.

Then the foreign imports came in from every direction. Some more
expensive, most much less. Artistry didn't matter at that point, nor
did educating the public. The question of the day was "real or
percieved value". Out of concern for my buddies whom would never let
me live it down, I passed on buying a humidor at Sam's club that was a
tastefully inlaid solid mahogany with polished lacquer finish affair.
It held more cigars, had a better humidifier, and even had a built in
hygrometer. It was $69.

I also remember the "ironwood" artists from the 70s. Guys went out to
the desert areas and found ironwood bushes/trees that would make good
project candidates. They did well for themselves until someone in
Mexico discovered that the Sonoran desert was covered in it. They cut
down so much and flooded the market so thoroughly that all that is
left of the market is cheap, ugly carved crap.

I can't help think that somewhere along the line we may see mass
turned bowls from S. America if some enterprising person will just go
raid the burn pile at the edges of the rain forest to get exotic
woods. There is a lot of material, a lot of man power, and a ready
market. I promise you this; If I knew someone I could trust to run
it after I set it up, I would go down there and do it. I think the
market is ripe.

As always, just my 0.02.

Robert