Premade vs Homemade Charms
All of these cases I made recently. The two Rilakkuma/ Korilakkuma cases have mostly premade AliExpress charms. The dessert one has entirely handmade charms.
In the past, typically I have made MOST of my charms by hand, either with resin or clay. Recently, I’ve been experimenting for the first time making cases with mostly premade (cheap alibaba plastic) charms. And while I love the way they turned out, aesthetically, I can’t help but feel that it’s kind of a cheap shortcut. I feel a little torn about it to say the least! I mean this with no disrespect to Decoden artist who utilize entirely premade charms, I do love the effect! I’m just not sure how the community feels about them.
On the one hand, I’ve seen the community eat up the premade charms cases, on the other hand I’ve seen people tear them down.
Might be overthinking this but would love to know y’all’s thoughts!
ETA: Tangentially, I always see other Decoden artists using trademarked characters, (Sanrio, Disney, etc.) surely there are cease and desist concerns there? Wondering how they get away with it.. and the ethics of that? The things that keep me up at night, ha!