Some craft vendors say resold and AI art popping up at markets is 'disingenuous'

It's festival season. Artists, crafters and makers are setting up tables to get their homemade products in the hands of local shoppers. 

But some artists say they're feeling frustrated seeing vendors next to them putting out products they didn't make themselves or are generated from AI.

It's a growing problem London crochet artist Emily Anderson has seen firsthand. 

"More and more vendors are not making the goods themselves, but buying them from certain online websites and just reselling them," she said. 

"That's not in-and-of-itself a bad thing … but when people are going to these fairs looking for handmade crafts, then I feel like it becomes a problem," Anderson said. "It's a little bit disingenuous." 

Anderson said that while she also doesn't mind vendors selling resold products, she wants people to be honest about where they are sourcing those products from, rather than claiming they are handmade.

Market vendors are sharing their frustrations about the issue all across Ontario, according to clay artist Olivia Anthony-Katchur, who lives in Toronto.

"It feels like you're up all night, you're putting your blood and tears into your work, [and] you're constantly working just to see somebody who typed a prompt [into an AI generator] and printed the photo selling it and making money," said Anthony-Katchur.

"It's really disheartening and upsetting."

However, there are other vendors, like Londoner Andréa Kennedy, who say they don't mind selling alongside resellers.

"As a handmade maker and somebody that comes from a traditional arts background, I obviously really value that within myself and my art, but I also recognize everybody has the right to have a living," said Kennedy, who makes art and jewelry using foraged and homegrown flowers.

"I think there's space for everybody. I find that it doesn't affect me much what other people are selling," Kennedy said. 

Different markets and festivals have different ways of selecting and vetting their vendors.

"We specify in the application that the craftspeople themselves are to either have made the items or manipulated the items to make them different," London Christmas Craft Festival co-organizer Isabel Traher said.