i agree maddy. i have used a combiation of old and new in some projects and i'm also grateful for the technology that allows me to reproduce some of the old stuff that i don't want to cut or alter in its original state.

Colleen, you may not realize it, but you are speaking out of both sides of your mouth...
Additionally, you are unsuccessfully attempting to mix apples and oranges.

1. Regarding "recipes" for how to make the work - That's the purpose of a "recipe," to provide consistently general instructions to enable anyone to achieve the same result. No "how to" article can provide the spark of individual creativity, and, at a certain point, if you've seen one lesson on how to collage, you've seen 'em all...And that is a whole new and different level of creativity that not everyone gets into.

2. The "findings" in the local craft store that depress you are not true "findings," in most cases, as much as they are "replicas." Just as "Scrabble tile stickers" are images printed on paper, and do not have the physical mass, nor tactile feel of a genuine wooden tile. Two different animals, although they may visually look the same...What if you could buy bags of just Scrabble tiles, or just wooden tiles with letters burned into them? Would they still not be worthy of consideration, simply because you didn't get the board, scorepad and tile holders with them???
The same goes for your analogy about the Monet print with textured gel medium to simulate brush strokes. Two entirely different animals, despite appearances. A visual replica is not the same as the original, even when the original is a mass-produced item, which every "found object" usually is...

3. You are absolutely correct in that it is NOT where you find the findings, although you can't see that truth. It is the FINDING itself, not how you acquire it, nor in what quantity...

4. While YOU may find the journey of the find to be half the fun, not everyone does. Personally, I do not have the time to spend searching. I far prefer acquiring my "findings" quickly and easily, and then spending that time "not-journeying," either creating, or dealing with the rest of my hectic Life...Why do I have to create the copper tag and stamp it, if I can utilize a mass-produced one? Just because I might stamp the letters in a different tilt, or depth, or accuracy? Please. Since the tag is not the artwork itself, but rather one element of many utilized in the creation of a work, it is like saying putting a nail into the wall to hang a picture just isn't as satisfying unless I forge the nail myself...You go right ahead, but I'll just grab one from my package of mass-produced nails, and get back to the business of hanging the picture.

I buy pound lots of my brass findings, charms, and vintage junk jewelry off e-bay, because the time, energy, and gasoline to drive around town searching garage sales and flea markets is much better spent at home, with the stuff delivered to my doorstep. That's just MY way, which doesn't make it right or wrong, just as your choice to jouney out to find your stuff is neither right or wrong...

5. There is NOTHING WRONG with mass produced things, depending upon HOW YOU USE THEM. If you take the moment to objectively step back, you will probably have to admit that EVERY "found object" you have used for the past 20 years was NOT uniquely created, and was, more than likely, mass produced. That its original intended usage (such as Scrabble tiles, for example) was not necessarily the creation of art, and that you did not acquire it in a bag of 5-10 duplicates off a peg board with 5-10 bags just like it, next to a peg of the same thing, except a different color, is moot.

6. Your comparisons are inconsistent and overly judgemental.
A chocolate cake mix, if prepared properly can and does produce a product that matches any chef's, as the basic ingredients of flour, leavening, sugar, salt, water, oil, and eggs is the same, whether you hand measure it out, or use a pre-measured, pre-mixed box. The addition of other ingredients, such as flavor extracts, chips, nuts, etc., are the specialized touches that individualize ANY cake...
A sequel to a movie that has the SAME plot is never worth watching, because it is not truly a sequel, as much as a repeat. A sequel with the same characters, but a NEW plot is often every bit worth watching, and sometimes more, as evidenced by the original Star Wars Trilogies, Oceans Twelve (the sequel to Oceans 11), the current X-men trilogy, and others. Of course, you then have to factor in other considerations, such as the stars, the director, the screenplay...all factors that can adversely affect the quality. Also, sequels are continuations, or subsequent developments of a story, which is NOTHING like purchasing mass produced items, or replicas of an item.

As for your analogy regarding sampled music, well, those artists are better at mixing music than you are mixing metaphors. Sampled music only becomes "pirate's music," if they don't pay the copyright to use it, the beat they set it to has nothing to do with legalities. Many, many, MANY popular hip-hop songs utilize samples that the artists have paid the copyright license to use, and the songs are platinum multi-sellers. It neither cheapens the original song (in some cases, it has helped boost sales of the original), nor does it correlate to the usage of mass-produced items in formulatic artistic creations.

7. "Find new things - it doesn't have to be vintage, it just has to speak to you."
Well, if that advice holds true, then why can't I find new things at the crafts store or Wal-Mart? I've been known to buy wooden drink coasters at the dollar store by the dozen. All mass produced, all inexpensive. The fact that I then ALTER them, and turn them into artistic wall hangings doesn't change the fact that they are cheap mass productions. It's what I did with them, because they talked to me, that makes them unique and original...
Mass production of "found art" materials does not cheapen the art. It is how they are used or incorrectly used, that "cheapens" the art, but even then, that has nothing to do with the art of the found, unless it totally usurps and replaces the art of the found, which I seriously doubt is ever going to happen...

8. Recipe art isn't produced to please you. YOUR art is produced to please you. Just because I want to hurl chunks everytime I see a Kinkade pseudo-religious "Painting of Light," doesn't mean it shouldn't be made, marketed, or mass-produced as prints, lithographs, limited edition china plates, 3-d porcelain sculptures, cross stitch and needlepoint kits, greeting cards, t-shirts, scrapbook stickers, and all the rest, because it is not being produced for my benefit. I always have the option to simply ignore it, and continue on along my own path. And that is exactly what I do.

"Recipe Art" is meant to help people learn how to create, and how to achieve similar results to works they see in magazines such as Somerset Studios magazine and others. Not everyone who wants to create art has the innate ability or experience to do so. "Recipe Art" allows them to create by following instructions, achieving a work similar to whatever piece inspired them in the first place. Without "Recipe Art," why would anyone bother to ever take an assemblage workshop, such as those offered at "ArtFest" and other venues the world over?

Being "original" means to be unique or innovative. Everyone is original just in the fact that no two people will do things exactly the same. As long as it makes someone happy to create something, who are you, who am I, who is ANYONE to then try and tell them what they can and can't do to create???

No one is expecting you to "take it." You always have the option to just ignore it, and continue on along your own path...It is presumptuous and disdainful of you to attempt to dicate the artistic expression of others simply because they use materials that you do not care for, just as it would be if you did not care for the glues used, the paint colors applied, or the way it is displayed.

The purpose of art is to create. Not necessarily to please anyone except the person doing the creating...

~M

Could you find that stuff on craigslist or freecycle. I bet a lot of people would love to know you'd accept it.

(I also gotta wonder if ti's worth building relationships with your thrift stores--maybe they'd be happy to give it to you, if they know you'd take it.)

JUst a thought, really.

(and given the huge increase in value of wooden scrabble tiles due to scrapbooking and mah jong tiles due to those bracelets, is it possible that those are being sold on ebay or something?)