The Beading Gem

Crafting is important to all of us in this community. When Covid hit back in 2020, crafting got another major boost. People found they had more time to pursue different crafts. The boom was especially good for small businesses who sold online. 

However, in 2025, everything changed. The economic climate has turned stormy. The tariffs the US imposed on virtually every country in the world with corresponding retaliation from some countries; US threats of annexation of allies and sovereign nations alike resulting in boycotts; the loss of the US de minimus, all of which has been devastating to consumers and businesses.  The on again and off again tariff rates have also been disruptive to business planning and stability.

Tariffs are actually import sales taxes on the US consumers either directly or indirectly through companies who purchase from abroad who then pass on the price increases to customers. Imported resources and raw materials businesses need to make things became more expensive so US manufactured goods are no longer appealing to any customers either at home or abroad. 

There is a point when absorbing cost hikes is just not sustainable for businesses. As I reported earlier this year, many smaller bead suppliers have simply closed their doors forever.  Other struggling businesses have either closed and/or shed workers. The initial "canaries in the coal mine" were the laid off dock workers and truck drivers - so much less materials and products were imported there were simply less to transport. When businesses fail, the towns and cities will lose the tax revenue needed to keep said places running. 

Etsy sellers and other consumers everywhere have been hit hard with higher costs which impacts what customers are willing to pay. People who are already facing an affordability crisis stop buying anything but the essentials. The increasing use of AI to replace workers has also added to higher unemployment rates.  So who is going to purchase anything? An economy without a market will falter. 

Let's take jewelry making. Nearly 100% of freshwater pearls come from China. China has spent decades honing efficient and cost effective production making it the industry that it is today. See my past 2011 post on Where Freshwater Pearls Come From.  

This short video explains why China is the world's factory with its incredible supply chain optimization. Over a long time, China invested heavily in building infrastructure, transportation and ports. They are increasingly using clean energy like solar and moving away from fossil fuels and coal.

High quality beads and crystals from Asia and Europe as well as all kinds of consumer goods in Chinese factories depend on skilled workers, manufacturing processes developed over decades, investments in complex machineries and logistics, all of which cannot be home grown overnight. 

Watch this short video on a Toho factory tour in Japan. Obviously, many steps in the bead making process are industrial secrets. 

Even more secretive is the Miyuki bead manufacturer in Japan. There are no videos of their production process but it is clear from their obsession with precision methods over nearly 8o years has lead to their dominance in uniform bead supplies. See this short clip on their gorgeous flagship bead store in Tokyo :

You can see how much Korea's largest producer of imitation pearls, which started in 1989, depends on specialized machinery :

With every technological revolution in history, there were job losses but new ones were eventually created. However, the speed at which AI is advancing and how it is being used is unprecedented. There are bound to be big bumps along the way. 

Don't get me wrong. AI can be very useful. However, transparency and important guardrails are still missing as AI use grows by leaps and bounds. The unscrupulous use AI to hoodwink the unsuspecting is on a sharp rise. 

Notice the FLOOD in uncurbed AI slop and AI deep fakes in social media and on Youtube?  AI slop is low effort but attention grabbing digital content creation meant to capture views. Pay a little more attention to the video or image and you might spot the AI flaws. Viewers often do not carefully look at illegal deep fake channels which use AI generation of well known personalities to spout the creators' own agendas and spread misinformation and disinformation (deliberate misinformation), sometimes sowing divisions, hatred and intolerance. Such AI use is not always disclosed.

Watch this great video on deep fakes and how to spot them. Our world is now so skewed by AI fakes  real videos often get dismissed as untrue. That's a very, very scary destabilizing effect on our society and world.

The hotel and airline industries have practiced differential pricing for years. But now the Instacart investigation reveal AI algorithms are being used in other sectors to show different prices to different customers. "Surveillance pricing" is when they use your collected shopping history and behavior -your demographics, where you live - to extract the highest price you will have to pay.

AI generated listing photos on various online websites are on the rise and many grossly misrepresent the products. Jason MacBason shared some of the most awful ones like the "AI puppy" which purports to be just like the real thing, the supposedly, mineral crystal mugs which look fantastic but are really terribly painted and crude ugly resin ones with barely attached metal inserts and the "stained glass" animal lamps which only looked good in the listing photos. 

There are some glaring clues for the more cautious buyers. Look at the listing photos carefully and do some critical thinking. The AI photos look too perfect. Some of supposedly mineral crystal mugs in the photos do not have shadows, clearly pasted onto an AI background. The price is another giveaway.  A stained glass lamp for $25.99? Really?

Mock-up photographs are often used to provide a background and to give context to what the product might look like in use. It's better to work with real backgrounds but AI generated ones can save time. I did an experiment with a comparative photo of my actual product photographs from Kristy's and my latest SVG laser cutting file design for a thank you wood floral desk decor gift. I removed the backgrounds of the product photos and found some AI generated desk backgrounds on Canva.

The left shows a reasonable photograph of the painted vase against the AI background. However, the right one was clearly AI generated. I could not get a proper shadow and the resolution differences were obvious. So not as easy to accomplish at least with with Canva's AI tools.

Another recent Etsy refund scam is the use of AI to render a bought item as broken. The buyer then wants a full refund for the broken item using the AI photo as proof. Vendors are advised to ask for the item to be returned (paying for the return postage if necessary). The chances are, the scammers will not do that. See Starla Moore's warning video on what to look for in the fake image and how to respond. One vendor said in the comments that she asks for the shipping label to be in the frame with the broken item which is another good check.

There has always been people who fake their online persona. Lately, AI has been used in chatfishing in dating apps where the users can fake their identities, use language models to spruce up their writing, chat up prospective love interests in order to secure dates. 

Much more concerning are the deleterious effects on some AI users such as AI-fuelled delusions after extensive conversations with ChatGPT. This is known as AI pyschosis.

Vulnerable young users of AI chatbots as "someone" to talk have led to tragic deaths. Australia recently became the first country in the world to ban social media use for children under 16. 

The BBC reports :

A study it commissioned earlier in 2025 found that 96% of children aged 10-15 used social media, and that seven out of 10 of them had been exposed to harmful content. This included misogynistic and violent material as well as content promoting eating disorders and suicide.

One in seven also reported experiencing grooming-type behaviour from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been the victim of cyberbullying.

This move is being watched by other nations and at least one other is taking action to regulate this fast developing technology. The BBC reports China has recently proposed strict new rules for AI products services in China to protect children and the vulnerable from self-harm or violence and not to promote gambling.

So many companies are jumping wholesale onto the AI bandwagon, hoping to reduce labour costs. But it is too soon to expect AI to replace humans completely when there is still a measurable deficit in their accuracy.

I highly recommend you watch ColdFusion (Australian) channel's video. Watch it all the way to the end. From fast food chains to Klarna, companies are realizing AI's errors and the public's preference for real customer service personnel are generating problems. On the flip side, there are start up companies who use AI successfully by training it on much more limited issues. AI can help but it will not be able to create the next generation of innovative products. 

AI will "revolutionize global productivity eventually but as for now, it's in a possible bubble." 

Our world is changing so fast. Who knows what next year will bring?  

Yours creatively,

Pearl

 Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM 

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