Oh, this again.
For starters, I agree with everything James just wrote. Etsy has a ton of organic traffic (random people looking for stuff and finding it) that Shapeways doesn't have. I try to promote both my Shapeways shop and my Etsy shop on social media...but as it turns out it seems there are a lot of customers who buy my jewelry on Etsy who have never seen me on social media. They're just hanging out on Etsy and they type in something like "marine biology jewelry" and they find me. So, for a marketplace, it's magnificent.
Secondly, we're not claiming our designs are "vintage" but they are most definitely
handmade, in my opinion. I design with Blender, I envision the design in my little brain and then sculpt it in Blender. Shapeways produces the jewelry and does a beautiful job, but their machines don't come up with these designs out of thin air. What's that old computer programming adage, 'garbage in, garbage out?' In this case, it's beautiful design in, beautiful jewelry out. This is impossible unless there are designers with vision and creativity hand-sculpting these files. Stony's explanation is perfect.
Furthermore, my designs are completely
unique, you can only buy them on Shapeways, Etsy and a couple of other places. I feel that my work is enriching the Etsy environment. I'm not making yet another beaded necklace or cabochon earring (even though some of these are indeed gorgeous). Furthermore, I don't even have to work that hard at my SEO at Etsy because, again, my stuff is totally unique and I'm not competing with the cabochon earring makers.
Is it
ethical and
correct...to sell beautiful, unique jewelry that fits exactly what the customer is looking for, that they can't find anywhere else, that shows the person they give it to how much they care about them, and shows how impressed they are with the accomplishments of the recipient (many of my pieces are given as Ph.D. graduation gifts to scientists)? I invite you to go read some of the reviews at my shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Ontogenie/
Happy customers, all of them. (I hope I'm not violating SW rules by posting the link to my Etsy shop!)
If Etsy somehow decides that 3D-printing isn't 'handmade' enough, then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but I honestly don't think they're going to kick me out at this point. I've built a successful shop. Maybe I don't sell as much as other Etsy shops, but I have my little niche and my customers appreciate what I'm doing.