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Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas 2011/ Handmade vs. store bought


In all the years I've been sewing, knitting, making jewellery... I've never taken the handmade pledge. And I'm a firm believer in handmade, locally bought meaningful gifts as oppose to cheap, mass produced throw away stuff.
The reason behind my decision has always been that we should encourage people to be conscientious about their spending habits, conscientious about the environment and that whole Think globally, act locally business. But we should never force this decision on anyone and by buying something handmade for someone who doesn't want it and will likely throw it away anyhow is going against the spirit of the handmade movement.

9 comments:

  1. I've never taken the pledge, either, for the same reason. Although I do have a family member who took it last year, and she managed to find some great gifts. (I received some really cute kitchen towels from her, which I use all the time.)

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  2. Amen to that! I'm a true believer in that! More love and thoughts are put into handmade items. Plus they're well made compared to the mass produced ones. I always buy handmade items for myself. This is why I LOVE etsy.com!

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  3. Ms. M: There are some really gorgeous handmade stuff out there. The trick is finding balance.

    Crafter's Delights: Etsy is fabulous, but they've taken on a very consumer oriented approach too like Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales which is encouraging consumption. Not cool :-(

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  4. I definitely applaud handmade everything. Haute couture, leather ware, art - they are handmade. Also the less inexpensive handmade things are special, I´d appreciate them having a mark of the designer though.
    These days, at this age, I only buy signed/ numbered pieces of art and jewelry.
    This is possible, if you leave all the junk stuff in the stores, save your euros, and buy decent objects.
    Naturally some luck and some sensitivity is needed as well : ).

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  5. Mette: I hope people will regain the appreciation for handmade labour intense items with attention to detail and willing to pay the appropriate price too. Because in the end one pair of quality shoes trumps 10 cheap ones.

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  6. Each of our countries need our support especially our quality artisans always, but at the present more than ever.Ida

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  7. ida: maybe the spirit of Christmas will no longer be associated with spending endless hours and tons of money running around shopping centres. I really liked the idea some bloggers are promoting to buy gifts certificates from your local hairdressers, car repair shops, house/garden maintenance...keeping the money in the community

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  8. Hello, I never heard of this pledge and wouldn't take it, for the same reasons you haven't.

    I like Metscan's comment and also agree with your last comment about avoiding mass shopping, and sharing certificates for local services.

    We skip most of the gift frenzy, in part because of Martin needing time to wrap up the semester, the two of us juggling extra choir commitments and participating in other social and church activities. Too much going on to shop!

    However, we did buy one new toy for ourselves I'll be posting about first of January :).

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  9. Susan: We spent Saturday afternoon at the mall tying up some loose ends. I'm really behind with my Christmas schedule this year and going to a shopping centre the last week before Christmas is my worst nightmare.
    A new toy? Very curious, hi, hi ;-)

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