While selling and buying on Etsy this year I’ve noticed that
a lot of the shops send Thank You notes with Handmade Matters written on it.
This got me to thinking about why handmade should matter so much in our world
of mass produced items. There is the easy
answer that things made individually by hand carry the intention and energy of
the maker in them. They are often made with greater care than things made by
machine in a foreign land. We like the idea that something is made by someone
we know or have met or at least read about online.
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This is the important part about Handmade Matters – If you
can do it yourself it Empowers you to do things in your world. If you have
skills you are not at the mercy of other people. You don’t have to buy what
they think you should, you can make what you actually need and want. Making
things builds self-worth. Knowledge shared is power at a grass roots level.
Never underestimate the power of a grass roots movement; the Indians took back
India from the most powerful country in the world – Great Britain through the
grass roots movement of spinning yarn. It was cotton and Gandhi got everyone
making their own. He empowered the people by reminding them that they had the
skills to make do in life.
2 comments:
Hi, just hopped over from your intro in Jude's Spirit Cloth Diaries, you do beautiful work!
Just stopped by from Jude's Diaries to enjoy your blog. Nice post and I agree. Having knit and spun for many years, I would also argue that hand made wool yarn is just so much better in quality (generally). The lanolin hasn't been beaten out of it and it handles better. Looking forward to seeing you at the Diaries.
best, nadia
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