Today I did a little Christmas preview.
Our local garden center and gift shop had a Christmas open house today. They do a beautiful job of decorating trees and making every item look so appetizing. I picked up snowmen, Santas, ornaments, snow globes, and various doodads. Each had a label on the bottom that read Made in China. EVERY SINGLE ITEM. Oops, except for the item that was made in Thailand. It made me both angry and sad.
This summer, I purchased a few gifts from our fantastic arts festival. I do have many more gifts to purchase, however. I'm going to promise to do my best to purchase items that are handmade by artists that I actually know or can at least have contact with.
Do you have any favorite Etsy shops that you purchase from? Please let me know. I'm going to do a little more Etsy research and see if I can put a few more links up on my sidebar.
Thanks to Alicia, Nellie, Ellen, Lynn, Leslie and Robyn for your comments on my studio tour post. Just to let you know, the mess I began 15 minutes after I completed the video has turned into complete chaos. As usual. Three pieces started. Loads of reject piles, boxes of scraps, boxes of beads, piles of stamps, knots of threads, brushes, bottles, spools, etc, are everywhere. Aaaahhhhh, back to normal.
8 comments:
I meant to comment yesterday on your studio tour. But, I was too green with envy at all your space...oh my...I did love the tour.
Kim, in addition to your shop, I regularly cruise Linda Branch Dunn's (I think she is somewhere near you, regionally). I want to do homemade, homecooked, local artist purchases this year, too.
I have not gotten around to checking out your video yet. I will this weekend.
Yes, everything is made in China. EVERYTHING. And half of it is poison. Check out this Etsy site:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ellejewels
Cute jewelry, not expensive.
i remember reading a memoir this year about a woman and her family who decided to ban buying anything made from china...it was astoundingly difficult and they failed a few times.
anyhow. love the etsy search, i think etsy is really getting a boost of creative folks on there (frankly there are some mind blowing people there with very sharp artistic bents)....i of course dont buy christmas presents at all so i have no suggestions in that.
A had a similar conversation with a shop assistant just last week. I was enquiring about a plunge pot of a particular brand (to give someone as a gift) and she said the company had gone under because you can get them cheaper in China. She pointed to 90% of the stock in the store, all made in China. The problem with the other plunge pots is that the water doesn't stay hot all night which defeats the whole purpose of having it in the first place.
We have this problem here in Canada especially in the big retailers, so buying handmade is very important to me too. I've been listing 5 of my Etsy faves every Monday this month and I'm happy to say I've purchased from many of them. Today I'm going to an art & craft sale and will be purchasing the Toronto building cocktail napkins from Avril Loreti in person. That will be fun.
We want stuff and we want it cheap, it's pretty unavoidable. Does anyone handcraft Barbies?
Two Christmas' ago, I bought all local for everyone but my kids. I went to a local vineyard for wine, bought hats made by old ladies who used the wool from their sheep farms. It was incredibly satisfying to give those gifts, (but pricier). I think the idea was appreciated more than the gifs though, Still, I was just thinking of doing it again. I'll need to check out Etsy too. Good luck!
It's funny....I was teaching (well, trying to) my students the other day about the printing press. I explained how it had been invented in China, along with so many other things.
One student excitedly asks, "oh yeah, that's why everything say 'Comes from China', ain't it?
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