Hand Made Holiday

So, I have this friend on facebook; I went to art school with her and her husband way back when. Today she posted on her status about how her holiday shopping this year is mostly made up of handmade treasures making this year's trip to the mall less stressful and as a result more enjoyable. In the comments she went on to say that if everyone in the small town where she now lives in made the choice to give one gift that was locally hand made the change that would cause would be astronomical.

Think of it, one gift hand crafted by an artist or artisan who lives in your own back yard; a kind of 100 mile challenge of the holiday variety. In large city centers this is so easy to put into practice, even in smaller communities getting a lovingly handcrafted gift can be as simple as keeping an eye open for craft fairs and gift galleries that specialize in local artists. A quick visit to Etsy can locate local artists and their wares within specific search parameters, so if you're looking for an iPhone case that isn't the same as every other hipster's; a t-shirt for your in house baby paleontologist, an earth friendly coffee mug for the caffeine deprived loved one or a special bauble to adorn the throat of your significant other, you can find one in your country, state, province, city or town.

If everyone made the choice to purchase one gift from a local artist/artisan think of the change that could create!

For the artists in our communities making a living from designing and creating.

For the people who receive the gifts that had a little extra thought put into them.

For those doing the gifting dealing with a less stressful shopping experience...

the list could go on and on because like the long long list of handmade gifts that can be gifted the ripple effect from buying one single handmade gift locally would just spread out and out.


This is a movement I can really get behind because it's one small purchase, it's a baby step towards bigger change; not a call for a belly flop into the deep end. Would making the choice to make one of your gifts handmade be something that you could add to your holiday gift giving traditions? I'm not suggesting you drop the most wanted toy (in our house that would be an easy bake oven) from your kids list in favour of a hand made toy but I am suggesting that instead of buying an impersonal gift basket of pre-packaged teas and cookies you think about visiting a holiday craft fair and picking up some hand-made soaps or artisan toffees.

I couldn't write a post like this without (as I've been known to explain to the Peanut) putting actions to my words. Our gifts to grandparents, cousins and even a few gifts to the Peanut and the Bean have been (or are currently being) lovingly handcrafted. I'd love for this to become a wave of small change for the rest of the season and next year and the year after that too. Spread the word, it's going to be a thing.

Reply and kind of a rant or is it a motivational speech?

For those of you who read the comments on this blog, my latest post had a comment from Le ShallowGal, one of my favourite Blog Authors (as a huge Terry Pratchett fan I enjoy most writings that include humorous footnotes SG's posts are no exception. Go check out her blog now. It's OK I'll still be here when you get back).

In her comment, SG mentioned both her love of art supply stores and her lack of artistic ability. I replied to her Comment via email but I felt that my reply would also make some pretty good blog fodder too so here's an expanded reply that kind of went a little ranty and hopefully ended a little more motivational as opposed to a demanding lecture...

I can't even begin to tell you how many people say that they don't have a single creative bone, artistic bone, crafty bone.... in their body whenever they find out that I'm one of those "arty" people. The fact is that everyone is creative, case in point? Remember when you were a kid? a new box of crayons was a goldmine.

As we grow older, we're trained to consider art to be of lesser importance than other aspects of education. When budgets are cut, the first things that are threatened with the budget scissors are the art classes. It's kind of sad and it kind of makes me angry and it kind of puts me in the mind of home-schooling the Peanut so that we can keep the visual art as a big part of her education instead of slowly eliminating it as she grows older.

There is a misconception that creative talent is something that you have to be born with and that there are people out there who can just pick up a pencil and create master works from day one; and there are lucky souls out there who pick up a pencil at age two and can draw photo- representative images by age 13, their name is Picasso (this I think explains why we have cubism. The man had mastered rendering and got bored...) What we don't think about is that these people also work at what they do. Some people are more natural at it than others but the creativity still has to be nurtured. Natural talent is something that we are all born with.

What I'm getting at is that the Artistic bone can be cultivated. When I started art school I couldn't draw at all; some introductory art classes helped me learn, advanced classes helped me to grow and continuing to draw keeps my skill sharpened.

I'd suggest that the next time you find yourself haunting the art supply store to pick up a nice sketchbook and a pencil, even if you use it to just doodle swirly lines and tic tac toe's while you're talking on the phone, you can feel all artistic and creative without too much risk. After a while you might feel confident enough to graduate up to paints... or not; just don't let the fact that you can only draw a stick man stop you from drawing a stick man.

it was so obvious now that I think about it.

I don't know if it has been apparent in my last few months worth of posts or not, but I've been experiencing a little bout of the blues. I did write about my relationship with depression in October and unfortunately the fug has managed to stick around a little longer than I would have liked.

Normally I'm pretty aware of why I'm feeling any given feeling at any given time. I'm an internalizer who reads a lot and I often find therapy sessions (when I have them) to be troublesome because of this.

This time around I haven't been so aware of where my sadness is coming from. I thought it might have been sleep related, or possibly that it was my way of mourning for the lost time devoted to my art because of being a mother, or because I haven't seen a single member of my family since last January. I mean any one of those things and a hundred others would cause a bit of the Down In the Dumpses but really they were just extensions of the real cause.

So here's my moment of clarification, and it came to me as I was catching up on a few Blogs yesterday. I was reading about a the latest in a series of emotional sculptures by ArtMind (see photo to the left) and then I went on to read a very sad post from another one of my favourite Etsy artists The Dreamy Giraffe, she was writing a tribute to her recently lost pet Buddy and it occurred to me, that while this past Wednesday is the anniversary of the day we found out I was pregnant, it also happens to be the anniversary of the day my Dad passed away. This year is a little different for me because I am now the same age he was when he reached the end of his life. It's a bit of a bummer (Understatements are my speciality).

One of my Aunts once told me a story about a dream my Dad had. It affected his whole life and was eerily prophetic. In his dream, a tear-away calender began to flip through the days in a month. As it got closer to 30 and 31 it flipped faster and kept going until it reached 36, where it stopped.

For almost all of his life he lied about his age, even convincing my grandma at one point that he was in fact the youngest child in the family and his little sister (my youngest aunt, who is about ten years older than I am) was older than he was. He made it to his 36th birthday and then died in his sleep about a month later, while he was away working on an oil rig in Northern Alberta.

Now that I'm looking back at the last few months I should have known what the problem was and I'm feeling a little relieved that it's a naturally occurring sadness and not a chemical imbalance. So I've been missing my Dad and a have been a little freaked out over passing this age milestone myself.

How to shop handmade this holiday season

OK, I know I've mentioned it and then mentioned it again, but I think it bears repeating. I'm buying all my holiday gifts from artists and artisans this year. that means I'll be trolling the talent on Etsy for everything from stocking stuffers to that major, blow them away with my thoughtfulness, gift.

In anticipation for this, I've started my shopping way earlier than previous years. Mainly because I find shopping this way to involve a lot more forethought. You aren't just browsing in the mall for something that catches your eye in order to get the best gift, you have to know a little about the person you're buying for. In fact the more you know the better your gift choices.

Here are some items that I'm eyeing up so far in my online shopping travels. Take a look at what's here and if you see something you like why not buy it out from under me? I promise, no hard feelings.

Making that first sale

At least I know that I'm not all alone out there. I've been on Etsy for a little over 4 months now and not a sale in sight for me. Not that I'm complaining. I'm not, really. I know it will happen soon. I'm confident in my products and in my marketing plan, low key as it is so far.

At the moment I’m just pleased to gain another heart for my shops or individual items and ecstatic for the increase in traffic to my shops. It helps that there are others out there in Etsyland (like the creator of the Etsy Item That caught my Eye, Amethyst Bonsai Pendant) waiting for their first sale. Reading entries in the Forums from these talented artists and participating in Newbie Labs, gives me the feeling that I’m not alone out there.

Plus each new view of the Lady Bug ATC or the Electric 3rd in series Photograph in my two shops; brings me one view closer to that fateful first sale.

Am I aiming too low? Should I be more worried about being sale-less? With the holiday season in the crosshairs should I be more active in my marketing strategies more of a barracuda with flogging my stuff? I guess I’ll be more capable of answering that question next year. I have grand plans for the next holiday season and expansions in my creative output all mapped out…

OK there aren’t any maps, just a light pencil sketch on the back of a take out menu. Ok I wrote them on the palm of my hand in ballpoint (stupid sweaty hands!) but I have plans. Holiday ornaments, 3D decorative items, stacks and stacks of holiday greeting cards all hand stitched or embellished with seed beads for that unique touch. Yup, big, big plans, and I’ll even follow through on some of them too.

This year my inventory is a little on the small side. My plans for holiday ornaments were derailed by lack of funds (who knew that having a baby would be so expensive? And do they really need to grow like that? I mean all of her pants just keep shrinking up past the ankles and she’s too young to be made fun of for wearing floods….) again I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, lack of funds. And finding a reasonable supplier for some of the brainstorms I’ve had, turned out to be more difficult than expected. And the health scare at the end of August kind pf put a damper on things too.

Health scare you ask? Nothing to get worked up about. It turned out to be nothing serious but that’s a topic for another day.

So with one thing and another I’m moving slow, working on climbing up the learning curve and putting myself out there a little at a time. As I get more comfortable and confident I’ll increase the effort, but this year is all about the seeing what’s what and tucking that knowledge away for next year. For now I’m just moving one view at a time until I make that first sale.

Oh look someone new just hearted my shop!