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On buying handmade.
Nov. 29th, 2011 01:09 pm1. If you're not aware, author/editor/all-around amazing lady Terri Windling is in need of financial assistance for health-related reasons. There are auctions going on over at magick4terri.livejournal.com. I'm donating faery wings, and there are LOTS of awesome things being donated, from fans and big-name authors alike.* And there's a straight-up donate button as well.
2. I am totally warmed by how many people are committing to buy handmade this holiday season. I know there's been a lot said about how ridiculous people are acting at mall sales (but pepper spray is "a food product, essentially!" sayeth FOX), how the creep of Black Friday into Thanksgiving is keeping retail workers from their own families on Thanksgiving, and how our cultural obsession with cheap imported goods that rely on poverty or slave-wage labor is screwing our economy-- so I won't rehash it here. I find the whole Black Friday thing in practice to be pretty gross, and have been much more satisfied with the cyber variants.
I myself have participated in several cyber sales for independent stores and artisans. It does cost more than something mass-produced at a big box store, but that's the cost of skilled craftsmanship. It's not always possible for me to buy handmade or locally, but I do so whenever I can because that's the message I want to send about how I want our economy to recover. And to add to that, I know first-hand how buying from a small business or artisan makes a tangible difference in that seller's life. The money isn't going into some corporate exec's pocket-- a corporate exec, I might add, that didn't have to go to sleep at noon and miss out on Thanksgiving dinner with his family in order to work a sale that opens at midnight or earlier. A corporate exec who isn't making minimum wage. A corporate exec who isn't working multiple minimum wage jobs to support his family because our whole economic structure is hopelessly fucked. No, that money goes straight into someone's fridge. Or back into the business that supports local economy. Or back into the oils, or beads, or paints, or what ever other medium that allows that artist to create unique, skillfully-crafted art that beats mass-produced junk any day of the week.
So, I am thankful every day for the customers who support me and my shop, and proud to return the favor by buying handmade.
*I had a moment of desperately wanting to bid on the adapted screenplay that Emma Bull wrote for War For The Oaks, but then I saw who co-wrote it and I was like "BAH. Tainted. There goes that idea."
2. I am totally warmed by how many people are committing to buy handmade this holiday season. I know there's been a lot said about how ridiculous people are acting at mall sales (but pepper spray is "a food product, essentially!" sayeth FOX), how the creep of Black Friday into Thanksgiving is keeping retail workers from their own families on Thanksgiving, and how our cultural obsession with cheap imported goods that rely on poverty or slave-wage labor is screwing our economy-- so I won't rehash it here. I find the whole Black Friday thing in practice to be pretty gross, and have been much more satisfied with the cyber variants.
I myself have participated in several cyber sales for independent stores and artisans. It does cost more than something mass-produced at a big box store, but that's the cost of skilled craftsmanship. It's not always possible for me to buy handmade or locally, but I do so whenever I can because that's the message I want to send about how I want our economy to recover. And to add to that, I know first-hand how buying from a small business or artisan makes a tangible difference in that seller's life. The money isn't going into some corporate exec's pocket-- a corporate exec, I might add, that didn't have to go to sleep at noon and miss out on Thanksgiving dinner with his family in order to work a sale that opens at midnight or earlier. A corporate exec who isn't making minimum wage. A corporate exec who isn't working multiple minimum wage jobs to support his family because our whole economic structure is hopelessly fucked. No, that money goes straight into someone's fridge. Or back into the business that supports local economy. Or back into the oils, or beads, or paints, or what ever other medium that allows that artist to create unique, skillfully-crafted art that beats mass-produced junk any day of the week.
So, I am thankful every day for the customers who support me and my shop, and proud to return the favor by buying handmade.
*I had a moment of desperately wanting to bid on the adapted screenplay that Emma Bull wrote for War For The Oaks, but then I saw who co-wrote it and I was like "BAH. Tainted. There goes that idea."
