I *heart* handmade

It goes without saying that I'm a big fan of handmade, and I was thinking this morning about why it's so cool, and why I should make more effort to buy handmade instead of big shop mass produced environmentally unfriendly manufactured stuff. So here's my thoughts on it interspersed with some of my favourite handmade things from Coriandr - click on any of the pictures to go straight to the item.

I love the personal service you get when you buy handmade. I love it that you can have a conversation with the seller one to one about their products - does it come in another colour? Is it washable? Can I buy 3 at once? How big is it?

I love the fact that what you're buying is pretty unique. A lot of things are one offs, and even the things that are 'mass produced' by crafters are often slightly different each time. And how many things can one crafter make anyway? Even if you're some sort of crafting daemon who churns out work at a rate of knots, you're still only going to produce 20, 30, maybe a 100 of any one thing. So therefore only 20, 30, or 100 people in the whole entire world will own the same thing. How cool is that?

I love it that I'm supporting individuals, not big business. Stay at home mums, art graduates, retired peeps, or full on full time crafty entrepreneurs - every little hand made thing you buy puts pennies in their pockets to spend on bread / more craft supplies / beer / shoes / books / credit card bills / never ending loft funds.

By buying handmade, you're validating someone's hard work. Sometimes it's more important than the money - what you've made is *so* good, that someone, a complete stranger, (not just your Aunty Sandra or the admin person at work) will pay good money for it.

I've decided to try and buy as much handmade as I can for Christmas presents this year for all the reasons listed above, but also partly because I want to focus on quality rather than quality, and partly because I'm bored with the same old rubbish in the shops each year. It goes without saying I'm going to have loads of fun finding the perfect present for everyone! And if anyone needs any hints or tips on what to buy me for Christmas, I'd be happy with any of the things on this page :)