We live in a world where many things are mass produced. However, it is wonderful that more people everywhere are beginning to embrace things that are made by hand in small quantities or even one-off pieces. Most of us in one way or another seek to be individual. Whether it is something that was hand crafted a long time ago or made only yesterday, here is why handmade matters…
1. Handmade is the New Way To Manufacture
The past few decades have seen a consistent decline in traditional manufacturing. It’s sad on one hand. On the other, it has paved the way for a new type of manufacturing … one that embraces human potential and gives individuals a voice they might not otherwise have. To buy a handmade product is to affirm and give continues life to that human voice and expression. When done throughout a community, multiple times over, an entire city can find new life. We see it happening across the world today and it’s making our communities better places, one community at a time.
2. It’s Human Nature to Value the Creative Spirit
“Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” – Chuck Klosterman
When you make something, you leave a part of yourself in it. When you are finished creating, you take pride in the work partly because you see yourself in it. When you buy something someone else made, you yourself are reflected in that purchase. Whether it’s the colour, the texture, the shape, or just the mood you happen to be in, an item that has been crafted as an expression of the creative spirit person who made it is treasured and valued far beyond an item that was made for worldly mass consumption.
3. Handmade Items are Crafted in an Environment of Joy, Honour, and Respect
Have you ever studied the work space of a person who creates for a living? Their creations are almost always made in a space of joy, honour, and respect. Those same values somehow find their way into the very fibre of a handmade item. For example, consider that every inch of the yarn that forms a hand knit garment once flowed through the fingers of the Maker who knit the garment with intention and purpose. Who wouldn’t take extra special care of such an item.
4. A Handmade Item Cannot be Duplicated
No two handmade items are exactly alike. Variations in colour, shading, texture, shape and grain are inherent in a handmade item. No two items are alike, so that every single one is one-of-a-kind. This means that every handmade item you purchase is also one-of-a-kind. What’s not to like about that?
5. Everything is More Beautiful When it’s Made with a Heart
You can serve your guests a frozen, mass produced cake or you can treat them to the one your Mum made. The frozen one will do in a pinch, but only the one your Mum made will touch the very heart of every one of your guests.
A consumer shift is happening. A movement if you will. More and more, people are willing to be educated about the value of an item that is made by hand. People are starting to dream about things that don’t exist, but should, and then making them come to life. This is why handmade matters.
