Letter from the Handmade Artisan

Your support of small, handmade businesses is crucial for our survival. You are helping people share their art in this consumer-driven world and you'll often end up with unique items that will spark conversation for years to come. Art is so important for humanity. It's what ties the truth to the beautiful. It brings us together. It is an escape - even if just for a moment - from the mundane.

I want to explain what a modern day "handmade artisan" is...

No, I'm not saying you don't already know. I just think that the that term "handmade" has become a little skewed in our digital age.

Handmade isn't perfect. Its not a computer-generated image printed perfectly on a mug. Its not a print-on-demand t-shirt. And I'm sorry, but its not a Cricut printed quote laid onto a tumbler.

*Cricut people - don't come for me! Your art has its place, but "handmade" is not it. Cricut and similar machines are great tools to use in handmade art, but printing something and slapping it onto something else is hardly considered "handmade." Printing something to add to your creations is definitely "handmade." Blank shirts/mugs/totes/tumblers that you just stick or print things onto hardly "HANDmade." That is just my opinion, take it as you will.*

Handmade is the canvas that has the imperfect smudge on the corner. It's brush strokes that aren't uniform. Its evidence of older paint that cracked in a few places.

Handmade is a wire-wrapped pendant. You can see a kink or two where the wire didn't cooperate. The way its wrapped on one corner of the stone (which is also not perfect) may be a little asymmetrical from the other corners..

Handmade is a beaded bracelet with an imperfection on a bead or two.

The beauty of handmade is in the imperfections. The beauty of handmade items are the smudges, scratches, kinks, and splotches.

The beauty of handmade is the love and attention put into the items with the perfect customer in mind for them.

After being part of a few vendor events and craft fairs in my life, I've learned that the term "handmade" isn't very HANDmade anymore. People love the new, freshly printed items. And that's perfectly fine. There are some beautifully made items done with computers and digital art.

...But in the time of AI and photo filters, please don't forget the decor and beauty that our ancestors once loved. The wonky painted portraits (have you ever seen a Medieval cat portrait? SCARY!), the chipped marble, the pot that has one small spot of glaze missing - these are the items that humanity has loved for centuries...millennia even.

I can guarantee your grandmother used a crocheted kitchen towel that was missing a stitch or was short on a row or two. And I can guarantee she loved it and used it religiously.

I can also guarantee that the quilts that were passed down through the generations were far from perfect. And the love and admiration was in the imperfections of that quilt. 

As a handmade artisan, the drive to be perfect can cause anxiety that is crippling. What my fellow artists aren't understanding is that the perfection of our art is in the flaws. They aren't leaning into the imperfections. They are throwing away canvas and wire and supplies because it isn't "good enough."

Let's start a movement where we support the handmade artist. Ask the creator about the story of the item you are buying. Display that item in your home and tell people the story of it. Or tell people the story of your experience with the artist who created it...

"The little old woman who I bought this from was so sweet. She also gave me her pulled pork recipe!"

"The man who made this was the carpenter who remodeled that old Victorian on Elm Street. You should see how great the wrap-around porch looks!"

Let's support the small business. Switch your mind from "mass produced" to "one-of-a-kind."

I promise, it will be worth the few extra dollars.

I promise, it really does help someone's daughter get a new pair of sneakers.

I promise, we really do a little dance when someone takes an interest in our art.

What you see from us - at shows and online - is our soul. We are taking these trinkets and putting them on display making us feel naked. We completely expose everything we are through these items. When you show interest in that, it ignites something within us that pushes us forward. It keeps that creative fire burning. It creates the color in our society that we all need.

Help us bring that color.

Help us keep going.

I promise, it will be worth the few extra dollars....