Monday, May 16, 2011

Handmade Chic is Back!

After a long hiatus, Handmade Chic is back, hopefully on a regular basis.

I'm sure the blog is going to evolve in its own direction as time goes on, but there will remain one focus: Celebrating the Handmade Movement.

What does it mean to be handmade? Some will argue that any object made by human hands qualifies as handmade. But here, the human heart has to aid in the creation. So, you can holler all you want that something made by hand on a production line in China, India, etc., would qualify--but this is my blog, my rules, and it doesn't.

Handmade means artists are behind the creations. It means that items are made from passion for craft, not because someone is being paid a wage to crank out a product. It may mean that items are truly one-of-a-kind, simply because the nature of handmade requires it. It may mean a small production run, because there is one person doing the creating of each piece, one at a time.

Notice the word "create" popping up a lot? Handmade requires creativity to exist. An artist's eye can see simple objects, and using their hands and heart, combine them with skill, to create something useful, whimsical, or just plain beautiful.

Do you celebrate handmade? How? Let us know, we'd love to hear your ideas!

2 comments:

  1. I certainly try to, and have done, for most of my life..
    I'm currently indecisive about staying online with an ArtFire studio at all; not only did all selling come to a full stop, the site has been inundated with resellers, just like anohter site i won't even mention.
    as for making, in and of itself, absolutely will continue, don't even know how to stop, but my creativity will possibly be curtailed by an inability to induge in all the supplies I covet..
    Glad to see you back, and sorry about the rant, but you did ask..if it's problematic, don't post it, I won't be offended...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great comment. I'm not sure why all handmade sites succumb to the lure of resellers once they start to become successful. But it's a story that has repeated itself many times!

    ReplyDelete