Handmadeology

I’m Hilary, I work for UK Handmade, a not for profit organisation that helps to promote and support the work of designer makers in the UK.  We have a website full of business tips, interviews with makers and a regular showcase of designers work as a well as a busy community forum – find us [...]

A subject on the lips of many artisans is the big box mentality that has gripped many buyers. Often a prospective seller will pick up an item and say “but it’s so expensive”. These words are like fingernails on a chalkboard to handmade sellers.

When you support the handmade movement by buying interesting handmade crafts, clothing and art, you’re not simply “buying a thing” you’re helping to create and define a new grassroots global community! We all need a certain measure of possessions to go about living our lives and when you buy consciously and with purpose by supporting amazing craftspeople, then you’re joining a vibrant community with the collective mission of living in a way that’s more meaningful and fulfilling than the dominant big-box culture.

The key to being able to afford to buy handmade on a shoestring budget is looking close and hard at what you’d be willing to do without or to do with less of in order to be able to buy more amazing handmade goods.