Leaving a Legacy... 
I buy, and create handmade because I want to leave a
legacy.
I've had a rough childhood, and really just a rough life, but one of my happiest memories from
childhood are the handmade nightgowns that my father made us for christmas one year. I swore that I would hand
mine down to my children, and that I would make it a tradition to give my own family hand made christmas p.j.'s
every year when I was grown. I was 9 at the time.
I've always loved to create, and the beauty in handmade
items. My goal is to prove to my family that items do not have to be branded to be beautiful, functional, and
stylish. I hope that one day my family members who swear they will never own or use anything handmade, and that
think that if it's not branded then it must not be worth anything, will one day not only use items that I've
made, but proudly proclaim that they are handmade!
Ever since I've pondered having children, I've known
that in one way or another, I wanted to leave a legacy for them...to be make a difference, and to be remembered.
I hope that my crafting can be part of this legacy. I hope that I will be the mother, and the grandmother that is
remembered as always creating beautiful items, and that is not only remebered because of the items left behind,
but by my own children, and hopefully even friends, that create because of me and remember me while doing so.
I buy handmade because I want the best for my children, and what could be better than something that was
created by hand with love in everything that went into it? I want to support other people and families who work
at home to support their families, like I do, in hopes that not only will they support me, but that it will be
like a virus, and more and more people will begin to be able to be truly happy, and get back to the things that
are most important in life. I dream of a world where we are never in need because we can make, or trade for
anything we don't have, and money is much less important. I know this is wishful thinking, but everytime I buy
handmade, I feel like we are a step closer. So that's why I buy, and make, handmade, and why you should consider
it too!
|
A handmade heritage 
Nothing has to inspire me to buy handmade; it is the way I was
raised. My mother was raised on a remote ranch where it was pretty much "make it yourself or do without." That
upbringing was reinforced by a later adolescence in the Depression, when even in Houston rather than on the ranch,
there was no money to get "store-baught."
Her wonderful design sense and skill in many fields of craft,
from sewing to woodworking to ceramics and jewelry, meant that she would almost always make whatever she needed -
a large wooden planter, a dress, a light fixture, a necklace - herself rather than purchase from a store. I don't
believe I ever saw her give a Christmas gift that she had not made until she was nearly 80, when she sadly
observed that she was giving most of her gifts out of museum catalogs that year.
I hope she would approve
of my designs and level of craftmanship. I still kind of labor under an inferiority complex. The only craft I
really think I am BETTER at is cooking. She mostly left the day-to-day kitchen to my father.
I diligently
went to school for many years to learn science and biology and ecology. And I blog about the natural history that I encounter. But now I discover that I
would rather make things, after all. And if I don't know how to make them, to buy them from others who MAKE
HANDMADE.
|
