Nine handmade and do-it-yourself groups have banded together to encourage people to buy handmade. Calling themselves The Handmade Consortium, they are comprised of Etsy, Design Sponge, indiepublic, Austin Craft Mafia, BurdaStyle, Craftster, Craft Magazine, Interweave, and the American Craft Council. Click About the consortium below for information on these groups.
Here's what they have to say about buying handmade:
The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left people all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect. We created the pledge as a call to action for consumers to be conscious of how they spend their money this holiday season. We want people, whenever possible, to support independent creators and shop outside the big boxes.
On the surface, the Pledge Handmade campaign is little more than a cute public relations device, but over 52,000 people have bothered to visit the website and sign up. I suspect many of them are from the communities directly served by the consortium's member groups, but they reflect a growing interest worldwide in a shift to conscious consumerism.
[Updated 5/5/2010.]
