Heartful Handmade Blog

buying handmade products is good for mother earth

Buying handmade products is a great way to honor Mother Earth.  That's because handmade products are usually one-of-a-kind or they are produced in limited quantities, helping to mitigate some of the environmental damage and waste that can result from large-scale manufacturing.  In fact, many artisan products are only produced when ordered.  On the other hand, the manufacturing, shipping, storage, and ultimate disposal of mass-produced products is pretty hard on the environment.  Annie Leonard explains it all in this informative and entertaining 20 minute video, The Story of Stuff:

It's easy to think along the lines of "me buying handmade products is not going to stop all that," but that's not true.  We tend to underestimate the power we wield with our buying decisions.  Buying handmade is like buying local, recycling, readjusting our thermostats, and all the other things we do to eliminate waste and support sustainability.  It all adds up.  And every time a new person joins the movement, the balance is tilted a bit more in favor of Mother Earth.  And buying handmade offers an additional and very powerful way of helping.  It's the connection you create between yourself and the person who made the product you buy.  By buying their products, you encourage artisans to continue making them.  You validate their desire to create and you sustain their ability to continue.  It's real, it's direct, and it's empowering. Earth Day is everyday.  April 22 is just a reminder.  And my everyday mission is to help you find good handmade alternatives to common mass-produced products.  Heartful Village has all the resources you need, and the About page will give you the full scoop.

move your money in more ways than one

There's a movement underway encouraging us to move our money out of banks that are "too big to fail" into smaller regional banks with closer ties and more direct connections to the communities they serve.  

The driving principle behind this movement--our money is power and we can collectively use that power for the greater good--is the same principle behind similar campaigns encouraging us to buy groceries from farmers markets and community co-ops, to buy books from independent book sellers, and to buy handmade products.  

We get what we pay for.  And for too long we've been paying for products that destroy the environment, exploit societies, and endanger people's lives, all under the guise of bringing us "low prices". So we lose our jobs to foreign interests, we lose Main Street to corporate interests, we lose our money to banking interests, but there's a dollar store on every corner.  Ummmmm.  

I am totally behind this campaign (view Move Your Money video), and think we should expand it to emcompass a lot more than just banks.

the handmade economic stimulus plan

The talk now is all about stimulating the economy and there are plenty of arguments about what will, or will not, work in a recovery plan.  If you think I'm going to join in that fray, think again.  But I am putting in another plug for buying handmade or small volume products directly from the people who make them.  Here's why:  When you buy directly from people who personally create products, you immediately energize their economic base and you get something uncommon in return, something that has higher value by virtue of being rare. That translates into higher resale value.  It will cost about the same as a mass-produced product, but you don't have to feed a greedy globe spanning supply chain.

the story of stuff

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues.  For over 20 years, she has traveled the world investigating factories and dump sites.  In this fast paced, entertaining, and highly informative interactive video, she exposes connections between our excessive production/consumption patterns and many of our social and environmental problems.  And in her witty way with this serious subject, Annie Leonard also explains how consumerism became our national agenda.  There is a lot of food for thought (and suggestions for involvement) packed into this 20 minute animated video. 

about this handmade blog

Practically everything is made in factories and shipped by the thousands to stores everywhere.  And we're bombarded with advertising to get us into those stores to shop.  It's an endless cycle as new styles, colors, or whatever are invented to get us to replace the stuff we have.  And we usually do, sooner than we like, because most of today's products are not manufactured to last (or are manufactured to not last).  All the while, there are artists, artisans, and craftspeople among us making really cool things that are not caught up in the in-style/out-of-style revolving door because they are unique and timeless, as well as useful and high-quality (meaning they're made to serve their purpose well and to last).  The problem is these products can get lost in the mix.