Why You Aren't Hearing From Me

So I've been pretty quiet in the blogosphere lately. I have had trouble keeping up with multiple blogs now that there is a baby in my life. Let me rephrase that. Now that there is a life in my baby. Ha! So keeping up with multiple blogs has been impossible for me. I have four blogs that demand my content, but I decided that this one took priority most of the time, since extended and distant family and friends are looking here regularly to get updates on our little babe. But lately I have been especially quiet, and that's because... I'm completely obsessed with Etsy, and I spend all my free computer time there right now. I'm window shopping as well as getting inspired to create and sell my own art again. Etsy is an online store that is comprised of thousands of small, user-created stores, kind of like an eBay, but without auctions. And it's even better than that. Every item sold through Etsy is handmade; paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, clothing, accessories, even hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-painted yarn, it's all there. It's kind of like doing my favorite First Friday Art Walk every day, all day (only instead of the whole street-festival vibe, it's more of a on-the-couch-in-your-PJs art-viewing.)

Etsy Buy Handmade lisahurley

Etsy is part of this current movement that's going on; it's a renaissance of DIY and skillful crafts. It's no longer just the country-fied, folksy doodads that are being made anymore. There is a growing legitimacy in this kind of hand-work; it's artful and beautiful, and every day I see more and more of it being done. Whether it's seen on my art walks, or evidenced in all the new and popular magazines or internet outlets aimed at the hipster, I see more people are looking for personalized, one-of-a-kind pieces to decorate their lives. I think this is a backlash against the impersonal, distant, electronic world that's been brewing. The world is growing smaller with all our access to each other, but we're also becoming increasingly small, insignificant as a result. What are we each, but a couple of bits in a multi-yottabyte world? (A yottabyte is a lotta bytes, though apparently we haven't actually created a world wide web quite that large just yet.) So we're becoming desperate to differentiate ourselves, and beyond that, we're looking towards hobbies and interests that engage us in the physical world.

Well I couldn't be happier. Many of you know how I struggle with the blandness of suburbia, and artful, stylish, sleek and earthy (i.e. natural materials, hand-made quality, yet still minimal and modern) are all words that are firmly attached to the design aesthetic of my life. So if I see a place where I can have access to more of those one-of-a-kind-yet-affordable and handmade-yet-modern-and-artful things with which to decorate my life, I'm happy. I don't even have to own those items (although some of my cravings for them are getting pretty strong), I'm happy and inspired, just to know that they exist and are readily available to the people around me. I can only hope that suburbia starts to soak this movement up, and we can move towards individualism and personal style even in this realm of beige.

Beyond being inspired by things to decorate my life with, Etsy provides me an easy way to browse things that other artists are creating. It's getting my artistic juices flowing. I'm not sure which direction they're flowing, but they're going somewhere. So, soon, I expect a full-on river of creativity with a definitive direction, but for now, I'm spending my time doing "research."

As a part of all this, there is a pact that some of these "Etsians" and others are joining, to pledge that they will only buy handmade and ask for handmade gifts this holiday season. I think that's pretty cool. I'm all for that, and that helps out the little mom & pops out there. Why should Target and Walmart get all of our Christmas dollars, when there is so much more out there? Or better yet, make the gifts yourself if you have time! Make the people in your lives feel special with unique gifts. I think this also goes in hand with the green movement that is also blowing up right now. If I buy handmade, surely I'm doing less to keep those factories of pollution and climate-change going.