Indie Love

By now, most people who know me know I like handmade items a lot, but nonetheless I was so pleased that some took the time and spent the energy to get me gifts this year from craft fairs and Etsy. I know it’s almost two months since the holidays, but I don’t see some of my friends as often as I’d like, so some of these I’ve had for just over a week.

One thing I got from Jeff was spices, the Pepper and Lime seasoning to the left is one of my favorites, from a company called Cherchie’s from PA. I found Cherchie’s at a craft fair long ago. Although the business has grown, they’re still small enough to write a note on the packing slip! I think food is the best part of craft fairs. I like all of it, but I really like people’s cooking and spices. Like the hot sauce festival I went to. I guess I just like meeting people who are  into their food. I love food.

… Right! I was getting hungry there. Two good friends also gave me handmade things: the pretty coffee cozy is from the bright and cheerful Etsy shop Dizzlepop, and is a simultaneous nod to my obsessions with coffee, daisies and indie. The Murano-esque earrings are from one of Austin’s oldest street-fair-craft-places down on the “Drag” across from the University of Texas. The fair’s been there forever, from way before DIY became cool and the founders of Etsy were born.

The next item was from husband again, who is lovely, and finds that buying me presents is ridiculously easy when I excitedly point out pretty things on the web to him. I also loved the packaging. The woman behind Shy Siren knows something about business - her products, presentation and marketing were all quite impressive.

These next items aren’t gifts (do gifts to self count?), but I purchased them at a shop called Parts and Labour that only sells local artists’ wares. I wanted to buy half the store, and my friend Melissa wanted the other half.  Independent artists have long been popular here in Austin (we did/still do have a lot of hippies here, after all), and now is no different.  Indeed, it’s been helped by the resurgence in interest in such things nationally.

D’you know, sometimes I meet people who believe that crafting as a business is a new modern thing (perhaps the ones who believe leg warmers are a new thing?). Hardly! We’re simply re-fashioning it in our own political and social image, as all cultures do. This shop is a good example of that sort of recent re-imagining.

Handcrafting as a business has long been a staple of western culture, even if the media has tried to convince us it’s not true and big companies have tried to marginalize the independent worker. Even the industrial revolution began and existed for some time as a mobilization of woman-centric home crafting industries. Handcrafting is also (as some craft-loving but not historically-minded people don’t realize) long been an important part of feminism, as the method by which many women granted themselves financial independence or provided for their families. Women’s handcrafting has saved several civilizations’ bacon by doing everything from lacemaking to brewing to scribing. The idea that women aren’t intelligent workers and valued breadwinners is a purely ridiculous and modern idea unsubstantiated by historical record.Hey, where did that come from? I just can’t quite help that I was a feminist social historian, it leaks out. Seriously, after all that social history I have the utmost respect for women and their crafts and the enormous historical impact they’ve had. Some young women seem to feel embarrassed by their knitting and I say Knit On, Sew On, your skills have had more of an impact than many philosophers could dream of.