Try Handmade

Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Art Appreciation Starts Early

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There’s so much lame art out there for small people. And that is a terrible thing. I’m convinced bad art rots little brains. It’s why I ended up eschewing popular mass market toddler art for framed pages of retro books for my kids. I spent ages hunting down old books from the 60’s and 70s with interesting line art, decoupage prints etc. Lucky for you now, there is Etsy and Jonty Bloom.

Let’s face it. Babies, toddlers, etc look at their walls a lot, what with all the time they spend hanging out in their rooms. Do you really want to trap them in there with nothing good to look at? With some insipid cartoon-y depiction of jungle animals and fairy ballerinas? Or do you want them looking at something a little better, more thought provoking? The kind of art that tells it’s own story and gives you more to look at each time you examine it?

I thought so. Chances are you’ll spend a fair amount of time in the room with your kid too. Buy something that you like, that they like, and that your grand kids would probably like too, if you save it for them. Good graphics make the world a better place. Let’s work together to make ugly primary colored vinyl dinosaur wall appliques from mass market chains, go extinct. Yay art!

Have you been missing Crafting with Lotta?

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Are you missing the hilarious Crafting with Lotta column? Me too… But instead of Lotta’s humor, check out her creativity. (Don’t make me use the word “craftivity” — just go look at her shop.)

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Tanya Svoboda is a local Chicagoland artist that creates one of a kind jewelry. Whenever possible, she uses vintage beads, charms and buttons. She loves a good story and tries to find pieces with a unique history to incorporate into her work.

Tanya’s studio is named the “Mom O Matic” in a cheeky nod to the Automats of the early 1900s. Where women sat behind vending machines and dispensed treats to patrons day and night. As she herself frequently dispenses goldfish crackers to her two smallest patrons.

[Read more…]

Good on Gyros & With Jam

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I love a good lamb gyro perhaps as much as anyone can love any food. Ever. In the world. But I also have a soft spot for lambs. I cannot resist their particular brand of cute. So much so, in fact, they are the only livestock I have been reluctant to try my hand at raising for meat myself. I simply cannot say with any sort of confidence whatsoever that processing day would be even the least bit tolerable. And since tolerable is the best any processing day can ever be, I’ve yet to take the plunge.

Luckily, others do not harbor my biases and sheep farms are anything but scarce in most of the United States. And though the traditional holiday for lamb eating may have already passed, a good rack of lamb is a celebration in and of itself fit for any time of year.

In fact, there is an often unforeseen bonus in buying lambs after the Easter holiday has passed — especially if you’re buying a whole or half lamb — ethnic markets for lamb are strongest just before Easter and demand for a smaller carcass there drives down the size of lambs sold around that time of year. After Easter has passed lambs are often grown out longer, making for a larger end product; a bonus if you’re feeding a family of four or more as am I.

In an ideal world we’d all buy our lambs — whether we’re looking for wholes, halves, racks, legs, chops, roasts or a combination of all of the above — from the farm down the road, and we literally have a sheep farm down the road here, but not everyone is so lucky. To find fresh, local lamb you can search Local Harvest for sheep farms near you, but if that fails you can also buy lamb online. Upper Dry Creek Ranch, a family owned farm in Western Oregon, offers their lamb products on Foodzie. That’s a picture of their loin chops above.

And as long as you’re at it, don’t forget the toppings, rubs and marinades. And don’t be afraid to think outside the box, the Chipotle Pepper Jam by Uncle Berch’s Foods, also via Foodzie, is reportedly a great accompaniment.

Holiday Shopping for Artisan Made Gifts

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UPDATE: 1000 Markets and byhand.me both folded, so I had to remove the links from this article. Where possible I have linked to current shop locations.

The holidays are coming up fast for many of us who have committed to having a Handmade Holiday. Now’s the time to find and order those handmade gifts that will bring originality to your holidays as well as brighten the season of the artists you’ve chosen to hand make your gifts. But where to start?

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There are innumerable blogs and sites with handmade gift choices, but you can spend hours browsing before you find one that gets you. I personally am partial to the markets of 1000Markets in part because the curators/market managers tend to pick the best available handmade work in their particular area, and it’s easy to pay through Amazon (with their A-Z Guarantee). In addition, you don’t have to sign up at the venue to purchase. So bearing that in mind, here’s my go-to list of especially well curated gift guides:

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The Try Handmade Market is curated by our own Erika Jurney. She personally adds each item so you can be sure they’re the best artisan goods available. The work is organized into collections for easy browsing, and there’s a forum if you have a question or need some help. Payment is through Amazon, and you don’t have to sign up to purchase if you already have an Amazon account.

The Succulent Wife’s Marketplace is a gift market that has it’s own Cheery Holiday Gift Guide, with original gifts chosen by the Succulent Wife herself. If you don’t find something in the guide, check our the other collections organized by type of gift recipient, for easy holiday shopping. Payment is through Amazon.

Holiday Gifts the Artisan Way is the gift guide curated by 1000Markets. It’s divided into numerous collections of gift categories that are fun to browse, including ‘Artisan Gifts Under $50’ that will help you stay on budget. Payment is through Amazon.

Etsy has the granddaddy of handmade gift guides. The Etsy Gift Guide is a good place to look if you’re already an etsy member or don’t mind signing up to purchase, and have loads of time to sift through it all. The Guides are organized by price, and by just about every other category imaginable, which is great if you like tons to look through but can be a bit overwhelming if you’re in a rush. Payment is normally through PayPal although other options are available through individual artists.

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If you’d like to purchase a gift that’s shipped directly to your gift recipient with a hand written note, try searching any of the major handmade venues for the term “GiftShipper”. These are artists who will create and ship your gift, with a note of your choosing, directly to the person you designate. Often they will gift wrap as well (sometimes for an extra charge). To narrow things down you can add search terms such as “giftshipper jewelry” or “giftshipper pottery”. Don’t forget to mention GiftShipper when you order, and specify the contents of your note.

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If you’d like to search all of the major handmade venues at the same time for specific items, try the search at byhand.me. [UPDATE: byhand.me is now gone – try Best of Handmade instead.] It’s powered by Google but lists items only from handmade venues, with photos and pricing. It’s not a complete listing, but is good for those who prefer less exhaustive search results. If you know what you’re looking for, this search will give you a good variety across all of the handmade venues without overwhelming.

Do you have a favorite Gift Guide? Is there something that would make handmade gift shopping easier for you? Tell us about it in your comment below!

Tell Me Something Good

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When stress or boredom starts to take its toll on me, I ask my fella to “tell me something good”. More often than not, he rolls his eyes and carries on with what he’s doing. I don’t take it personally, though; who can be expected to think up “good stuff” on demand? This week, however, he surprised me with something good – an email containing a link to Hello Rewind’s t-shirt upcycling program. It was the first that I had heard of the fledgling organization and I was immediately impressed. Not only is it something good for the earth, it’s something good for survivors of sex trafficking in New York City.

Here’s how it works: you have a favourite t-shirt that you no longer wear, but can’t bear to part with. Rather than let it langish at the bottom of a drawer, you contact Hello Rewind and tell them that you want it made into a sleeve for your 13“, 15“ or 17“ laptop. You pay them 49 bucks and in a few days you’ll receive a prepaid envelope, which you fill with the aformentioned shirt and drop back into the mail. They stitch it up into a custom, padded sleeve and before you can say “upcycle”, it is back in your hands. Not only will your laptop be cozy and happy, you’ll be happy knowing that you’ve helped women get off the street and back on their feet. How cool is that?

Hello Rewind got its start as a simple idea – take an old t-shirt and make it into something new and usable like, say, a laptop sleeve. The social/rehabilitation aspect of the business came into the picture when the company formed an alliance with the founder of Restore, NYC; an organization which provides support and housing to women victimized by the international sex trade. Soon, the ball was rolling and the company is becoming a source of support, training and income for women trying to break free from prostitution rings. The young women, mostly in their 20s and 30s, are taught to make the custom laptop sleeves, paid a fair wage and given a safe and viable option to a dangerous and marginalizing lifestyle.

The $49 that Hello Rewind charges for the sleeves is, in their words, a “break-even” price. The money that they receive is spent on training and wages for the women in the program, materials, shipping and operational costs. If there is anything left after that, it is used to sustain the business itself. From the sounds of it, no one is getting rich over at Hello Rewind. Not financially, that is.

Check out the Hello Rewind blog for more info on their background and what they do. To read more about what Restore, NYC are doing to help integrate ex-sex trade workers back into society, visit their site.