I don't think I have commented on the handmade pledge here on secondsurf, so I will do so now and I challenge all of you to do the same. You will find here on secondsurf that I sometimes go into political/socio-economic rants ~sorry~ but it is a very important subject to me and I hope to enlighten/aggravate/inspire SOMEONE.
This year I took the handmade pledge. The handmade pledge is, in a nutshell, that if you buy someone something, or something for yourself!, that you will buy something handmade. And you request, in turn, that if someone purchases something for you, that it be handmade.
With that in mind, I will answer a few questions about what it means to buy handmade to me.
In my opinion, buying handmade means:
(1) I am buying something that was made by an independent entrepreneur who makes something with their own ingenuity that I wish to purchase.
(2) This person uses sustainable business practices, i.e. they are supporting themselves or others by paying a living wage to those they employ, or do business with.
(3) Buying handmade does not necessarily constitute a traditional art or craft. I believe it constitutes buying from a local business when applicable or someone who is operating a small business in general.
Large businesses are not inherently bad, but the large businesses or corporations that seek to pay their employees a living wage or have corporate consciousness are few and far between, at least until lately.
Please make a conscious effort with every purchase you make, whether a gift, or right down to food and essentials, to do research on the company you are buying from, even the products you are buying and where THEY come from, and make conscious purchases. It does make a difference. I will speak more on this subject in the future....but i feel a rant coming on......
No comments:
Post a Comment