(I buy handmade tag from windshine)
That is the burning question every time that I sit in front of my computer and browse through the tantalizing display on Etsy.
Being brought up in a very frugal way, buying is always tinged with a touch of guilt: don’t we have enough? Of course we have enough, more than enough of every thing, actually. But is enough…enough?
(Buy Handmade tshirt from phippsart)
I’m truly jealous of people that are naturally minimalist, free of cumbersome possessions, just what they need, no more. The old WW II saying ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without’, is very actual in a society more aware of the preciousness of natural resources.
Well, that makes the choices easier: buy vintage, that reduces the waste of materials and gives you a unique product. But also in vintage is a lot that is mass produced and soulless, just like the new made mass produced goods.
(bag made with vintage materials from our bagshop)
So: buy handmade! Or handmade vintage, or handmade with vintage materials. And there is plenty of that on Etsy as well! Oh bliss, guiltless buying. Guiltless producing as well. I find myself specially virtuous when we can make a gorgeous new bag using almost exclusively reclaimed materials.
There is also the ‘buy local’ issue. Well, where we live, only fish and oranges are local. Also is local not always easy to discern. When buying linen fabrics in Amsterdam last spring, I asked the seller where the linen came from. He told me that it was Italian flax, woven in China and dyed in Belgium. It goes by the name of Belgian linen, but is it?
And so I buy on Etsy, of course I do. Do you?
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