Buy Handmade

Buyhandmade.org is a collaboration between Etsy, Craftster, indiepublic, Craft Magazine, Interweave, Burdastyle, The Austin Craft Mafia, Design*Sponge, and The American Craft Council, nine prominent forces in the DIY and handmade worlds. Calling ourselves The Handmade Consortium, we have banded together to encourage people to buy handmade this holiday season.

 

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left people all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect. We created the pledge as a call to action for consumers to be conscious of how they spend their money this holiday season. We want people, whenever possible, to support independent creators and shop outside the big boxes.

 

For more information please write pledge(at)buyhandmade(dot)org

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. There are over 700,000 products on the site, offered to you directly from 60,000 individual artists. Support the independent. Find the unique. Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade



Design*Sponge: Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Launched in August of 2004, Design*Sponge features store and product reviews, DIY projects, contests, new designer profiles, trend forecasting and sneak peeks into the homes of independent designers. In addition, Design*Sponge features a unique section dedicated to covering student design, national and international design shows. The site is updated constantly throughout the day and attracts a core group of over 25,000 devoted daily readers.



indiepublic: indiepublic is a social network geared towards independent artists, designers, bloggers, retailers and shoppers. The website offers useful features that include customizable profiles, photo and video galleries, forums and user-run groups. Although a relative newcomer to the independent arts and crafts scene, Indiepublic has quickly established itself as a fun, friendly and supportive community where members can show off their creativity, share tips and advice and make new friends.

 

Austin Craft Mafia: We're nine independent business owners in Austin, TX who share similar beginnings in fashion, craft and art. Each lady of the ACM owns and operates a respected and established business that represents the DIY spirit and brings her own individual talents to the group. We realized we could be mutual resources of support, promotion, information sharing and fun. We strive to be a model of the entrepreneurial spirit to Craft Mafias across the country. The Austin Craft Mafia established the Craft Mafia site and Web Ring to link and cross promote sister groups in other cities, share web traffic, and provide helpful information to other professional craft designers and groups

Burdastyle: BurdaStyle is an open source sewing website. Find pattern downloads, tutorials and plenty of inspiration for your self-created wardrobe. We wholeheartedly participate in this pledge to support independent designers!

 

Craftster: Craftster.org is a online community with over 100,000 registered members where people can share hip, modern, nontraditional craft projects and inspire and support one another's creative endeavors.

 

Craft Magazine: Celebrating the DIY spirit, Craft is the first project-based magazine dedicated to the renaissance occurring within the world of crafts. Loaded with exciting projects that use unconventional, unexpected and even renegade techniques, materials and tools, Craft celebrates resourceful spirits who undertake amazing crafting projects in their home and community. The quarterly magazine also covers more handmade projects, events, and news around the craft world daily at craftzine.com.

 

Interweave: Interweave is a 32-year-old company dedicated to encouraging and supporting creative self-expression through craft media, including magazines, books, on-line content, and events.

 

American Craft Council: The American Craft Council is a national, nonprofit educational organization founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb. The mission of the Council is to promote understanding and appreciation of contemporary American craft.