Visiting our little pink artisan shop at the end of the road, you’ll step into a space we’ve intentionally filled with handmade items and design forward goods. Handmade goods that awaken our senses and instill groundedness throughout our day.
The items we surround ourselves with are an extension of our authentic selves. They represent the people, places, and things that have shaped us and remind us of what we value and why we value it.
Buying handmade goods has spiritual, emotional, social, economic, and environmental benefits that align with many of our values. Art can allow us to not only understand others, but to understand ourselves on a deeper level.
10 REASONS TO BUY HANDMADE GOODS
1. THEY CULTIVATE CREATIVE SELF EXPRESSION
There’s innate creativity within all of us, we just need to learn how to unlock it. When we choose to buy handmade goods and see how handmade goods are made, it helps us recognize that our hands are also capable of making those things if we have enough passion to learn the skill.
Surrounding ourselves with artists, creatives, and makers can cultivate an enthusiastic spark of creativity in all of us. So much so – that some of us find new passions, talents, and career options.
2. LOOKING AT ARTWORK IS HEALING
Taking in artwork with our eyes is an amazing secret to stress reduction and well being. The long-term effects of viewing creative work include boosts to our immune systems, brain function, and processing trauma.
When you feel emotionally flooded or blocked when working through a difficult experience, try coming into our little artisan shop to surround yourself with calming, handmade work.
3. IT NURTURES YOUR OWN CREATIVE STYLE
Choosing to buy creative items shows you are also a creative. The things you notice about handmade goods and the way you interpret them is a very creative process. You are forming an expression of your creative depths when you make decisions about what you like about a piece and where you would put it in your home. Buying artisanal goods is a creative process sparking more inspiration and creativity in all of us.
4. THEY CREATE FOCAL POINTS OF YOUR PERSONALITY
The items we surround ourselves with intertwine with our lives. They become a part of who we are similar to the way friends do. Curated goods in your home provide focal points to your visitors that say a lot about your personality.
We bring meaning into our homes with furnishings, textures, colours, and shapes. Maybe you’re a nature lover and your home is filled with a jute rug, wooden furniture and unglazed pottery. Or maybe you’re a modern minimalist basking in the mid-century modern aesthetic.
5. SPREADING THE ESSENCE OF LOVE
One of the most important life experiences we can have as humans are connection and shared enjoyment. We feel a greater sense of personal satisfaction the more closely connected we are with the people we admire.
If the act of buying and selling handmade goods was a relationship, the artisan’s love language would be physical touch and quality time to the piece. Our love language would be acts of service and words of affirmation to the artist --- and if we buy a handcrafted gift for another, we’d also be expressing the love language of gift giving back towards the ones we love.
6. BUYING HANDMADE UNLOCKS FREEDOM FOR OTHERS
Artists create opportunities for others to feel free and expressive. Keeping our communities rich with creative energy, culture, and craftsmanship, artists give us the courage to be unabashedly ourselves.
When we support creators, we feel a rush of self-worth and value knowing that we’re supporting our community’s creative freedom, dialogue, and legacy.
7. IT CONNECTS US BACK TO OUR ROOTS IN STORYTELLING
Art helps us bring ideas together that express what it means to be human and understand the world around us. Each handmade product was inspired by a feeling brought into form by a creative. Every colour, shape, and texture in that piece are the characters in that story.
Exploring these stories and passing them on, helps us connect with one another on shared experience and values in the same way cultural storytelling has united us throughout history.
8. IT PRESERVES CULTURE, TRADITION, AND IDENTITY
Culture, tradition, and linkages to our ancestors are so important in shaping our identity and overall wellbeing. In today’s economy traditional crafts have been replaced by shortcuts and fast, cheap manufacturing that devalues the traditions and culture of the craft.
When craftsmanship and quality prevail, we can keep our communities rooted in traditional skills, cultural arts and storytelling that feeds our identity and keeps our ancestral heritage alive.
9. IT’S ECO CONSCIOUS TO BUY HANDMADE
Handmade goods conserve global energy, eliminate machinery, reduce waste and lower chemical use. Handmade goods are generally made from natural materials that withstand the test of time. And many makers use local, sustainable, or recycled materials and adopt eco-conscious values for the packaging.
10. BUYING HANDMADE CONTRIBUTES TO OVERALL HAPPINESS
The Happiness Research Institute conducted a study that shows that second to our mental health, our homes are the most important element contributing to our overall happiness. We should honour our home and be intentional with how we fill the space.
Taking five minutes a day to slowly eliminate clutter and fill our space with items that bring us joy will do wonders for our overall happiness.
Written by Robyn Jin.