Another blogger alerted me to this article on Etsy and I just had to laugh and roll my eyes a bit. Cheating buy buying one non-handmade item? Sorry folks but I am not going to wear a hairshirt and flog myself for buying some people items from Amazon. Some people may not want or need something that can be purchased online. Handmade or not most people don't want socks for Christmas (except for me if they are super cool stripy knee highs).
One of the gifts we bought a friend was a book, am I supposed to think that buying a book was somehow something I should feel bad about? Please!
I didn't set foot in a mall the entire shopping season and that is good enough for me! (and I plan on staying away as long as possible)
I signed up for it and then quickly soured on it and removed the banner from my blog. I don't like pledges in general and this one is no different. I didn't sign up for the November blogging daily event nor did I sign up for 365 baby on Flickr even though I pretty much take a picture of blee daily. I don't pledge blind allegiance to my country why would I make a pledge to a company*? Especially from a site that makes a lot of money from things that aren't handmade. A site that makes selling original one of a kind items harder and harder and mass produced items easier to sell**. I love buying handmade and don't feel like I need to take part in some so called "handmade lifestyle" or promote places like Etsy for free. I mean the whole thing is rather self-serving for Etsy.
*I am aware that it wasn't just about Etsy, but realistically they were the major player in the whole thing.
* Despite this I am happy with my sales overall, it is enough for me to be happy and not get overwhelmed but the truth is the site caters to those that can easily relist inexpensive items like reproduction prints and commercial supplies. This goes against not only the pledge but the "Your Place to Buy All Things Handmade" slogan.
