The official holiday buying season started with Black Friday insanity. In Oklahoma City the media was pitching Small Business Saturday as a follow up to Black Friday, encouraging citizens to shop at small stores rather than the big box types. I like the idea, but I would love to see it somehow stretch further and go for Made by Hand Monday, Truly Original Tuesday, Workshop Wonders Wednesday, Thoroughly Thoughtful Thursdays…and so on and so forth. You get the idea. What makes buying handmade goods so wonderful to give as gifts , is you give something that is often one of a kind and has been made by the hand of an artist or craftsman. Personally, I believe the experience of having my morning coffee out of a handmade mug far surpasses drinking from a styrofoam, paper or other mass produced mug. Its not the coffee that is different it is the experience. There is the aesthetic experience of feeling the texture of the clay, the glass like glaze, the form that was built around the function of holding my morning cup of joe.
With just a few days left to find the right gift for loved ones, seek out the artists and craftspeople in your community and support them. I am going to share in the next few days some of the wonderful items that I have come into the possession of that have that kind of special character that the mass produced item just cannot replicate.
Stay tuned!