The Handmade Pledge

A few days ago I was visiting some of my teammates' blogs, and I came across this button (basically, a graphic to click on that links you to another page) that said "I Took The Handmade Pledge". I was interested. What is the handmade pledge? What does it entail? I did a little research on good old Google, and found out that the pledge was part of a collaborative effort between Etsy and several other handmade venues to encourage people to buy handmade gifts throughout the holiday season, although it is still alive and well online right now. The idea is that buying handmade links the buyer and the maker, supports our economy, supports the local artist, and allows for more individuality rather than everyone buying the same stuff from the same stores. You can read more about it here and if you want to take the pledge you can do it here. There are 52,824 pledges as of me writing this.

So this gets me thinking. I like the idea. I LOVE the things I find on Etsy and I would love to be able to buy so many of them. I have found things that could be gifts for so many people (including me!). I had already been thinking that I could get gifts just on Etsy from now on since there is so much to choose from. I always find something beautiful, interesting, or surprising. I myself could probably take the pledge. But part of the pledge is to encourage those giving YOU gifts to buy handmade. And therein lies the snag. I don't know if I feel comfortable requesting that of my loved ones, whom I shouldn't be expecting to give us gifts, who may not have the money to spend on something handmade, who may not be comfortable buying online, who may not understand WHY I would want them to do something like that when there are plenty of stores around with perfectly good stuff. I really do like the idea, but it's something I'm going to have to think about a little more.

What do you think? Is the handmade pledge something you could do? Have you already done it? Do you see yourself having issues with it? I'd like to know where you stand on this one!

The above graphic is from buyhandmade.org/badges. You can use the button on your blog or other webpage if you decide to take the pledge.