Friday, September 14, 2012

Made in the USA: Arts and Crafts

I have always been amazed at how many artists live among us. Go to a local farmer's market and you'll always find plenty of local craftspeople selling their goods. I have learned as I have grown older that if you are wanting to shop for jewelry for some reason or another you can find very good products made by local artisans. The nice thing about discovering these artists among us is that if you have a vision for something and it falls into their realm of creativity they can make it for you. It's quite a wonderful thing.

Years ago I had an idea for a web site where artists and craftspeople would be able to come and show off their goods and sell them online. Well I dreamed while the people at Etsy actually went out and created the site. You can find your way to all sorts of goods.

I want to give a particular plug to the site Elk & Iron. I have bought some products from them and am very impressed with the quality, and I happen to know the people that run the shop on Etsy so that helps too. It is always is nice when you can help friends and get something you want at the same time.

1 comment:

  1. It's just like when Run DMC started wearing the sneakers without laces right after you started doing that in high school.

    The Internet's impact on the arts-and-crafts industry must be at least as dramatic as it has been on media and news.

    One thing I would like to know more about is the decision to locate Kentucky's I-24 Illinois-line welcome center at Whitehaven, off the third, east-bound exit into Kentucky. In deciding where to locate their pottery shop, my parents bet in 1975 on Cairo Road (the first Kentucky exit off the interstate, which was completed in 1980). Then they watched Kentucky Oaks Mall land on Park Avenue/U.S. 60 (the second exit) in 1983 and then the welcome center over by PCC in 1984.

    "It is the only historic house in America that has been restored as an interstate tourist welcome center." My dad was convinced this was absolute jive--that some old Confederates got bailed out with a huge tax break for their worthless, old home to be converted into a facility for "welcoming" the western United States seven miles after they actually got into Kentucky and three miles after they had all already stopped to use the bathrooms at Cracker Barrel. I'm pretty certain that my dad never set foot in Whitehaven. I went for the first time only a couple of years ago when I took my wife and daughter over to Paducah to explore; I will point out that the bathrooms were dreadful and nowhere near up to Kentucky rest-area standards.

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