Craft It Forward

One of the things that I really love about Etsy is that so many of the sellers on there buy from each other. Then people use things they have bought in their own creations to sell. I've been calling it craft-it-forward. It is such a great thing!

Here is an example: I bought lovely fiber from Spincerely. I then spun it into yarn, which was purchased by iWonder. She then crocheted it into a lovely flower that is for sale in her Etsy shop. The flower is perfect for someone to use as an embellishment on a hat or other item. I think it would be so cool if someone bought it from her, used it to embellish a hat, and then posted the hat for sale on Etsy. And then if someone bought the hat for herself or to give someone a gift.

What a great thing! By the time someone has an actual finished product to wear, the parts have lovingly been created by several people. I wrote in another post about the threads of love that connect crafters and people who buy the crafts and how those threads spread across the world. This is another great example of that. I would love to create something to deliberately trace in this way. I have actually been thinking about buying fiber and asking for information on the origins of it (farm where the sheep were raised, etc), spinning it into yarn and listing the yarn in my shop for a low price, asking that the person who buys it uses it to make something else to sell for a low price and sends me information about what they make, asking the person who buys it from them to do the same, and so on until it gets to the finished product. Then everyone who had a part in taking it from the beginning to the finished product would get to see each stage and know who bought it in the end to wear.

This whole process is so much more personal than just walking into a store and buying something. It shows how much care artists and crafter put into their work. I just think that is such an awesome, powerful thing, especially nowadays, when we are so disconnected from each other in so many ways.