The Hands in Handmade

What does it really mean for something to be "handmade"? 

Let's rewind for just a second to the early 2000's when the whole "handmade" thing really took off.  The rise of "slow" movements that started in the 80's really started to pick up steam in the early aughts, along with a growing backlash against corporate culture and globalization. People started feeling disconnected from where their stuff actually came from - everything felt sort of sterile and mass-produced. Social media and sites like Etsy made it possible for consumers to connect directly with makers in a way that they never had before. A cultural gestalt emerged that valued small batch, local, sustainable and handmade over mountains of mass-produced products that just seemed destined for a landfill.

Honestly, this was an amazing development for many a small business (like mine!), especially those who were creating their own products from scratch, so to speak. So many makers were able to create true brand empires that continue to this day, and are still paving the way for the rest of us. But true to the classic corporate playbook, once big brands saw how well "handmade" was working for small businesses, they started slapping it on their own products with increasingly creative interpretations of what it actually meant. The parallels to "green" and "natural" are hard to ignore. Just like how everything from cleaning products to snack foods suddenly became "natural" (even when packed with artificial ingredients), "handmade" became this magic word that companies threw around to tap into that desire for authenticity.  Seems like now, anyone can stick "handmade" on on something, even when it was mostly machine-made with maybe one person touching it at the end. Now when you see "handmade" on something, you kind of have to squint and wonder if it actually means anything anymore!

A woman making baskets by hand at a market in Oaxaca. These of course you KNOW are handmade.

I remember several years ago when I was in my first year of jewelry business school (yes that's a thing and I was in it for two + years!) one of my coaches saying, "don't even bother  saying your jewelry is handmade anymore, it doesn't mean anything to anyone!".  Well shit... it still means something to me! But, if I learned one thing in jewelry business school, it's that it doesn't always pay off to be a puerest, so I am not going to claim that everything I create is 100% hand made. I honestly have no clue how the clasps I buy from Italy are made? I can only assume it's by machine? And the bigger my business grows and the more demand increases, the more and more I'm investing in certain designs and having them laser cut or casted (a still mostly handmade process). Production is my biggest bottleneck!

Me and my best friend Tracey taking a small break from shopping at the Santo Domingo Market in San Cristobal, Chiapas Mexico.

So when I go to Mexico on one of my super FUN buying trips, this authentic version of "handmade" is what I really LOVE connecting with. If you keep up with me on social media, you know I just returned from a trip to Chiapas, Mexico where I loaded up on as many handmade creations as I could possibly stuff in my suitcases.

Here I am in San Cristobal, headed back to the hotel from the market with as much as I could carry!

Me stocking up at the workshop of Mariano in Chamula, who's been making custom leather bags for me for the past few years. 

 

Inspecting all the things I got back at the hotel.

Me feeling VERY relieved to make it all the way back to Portland with all my bags!
There are two more that you can't see in the photo!

When I share photos of the markets, the stacks and stacks of hand embroidered pillow covers for example, what I hope to communicate is that this is nothing like going to a curated tradeshow or massive retail wholesale event. These people, mostly women, make every single piece with their own hands.

More often than not, the wooly bags, cotton scarves or pom-poms smell like smoke from the wood they use to heat their homes.  This is the thing I love about truly handmade objects, they always bear the mark of the maker.

Rosa showing us the beautiful array pom-poms she made. If you haven't spent time in Sayulita where I've been living part time, it's hard to explain the pom-pom fever! 

We visited Rosa multiple days in a row, as she kept bringing new color combos to show us.

I know this photo is out of focus, but it really gives a fee for how narrow, maze-like and jammed with stuff these markets are!

The alchemical combination of human hands, intention, and skill infuse objects with qualities that mechanical reproduction cannot replicate - call it soul, life force, authenticity, or presence- it gives objects life. The ancient Greeks called this "poiesis", which literally means bringing something new into existence that wasn't there before. It's creative in the deepest sense - not just rearranging existing materials, but actually causing something to emerge.

 

A handful of Rosa's pom poms  that I brought home.

One of Mariano's Leather bag designs that we are working with.

We've been working with these women in Chamula for the past few years, the specialise in wool and raise all the animals themselves.

A beautiful, hand embroidered clutch. I can't even imagine how much work goes into this.

Each stall in the market is different, reflecting the different personalities of the makers themselves. Some are organized and everything is laid out by color or pattern, while others just have mounds of stuff that you have to dig through to find the goods. Often I will be at one stall for over an hour, combing through each piece, chatting with the vendors or listening to the soft sound of their conversations in their native language, Tzeltal.  

Kicking myself now for not buying this extremely tiny leather bag!

A scene from the big market in San Cristobal.

One of the most organized stalls we visited on our first day. I bought some beautiful blouses from them...

Hoping to get these online soon!

One of the many entrances to the Santo Domingo Market.

Here's Tracey at another market. We were on the hunt for these very elusive jute bags...
sadly we only found a few.

In San Cristobal, if the vendors are lucky, they get to have a spot in the Santo Domingo market, where they can cover their stall with tarps at the end of the day. Rosa who sold me these striped wool pillow covers (many of the indigenous women are named Rosa, at least that is their Spanish name which is rarely their first language) has been in the same spot for 29 years! But many of them carry what they make on their backs, selling their items on foot.

These striped wool pillow covers, will also be going online soon!

Me in Chamula negotiating over some amber, which is found abundantly in Chiapas.

Tracey making deals on the street as well for some colorful table cloths.

At the night market, a collective of makers who can't produce enough to qualify for the big market, schlep their wears in every evening at dusk. This is where where women like Filipa sell these colorful embroidered shawls called "robosos". She is one of only a handful of women who still use this weaving technique.

The Night Market in San Cristobal.

This beautiful, unique weaving done by Filipa at the night market. At this point in the trip I was beyond maxed out on what I could fit in my bags, so I only got a few! They are at the shop :)

Wherever you go in San Cristobal, someone is selling something they made and I feel such a deep resonance with these people in so many ways. The very first time I sold my jewelry in public, I threw down a blanket on the sidewalk at a street fair. It's such a humbling thing to do! And it really takes some guts to put your creations out there and say... "hey, do you want to buy this?". It took me years and years to not give an eff what anyone thinks of what I have to offer. 

This is the table at my first ever farmers market...maybe 15 years ago?? I made displays out of cedar shingles I found in the backyard of the house I was renting at the time. Sometimes it's god to look back so you can see how far you've come:)

The new shop stocked with all the new handmade goodies.

But most of all I just love supporting other makers who are really using their own two hands to create something. I love digging through piles of things to find the prettiest, most unusual pieces. I love the "life" that's infused in the objects themselves. I love chatting it up with the ladies and putting my Spanish to good use. And I love sharing all these things with all of you. 

I think my little shop is still too young to know what it is going to be when it grows up, but if all else fails and it's at least able to support future buying trips, then it will be a success:)