tanisalexis

thank you so much for adding joe the rabbit. xo

both joe and I are often lost in thought about eco practices,
how to improve/obtain eco-supplies (always an evolution..)
as well as sometimes getting our fur in a flurry about scary marketing techniques such as Greenwashing. it's happening. eek.

Conscious consumerism my friends! XO!

EcoKate

This is something I've been grappling with and somewhat denying for a while now: handmade by itself doesn't equal eco-friendly. You're 100% right though. There's got to be more thought and effort put into the materials we use, how they were produced, etc. While I can't see a way in which anything can be 100% environmentally friendly without major socio-political, production and consumer changes, I do see your point that it's always good to continually challenge ourselves as crafters by upping the green anny. Thanks for putting these thoughts out there! I will certainly take it as a personal challenge to continually look for ways to make my small business ever more eco-friendly!

ashhilton

Autumn, this is such a great article, thank you so much. As a jeweler, I was terrified to take a long, hard look at where my supplies were coming from, part of that 48% mentioned above. When I did, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought and I was able to come up with really good alternatives.
Also, make little changes. Stop using paper towels and regular light bulbs. Use every single scrap of sandpaper. Re-use tape, electrical tape sticks over and over. Quit your dryer. Buy things that are local and more expensive.
When I'm tempted to buy something cheap that's made in China, I remember that doing so is really selling someone's local manufacturing job. Someone that won't be able to buy jewelry if they loose their fairly paid job to someone being paid a terrible wage overseas.

laurabucci

Good article and good questions to ponder. I find it quite challenging to create my things with all local materials or to buy all supplies locally...sometimes I can't find a local distributor or things are more expensive here. Nevertheless, I continue to search for materials locally and hope to transition to organic materials soon.

erinzam

This is an excellent topic, and one that I've thought about frequently. Thanks so much for addressing it!

stringtheory

Thank you for your thoughtful comments! This part of the article was needed to get a grasp on our situation, but I'm much more excited about giving you ideas for solutions in Part 2! Happy Earth Day :)

avenuehandmade

I, too, have been grappling with this issue. Thank you for such a well-written, thought-provoking article, and for providing such extensive resources! Can't wait for part 2.

cloud9designstudio

Thought-provoking article, indeed. Thanks for sharing....

paperstories

What the Wiki article on Michaels fails to mention is their deplorable practice of creating huge amounts of waste. Currently the Michaels stores have a policy to throw away any left over materials from craft classes along with any items that do not sell. Perfectly good unused supplies are being tossed into the dumpster without regard for the vast amount of waste they are generating. They claim it is because they have a return policy that allows anyone to bring any item back without a receipt. If they were to give away or donate the items, people may try to return them. Instead of adjusting their return policy they would rather see their products in the garbage.

My husband is a high school art teacher and has students who work at a local Michaels. They have been trying desperately to get discarded supplies from Michaels donated to local art programs instead of thrown in the garbage. Michaels refuses to adjust their return policy and will not even allow employees to take home these throw away items. The items thrown away are not just little bits of paper or ribbon but rather whole boxes of pen & ink sets or boxed Circut die cutting machines.

In my opinion Michaels is a retailer that should be boycotted for its irresponsible practices.

stringtheory

Interestingly enough, 75% of crafters who took my survey shop at Michaels "often". Thank you for sharing, paperstories.

paperstories

yikes. if only more people knew....

plenox

What a thought provoking article. It is something I really haven't given enough thought too. I'm looking forward to the follow up. And what an interesting story about Michaels. What a waste. You would think they would want to get the good vibes that come from donating and could use it for PR purposes if nothing else.

sandinista

Thank you so much for a great article series! As someone who works in private equity, I wanted to share an alternative perspective on the forces at work and what we can do to improve the situation.

As you say, "our rapidly growing sub-culture is spending large chunks of cash at retail stores that barely cater to our interests, contribute little to our community projects, and carelessly market unsafe products."

This is true. To be honest, I think this is more a result of ignorance, inertia and limited green product availability than any villainous agenda.

There is often a perception that corporations and private equity firms know about eco-conscious products but choose to withhold them because this is better for the bottom line.

To be candid, the reason that major crafting chains are not offering many green products is probably because they don't realize that competitive products exist and that a sizable portion of their customers would buy them. Your crafter survey is great work in this regard because numbers are so powerful when it comes to revealing the size, preferences and buying power of a community.

So what can we do? As you mentioned, many of us (especially outside of big cities) rely on the major national craft chains. Plus, upcycling can work great for things like fabric, but some supplies like thread and glue will probably almost always be bought new.

Let’s begin by assuming that corporations want to serve us, because we are a large and growing constituency. Let’s assume that they don’t have all the information they need to make important stocking decisions. Let’s also assume that other crafters – Girl Scout leaders, grandmas, etc – also want non-toxic products just as much as we do.

A petition approach targeted to a store or type of owner could be less effective than sales-oriented approaches targeted to specific products we want to see more of. Educational efforts focused on passionate crafting communities as well as more mainstream audiences could have a strong positive effect on reshaping consumption patterns. So too could starting our own businesses to be the change we want to see in the world – as small business crafters, but also as manufacturers and distributors of the green products we want to see.

Thanks for starting this important conversation!

BOOTLEG

great article, makes me think about my own stuff. i use all recycled fabric for my wristbands, the only thing that is not recycled is the velcro which I buy at the craft store. Pretty much all of my thread was inherited from my aunt so I rarely buy any thread...does that count? ha.