Thursday, November 20, 2014

Why I Like to Buy Handmade for the Holidays

Every year, the holiday season seems to creep up sooner and sooner.  Choosing the right gift can be a real challenge- especially for that one difficult person in the family.

For the past three years or so, I've been trying to find great gifts from small businesses, handmade artisans, and independent stores.  Yes, it can be pricier to buy handmade, but the value is much, much greater than anything you could find in a chain store. When you purchase a handmade item, you know that a real person poured their heart into making it, and you know that they loved it as much as you will.

Here are three of my favorite purchases and gifts from Etsy:




 This Mezzaluna from Living Iron Forge was a gift from my sister.  These are sometimes called "demi luna" cutters and are used by rocking the knife back and forth.  Being an herb gardener and cook, I find this tool much more useful than any knife I've owned when it comes to chopping herbs.  Living Iron Forge has other really great hand forged items to check out too, including some sporks I'm really digging!




These three felted Christmas ornaments came from Best Day Ever Design.  After a lot of searching for unique ornaments, I was so happy to have found these.  I have to say, the deer is my favorite, but the squirrel and bird are adorable too!  Best Day Ever Design carries these, as well as other ornaments and garlands, but they also have some awesome cake toppers including this bride and groom fox set.




This last item from Grah-Toe Studio was actually a gift to myself.  I'd been eyeing this hair fork for some time and eventually decided I had to have it.  This hair ornament was hand carved from a shed antler tine and works perfectly in my extra long hair!  It's always been a hassle to put my hair in a bun, but this makes it really easy.  Grah-Toe Studio has lots of exotic wood and antler hair accessories, and they were very helpful in figuring out the right sized fork I needed for my hair.

These are just some of the great finds I've made on Etsy.  Hopefully they'll make you consider buying handmade for the holidays too!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

God of the Forest Necklace- Copper Antler and Stone

"God of the Forest" Necklace- Chrysocolla, Copper, and Silver



Sketching, Making a Stencil, and Drawing the Shape to be Cut Out by Hand
Chrysocolla-  This Stone Looks very similar to Malachite with its Banding


After Sawing out the Outline of the Antlers

All Finished- Textured, Bezel Soldered, Tumbled, Stone Set, Oxidized and Polished
 Interested in purchasing this one-of-a-kind necklace?  It's for sale at Lithic Design on Etsy!

The holidays are coming up before you know it!  Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in a custom piece.  I'll have Christmas shipping deadlines posted to my main page in my shop announcement as we get closer to the 25th of December.

- Kaley from Lithic Design