I've been sent this link by about three different people, so I know it's making the rounds... but it's evidence that the made-by-hand movement is picking up momentum when it gets a feature in the New York Times. Check out the story here. (The NYT site requires registration, but it's free.) The writer spends much of the article talking about etsy.com, which isn't surprising, given its rising popularity among both sellers and buyers of handmade work. 

I'm thrilled to see made-by-hand gaining popularity — the number of friends who have told me that they're not buying presents this year, but making them instead has surprised me. Not because I don't think my friends are creative, but because when things get hectic around the end of the year, it's just easier to run out and buy something. Making things by hand requires forethought, and planning, and time set aside weeks and even months in advance... but then, all of that goes into the best kind of gift to receive. I don't think that the growing number of people who are making things rather than buying them is a result of our individual budget limitations, because there's no limit to the amount of cheap goods that one can buy at short notice, and buying ingredients can often be more expensive than buying prepackaged, finished items. But cheap also all too often equals cheaply made, and I like to think that that's much of what's fueling this resurgence of handcrafts. A dissatisfaction with the impersonal and cheaply made goods that fill the shelves of mega-stores, the same plastic items that you can find in every mega-store anywhere in the world.

So, is a return to personal, handmade goods a rebellion against the consumer society that swung a bit too far in the direction of mass production? I like to think so. And I hope that my family members enjoy the boxes of cookies that I'm sending out for the holidays this year!