When I was a kid, 50 years ago now, Halloween was a fun but strange time.  I grew up in Brazil where All Saints Day was celebrated with visits to the cemeteries, but people did not dress up. There were about 20 American and Canadian missionary families in our city and we went to a…

Flowers have been a favorite motif ever since humans started decorating surfaces. Archeologists have found pottery, wooden carvings, woven remnants, and jewelry with ancient floral designs. And, why not? Once humans went beyond the function of something they made, they felt compelled to decorate it. This eventually became stylized into a language of its own…

I was thinking about the heart shape, wondering how it became the symbol for love. Clearly, the physical heart must have inspired poetry, ballads, and stories for thousands of years because of how it pounds in our chests when we think of the beloved, hold a child, face an enemy, take a risk or engage…

When we think of handmade items, whether they were made recently or a long time ago, we can feel a connection with a person or a community who worked on those pieces, stitching, carving, turning on a wheel...  We understand that each piece is unique, comes with a story and that is something to be…

Have you ever explored our site by country?  We have tagged all of our products with the country they were made in so that you…

As the cold weather blows through the Northern Hemisphere, we pull out our scarves, shawls and warm clothing. Some of it is practical, a barrier against cool temps, but a lot of it is also fun. There are two reasons I like Fall and Winter: I can wear my woolens (and other favorites) and I…

Decorating for the holidays is a huge deal for many people, with many bringing out treasures that have been handed down for generations. Ornaments and stocking stuffers can be great small gifts that delight young and old. But, just because something might be small in size, it doesn't mean that it is necessarily "cheap". The…

Surrounding a child with handmade products from an early age helps them make sense of the world, especially if they also learn how to stitch, paste, cut, weave and assemble. So many of the toys and products most children interact with have no real connection with nature or self-sufficiency, so parents and adults with children…

Is the desire for adornment an innate human drive? Most cultures seem to express their identities through their clothing, jewelry and hair styles, often messaging to the public their roles in society with what they wear. They might signal marital status, wealth, professions, cultural identity, and even subcultures born out of rebellion against those same…