Handmade Stories

I love handmade things in part because they come with stories.
Here is the story of what I made this morning. I incorporated it into the Etsy listing for the strap. Just so whomever was interested could read about it's creation.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70853670/powder-horn-strap-linen-cotton-homespun

 And alongside my strap in the photo, there is a beaded bag  made by a friend I met on Etsy who lives in North Carolina. If you want to read her story, you can visit her Etsy shop here.
http://www.etsy.com/people/misstudy   We made friends through our creative endeavors and Etsy shops. Now we cross promote by using the other's items in our photos and including the other's business cards when shipping orders. She and I have become part of each other's stories.

This necklace is at the top of my wish list, for sure. Here is the link to the  FusedNTwisted shop listing on Etsy it so you can read it's story.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70408430/ancient-mimbres-pottery-shard-pendant?ref=pr_shop
I met this jewelry creator, in a blog tune-up class. Now we look at each other's shops and blogs. It is not the only thing in her shop that I'd like to own, but it is the most compelling because of where that pottery shard came from. I want the piece and it's story!

Thanks to Facebook and Etsy last week, I came across the following stories which were both very entertaining. Here's a link to an article and video about Butch Anthony's Museum of Wonder.
http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/butch-anthonys-museum-of-wonder-12509/

And this great story about a knife-making tradition in France that goes back to the 1400's. Lovely to see tradition carried on. One of the gems of the story was about how the dogs helped!
http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/the-tradition-of-knife-making-in-thiers-12520/

And, if you haven't had enough, here is one final link to an Etsy treasury which I curated in early February, entitled "Tell Me a Story".
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d4dd2d188fd8eefe1b9159e/tell-me-a-story?index=3

Here is my curator's statement:
When you look at an item's photo, do you see a story?
What does the creator tell you in his/her description?
Each of these items was chosen for the story it tells.
One of them even comes with a YouTube video!
Happy discoveries await..............




P.S. Only a few days after writing this post, I found this nice interview over at CraftyPod about how important story-telling is for having a successful business. http://www.craftypod.com/2010/07/02/craftypod-118-why-your-story-is-everything-with-tara-gentile/