Craft

This year I was eager to put my (limited) knowledge of Google SketchUp to work designing our family's gingerbread masterpiece... our fifth entry in the Wilmot Gingerbread Contest.

One nasty habit of SketchUp that I found particularly annoying for this task, was the way it joins pieces together as you extend or overlap them. I was hoping for a parts list at the end of the design that I could use when baking, and following the tutorials wasn't getting me there. To get around this, I found that creating each piece separately and then turning it into a component would allow me to place the piece in the model without having it become part of the other pieces. In the end, I looked over the list of components for my list of pieces to bake.

I took the pledge and was number 31594 on the list! This gift-giving season (or anytime) is a great time to give handmade items. Why?

It's good for people (i.e. your community), good for the environment and the quality is usually better. You can even buy on-line at a site like:

http://www.etsy.com/

So get out there... find a store that sells works from local artisans and support it with your purchasing dollars. Buy something from a church bazaar, can you ever have too many doilies? Ask at your local yarn store for someone that can knit custom sweaters or socks (like these awesome Drupal ones). Better yet, investigate your local arts scene to find items you never knew existed. One-of-a-kind makes a great gift.

Check out the http://www.buyhandmade.org website for a growing list of people that have pledged to buy handmade items!

Updates:
2008/12/04: I stumbled on a link for a store that looks cool. Check out RareFunk at 8 Duke St. E in Kitchener. I've never been there, but with a name like that, how could it not be a great place!?

2008/12/10: The Waterloo Chronicle this week had a short article on the Stitch n Kitsch group. This looks interesting. Quite a few of the members sell their wares on-line at Etsy as well.

2008/12/11: If you're in Toronto, you could attend the "City of Craft" show on Dec 13, 2008. Looks like they'll have lots of interesting vendors.