Before Etsy became a platform, before algorithms decided what counted as “handmade,” there was chaos and brilliance in equal measure. Forum threads ran wild with arguments about beads and buttons, ethics and aesthetics. Listings were strange, hilarious, sometimes uncomfortably earnest—crocheted hats that looked like head wounds, zombie versions of the Golden Girls, cat toys shaped like body parts, and even a hummingbird feeder you could wear on your head. Some of these ended up on Regretsy, the beloved blog that celebrated craft and absurdity with affection rather than scorn. We loved it. I loved it. We were alive in the making, and the people who valued that showed up. I want to find that again. Who’s with me?
I remember when Rob Kalin used to post in the Etsy forums—not as a distant founder but as someone inside the conversation: earnest, opinionated, slightly awkward, undeniably present. Back then, “handmade” wasn’t just a category to click. It was a line people debated, sometimes heatedly, sometimes absurdly. Using a purchased component could spark pages of argument, and suddenly the forum was alive with philosophy, ethics, and laughter. Threads stretched on. Listings were weird and wonderful—and somehow always alive. It was messy. It was human. It was never dull.
It was in that milieu that my own shop, OneClayBead, became part of the conversation. Since 2009 I’ve been making and selling pottery, and in those early days I was featured in Etsy community spotlights and counted among the platform’s top ceramic sellers. But what we were really doing went far beyond sales. Those forums were a living, evolving manifesto. Making wasn’t just production—it was identity, resistance, joy, defiance. The intensity wasn’t about purity—it was about meaning.
So here’s the question I keep returning to: who wants to build this again? Not a platform. Not a brand. Not a business-as-usual marketplace. But a culture, a community, a shared commitment to why we make as much as what we make. Where curiosity, craft, and care are contagious. Where rules are debated, drama is human, and weirdness is celebrated. Where making something real—and having people show up to honor it—feels like a shared adventure.
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