Lily and Carol clicked when they met years ago at work; and later discovered they share a birthday. Though they no longer work together, every year they connect on their shared birthdays. This year they found a “creative” way to celebrate….
with a room full of other “creatives” at Etsy.
Etsy defines creativity—it’s a name you probably know if you love crafts, art, vintage, anything handmade— an online marketplace and community for people around the world who are Etsy addicts admirers (the website has more than 400,000 active sellers; a billion hits in January alone.)
Etsy isn’t just online. Anyone can come Monday nights to Etsy Labs in New York, to create a project for free.
This week’s workshop was sponsored by the American Cancer Society and Meredith Publishing’s Craft it Forward program.
Experts from Scrapbooks, Etc. were on hand helping with birthday banners and birthday cards– designed to go to people who have stayed in one of the American Cancer Society’s 30 Hope Lodges during cancer treatment.
Crafting for this cause is especially meaningful— it’s hard to find anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer.
Said one woman whose father died of cancer, “We live in an incredibly expensive city with very few places you can come to do something for free—this is really an inspirational experience, especially when you can do something to help others.”
Though my mother came from Brooklyn, I hadn’t been there for years; and I learned a new name for Etsy’s neighborhood: DUMBO: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.
I could see it right outside Etsy headquarters—only no one else was looking out the window. They were all too absorbed—and that’s what I love about crafts. It occupies your hands, and your mind.
I know the truth of this from my own experience with cancer, which I explained in a spontaneous interview on Etsy’s livestream video at the event
More of a throwback to Etsy’s vintage theme, the lab has an old- fashioned photo booth (with digital technology). So Happy Birthday to Lily and Carol—and thanks to the crafters for helping create a world with More Birthdays.
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