apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Neat DIY idea! Not sure I'd shell out the $$ when it would only take a few spare minutes to make, but I suppose some people don't even have 5 minutes free time...

If there was as much Pottery Barn on here as Etsy, there would be a huge outcry...

Well the difference here Patrick, is that Etsy is made up of many shops where people sell handmade things. Pottery Barn is one mass produced shop. I don't think the two compare.

Handmade matchboxes. We need these. We need these to be handmade.

I think Etsy is fine and all a concept, but not everyone makes something worth having or looking at, to the extent that we all must know where to find it if we do want it. There's a lot of the In/Out list posted by Maxwell the other day that suggests we're going to be seeing more Etsy than less - it seems to be an assignment of the bloggers to find something you wouldn't think you'd find on Etsy (not a painting or a pair of earrings). Quality and relevance should still apply, but these are important matchbooks. We've never seen something so stupid, oh yes we have. Cute, made you look, wow where did you get those? ETSY! We were looking all over town for these and it turned out someone on Etsy sells them, isn't that unique? Wow, I thought they were just knitted hats with ears on them and odd "retro" mobiles! I'll have to check that out!

Wow.. grouchy new year huh?

Laura--

I'm aware that Etsy is made up of a variety of crafters. But there IS definitely an "Etsy aesthetic"... illustrative, slightly feminine, organic, often avian, and very often first-year kind of typographic studies.

And the site is awash with Etsy aesthetic (AND Etsy links and references) to a degree that I felt it fair to finally comment on.

I don't think grouchy is the right adjective. People like to just dismiss things with one word, but I have to wonder what appeals to you about this Etsy product and Etsy-aesthetic (to the degree that it's 98% possible to pick the Etsier things out of a line-up of things not sold on that site) accessories to better living in general. It's a matchbook covering. Is it too marvelous? Is the encouragement of nonsense really too important if it's handmade? I guess some people need these things, to live in a just-so world. I don't think I'm grouchy, certainly not in the new year, certainly not usually. It provides a little entertainment to me to question the necessity of ridiculous things. Is handmade a quality of a particular item that I should respect, regardless of its utility or price, or how important you think it is to spend any amount of time re-papering your matchbooks so you don't have to support the crafter? Is that just grouchy? I think you don't have a good answer to support your argument, so you just say it's grouchy.

Wait, what? What was my argument? My argument was that etsy is not the same thing as pottery barn. I said nothing about the featured product at all. I'm not personally going to buy these but who cares if someone does? I just think it's odd to knock etsy. That's like knocking craigslist or ebay.. its a group of sellers. Maybe your problem is not with etsy but what AT and other bloggers choose to highlight from there. I don't know. I still think you're both being grouchy.

I get my matchbooks from restaurants I go to. They're free, and I find their various designs look very interesting when they're all piled together. I'm not sure why I'd pay money for matchbooks that, while cute, don't have nearly the same pizazz.

"Certainly not usually"

Um, okay.

Laura--

I was not knocking Etsy at all, but I *was* commenting on a creeping trend on AT for all things Etsy. I counted three Esty-focused posts just today.

I found leather strap-on apperatices at Etsy while searching "Z". I don't think Pottery Barn sells those...

Pottery Barn sold some pretty funny leather napkin rings that, um, did not at first glance look like "napkin" rings.

And they were from the aptly named "Folsom" line.

hahaha, love it.

I don't think I'd buy those things, and I don't have a problem with etsy or pottery barn.

And maybe I am nonsensical, but I did my own matchbox cover,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12721467@N02/3059189398/in/set-72157602167088268/

It took all of maybe five minutes with a gluestick, a piece of stationary and the lightweight cardboard insert from inside the box of matches themselves. I just thought it looked nicer than the standard red&blue diamond grocery store matchbox cover.