the watch of time

The year-end holiday season is the ripest time of the year for most retailers, providing more customers the chance to satisfy their gift buying goals.

While the ‘bricks-and-mortar’ version of the typical retail establishment has become increasingly usurped by on-line alternatives, there remains an important factor in favour of the former: the tactile experience of checking out items in the flesh. There are times you need to feel or examine a potential purchase before being truly satisfied the cost/benefit analysis works in your favour. (This doesn’t include the distressing, new phenomenon affecting the delivery of on-line purchases, wherein these are becoming increasingly subject to theft if left outside residences of absent purchasers.)

For the engaged buyer wanting the option of selecting items of a more artistic, even ‘one-of-a-kind’, nature, craft shows continue to be popular, especially with older adults.

Indeed, the desire for individual expression in arts collecting or giving seems to provide steadfast support for these venues.

A visit this week to such an annual event being held for its 43^rd year displayed its usual variety of wares, but the focus remained on a traditional, hand-made line-up: jewelry, pottery, bags & belts, sculptures, paintings & prints, blown glass ornaments & other seasonal decorations, and so on, plus foodies such as jams & jellies, dips, and of course chocolate & other treats.

What seems to be missing in these shows is a bent to modern innovation. Where are the crafty concepts mixing social consciousness with evolving technology?

Such as…

• Animated paintings, with scenes which can be rotated in an episodic way, for those who enjoy binge watching
• 3D printed cooking utensils, so style and dimensions can be altered on-site to the customer’s preferences
• Flavoured beverages distilled from garbage dump leftovers
• Jewelry made of recycled bottle caps and soda cans, retaining their colours for an ‘authentic’ look
• 100% Canadian, reusable, non-shedding tree sourced, needle tooth picks and decorative mini-fences
• Handcrafted & scented, distinctive garbage can covers
• Bacon & chicken scented towels and blankets, for dogs or cats who will be visiting pet hotels
• Shakers of granulated insect parts, approved for consumption by wilderness survivors
• Children’s building blocks, made from fused, discarded pens
• Pens made from discarded children’s building blocks

We’re talking arts here, so only the limitations of the mind and know-how are holdbacks.