I’m visiting some close friends in Boulder, Colorado right now and one of them has turned me on to a web site that lets guys get great, unique hand-crafted gifts for their girlfriends.

Etsy.com provides a way for craftspeople across the country to get their wares out to a wider audience, which means anything bought on Etsy helps support actual people rather than some larger conglomerate that imports cheap items from overseas and marks them up to maximize profit. So not only do you get to find completely unique hand-made items, but you’re doing some good as well in supporting small-time artists and craftspeople.

However, perhaps the best part of Etsy is the site itself. Users can search by several different categories, whether it be for different kinds of jewelry or items for the home, and users can even search by color. If a loved one has a certain motif that requires a limited range of colors to match up with everything else, the user is able to narrow down their choices to fit that particular color scheme.

Etsy also encourages web users to shop local. Being in Los Angeles, I can choose to search for items created by people in my area, and perhaps form relationships with crafts-makers that I particularly enjoy. If you do find something you like, it’s smart to see what else that person has made as there may be something that matches your taste.

It’s best to get your shopping done early on Etsy because shipping times may vary due to the fact that items aren’t shipped from a warehouse, but there’s no better place on the web to find something that is personalized, unique, and supportive of local and amateur artists and craftspeople.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 5:52 pmand is filed under Site Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.