Craft supplies NOT made in China?!?!

[NoliMum]

It seems like everything at craft stores are imported. I decided to try making things for my daughter to play with to avoid buying MIC toys, but then it turns out that the supplies are MIC anyway.
Wooden pegs for peg people, wooden blanks like stools and birdhouses, felt, and fabrics are all from China!! I mean, every single bolt of fabric I looked at was MIC.

: I am beginning to think, "What is the point of even trying??"

Anyone know where to get USA or European made craft supplies?? My local Jo-Ann's is just not cutting it.

[leafylady]

You may have to learn how to craft some of these things yourself. Start with whittling wood, fairly low tech and lots of books at the library.

You can take up weaving or knitting. You'll find plenty of North American raised sheep wool and handspun yarn online. There are lots of free knit and crochet patterns available online too.

There are recipes for milk based paint that you can use to paint the wood items that you learn to whittle.

I doubt you can find inexpensive fabric that's not MIC, but you could recycle fabric from 2ndhand curtains and sheets and sew them into new toys. You would at least be re-purposing mass produced goods and supporting the local re-sellers.

[LilMama23]

IKEA carries some crafty items in the children's section, and as far as I know they are all Swedish-made.

[E.V. Lowi]

http://www.achildsdream.com/arts_crafts_kits/index.htm

[NoliMum]

leaflady Actually I've been bouncing whittling around in my head lately... I'll definitely be looking into it soon. Thanks for the other suggestions too.

E V Lowi I was hoping for some more affordable crafties though. A Child's Dream is a great website, but I can't buy much on there. 24 crayons for $50!??! I am trying so hard to keep our products natural, but at prices like this unfortunately it's Crayola for us.

LilMama23 Actually IKEA has a lot of stuff that's made in China. You have to look at the labels on everything there. I bought some wooden utensils (59 cents a pop!) and was disappointed when I got home and saw that it was MIC. I will look at their craft stuff and see if anything's made elsewhere..

[leafylady]

A lot of the waldorf toys do use wool and wool felt, which you can easily find from North American sources on Etsy, Ebay, or your local yarn shop.

[E.V. Lowi]

Originally Posted by NoliMum

E V Lowi I was hoping for some more affordable crafties though. A Child's Dream is a great website, but I can't buy much on there. 24 crayons for $50!??! I am trying so hard to keep our products natural, but at prices like this unfortunately it's Crayola for us.
.

This is why everything comes from China. Products not made by slave or child labor are more expensive. If consumers are not willing to pay more for goods made elsewhere, fair trade, WAHM, and other equitable situations, the situation you are complaining about will only become worse as these smaller more expensing fairtrade companies struggle to compete with cheap Chinese goods. Hope you find what you are looking for.

[NoliMum]

Originally Posted by E.V. Lowi

This is why everything comes from China. Products not made by slave or child labor are more expensive. If consumers are not willing to pay more for goods made elsewhere, fair trade, WAHM, and other equitable situations, the situation you are complaining about will only become worse as these smaller more expensing fairtrade companies struggle to compete with cheap Chinese goods. Hope you find what you are looking for.

We are trying, little by little, to select quality items that are not produced with slave labor or sweatshops. It is hard to go cold-turkey, though, when you have a budget with little to no leeway. In some cases, like food, it simply cannot be all or nothing. In other cases, like the crayons, we can choose to simply avoid buying crayons all together. Sometimes it's hard to make that choice, but we try to keep to our principles.

Anyway, I will be felting wool sweaters from the thrift shop until I can afford to buy natural wool. I am taking a free class at the hardware store to learn a little about woodwork so that I can (hopefully) make my own wooden toys. And I am recycling DD's old clothes to make dolls.

More tips for non-MIC and sustainable craft supplies please!! :

[leafylady]

You can also recycle broken crayons. You should be able to google it to find out what temp to re-melt at. We did it last Valentine's day, to make heart crayons to put in school Valentines. There are plenty of people with broken crayons lying around.

When you can't buy new, I think it is always valid to re-purpose, like you are doing with the wool sweaters and your child's clothing. There are so many library books on this type of crafting too.

[E.V. Lowi]

If you are ok with used, there are always lots of crafting items at the Goodwill and other thrift shops.

Some cheaper types of crayons have been found to have unacceptable amounts of lead, so be cautious when shopping for price. The Stockmar crayons are nontoxic, by the Euro standards, which are very strict and they last a long time. They are very good value, even if the price is steep. I wish you the best of luck in finding safe craft supplies for your family.

[brittneyscott]

I've been trying to do the same things here for our family and have the issue with the budget. We have some extra money but trying to transition from the lifestyle we had (before I knew) to a more natural safer environment is expensive. Its a step-by-step process for us. I find as much stuff as I can at flea markets and second hand shops here. I've found tons of great wooden toys this way for fairly cheap prices. I get some yarns and fabrics at Salvation Army, etc. Garage sales are a thought. Just put the word out what you're looking for. I gave my name & # to all the shops with "looking for wooden toys, natural, locally made products". I've found local honey too @ $5 a jar. An old man working with DH said to bring examples of the wooden toys I wanted and we'd work out a price! I'm making him a long list now!

[Think of Winter]

There is currently a coop happening on the Trading Post for this stuff:
http://www.caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen-cart/
The site does not say where the wood is manufactured, but it might be worth asking. The prices are very good.