Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What you have laying around

My number two pet peeve with crafting is Mason jars. (My number one pet peeve is useless crafts, but that's a discussion for another time.) There are dozens of adorable and artsy craft ideas that involve mason jars and I would love to make them... but I neither have Mason jars, nor can I seem to find them in any store I've been to.

These craft ideas start out the same way. They describe how cutesy and classic Mason jars are, how they remind people of summer, and I'm totally sold. And then, they tell you, "Using Mason jars you have at home" — and it all falls apart. Another craft is relegated to my browser bookmarks instead of to my craft planning.

I suppose there's just a culture difference between my experience and the majority of craft bloggers' — even though I'm in an extremely rural part of California, my town's population is literally half college students, and in between protesting and getting pepper-sprayed, we just don't have the time nor the interest to get into jam making. Mason jars simply aren't a household good here. Going out and buying them in order to make crafts seems to be the antithesis of the whole idea of Mason jars crafting. I don't think it's a coincidence that Google searches for "Mason jar" has continued to climb ever since the phrase "upcycle" spiked out of nowhere in the middle of 2010.

Perhaps the entire Mason-jar-craft-movement is a clever marketing ploy by the Mason jar-industrial complex: People see clever Mason jar craft ideas, then have to go out and buy them to make their homes look homey. If this is the case, I'm totally falling victim. Maybe I'll just start saving the jars from my store-bought jams to keep in touch with the roots of the idea. (Also, Christmas has made me broke.)

In the meantime... where can I find Mason jars? Because I need some.

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