The Best Gifts Aren’t Always The Ones You Expect: The Value of Handmade

Some people are easy to buy gifts for.

They have a wish list. They send you links. They tell you exactly what they want.

Then there are the people who seem to have everything.

Those are the hard ones.

You can spend hours wandering through stores or scrolling through websites trying to find something that feels just a little different.

Something they didn’t already buy for themselves. Something that doesn’t end up forgotten in a closet six months later.

We’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Maybe it’s because we’ve spent the past year making things that people can give to someone else.

And we’ve started to realize that the best gifts aren’t always the ones you expect.

Sometimes the best gift is something you didn’t know you wanted.

Take this chessboard Adam recently made.

At first glance, it’s a chessboard. But the more you look at it, the less ordinary it seems.

The blue resin almost makes it look like an ice shelf, with the chess pieces sitting on top of the ice. It’s not something you’re likely to walk into a store and find sitting on a shelf.

And that’s part of what makes handmade gifts interesting.

When you make something by hand, you’re not limited to what a manufacturer decided would appeal to the largest number of people.

You can make something unusual.

Something quirky.

Something that makes someone say, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

And sometimes that’s exactly what makes a gift memorable.

People remember the thought behind a gift.

Maybe it’s a scarf in someone’s favorite colors.

Maybe it’s a wooden piece that fits perfectly into their home.

Maybe it’s a chessboard for someone who has loved the game since they were a kid.

Maybe it’s something completely unexpected that simply makes you think, “This is so them.”

That’s what makes giving gifts so much fun.

You’re not just looking for an object.

You’re looking for the connection between the object and the person receiving it.

That’s one of the things we love about making things. That's why the best gifts are handmade

Oak & Skein started with two very different kinds of creativity. Adam works with wood and resin. I work with yarn.

At first, those things might not seem to have much in common.

But the more we make, the more we realize that they actually share something important.

Neither of us is just making an object.

We’re making something that might eventually become part of someone’s home, someone’s celebration, or someone’s story.

And we think that’s pretty special.

A handmade gift doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, sometimes the little imperfections are part of what makes it special.

It was made by someone.

Someone chose the materials.

Someone spent the time.

Someone had an idea and turned it into something real.

As we head into another season of gift giving…

We’re going to be thinking a little differently about what makes a good gift.

Maybe the perfect gift isn’t the most expensive one.

Maybe it isn’t the biggest one.

Maybe it isn’t even something the person asked for.

Maybe it’s the thing that makes you stop and think:

“I could see them loving this.”

Those might just be the best gifts of all.

We’re still figuring out exactly what Oak & Skein will become, but we’re enjoying making things that might someday become part of someone else’s story. If you’re interested in checking it out, we will be at Dilworth Park in Philadelphia this labor day weekend from 12-8 on Friday and Saturday and from 12-6 on Sunday.