Pretty stuff in response to un-prettiness

Have you seen the political cartoons that Pulitzer-Prize-winning artist Steve Breen drew, using actual oil spilled during the Deepwater Horizon debacle? They're pretty awesome, in a strange way. I mean, they look just like cartoons drawn with the usual sort of ink, but they're drawn with gasoline-infused tar balls gathered from oil-spill-encrusted beaches. Breen literally made something pretty from something not-so-pretty, to creatively draw attention to a bad situation.

So in the spirit of using art and craft to fight bad with good, if in a not-so-literal way, I put together a treasury on Etsy today, featuring crafters/artists who are donating some or all of the profits of the featured items to a Gulf-Coast-related charity. (There's even one seller who appears to be donating more than the item price. Not sure how that works, but hey, if you have the funds ... ;)) Check it out (click the image to visit the treasury):


If you're feeling kindly, help give the treasury a bit of exposure by leaving a comment and clicking on some items. and if you buy anything, let me know! I'll give you a shout-out here on the blog, in a follow-up post, or something like that.

There's also a super-limited-edition version of my Waves of Compassion Gulf charity shawl pin in the Help the Gulf Coast Etsy shop — thanks to the organizers of HGC for accepting my item into the exalted ranks of those who have helped raise more than $8,000 so far for OxFam America and the National Wildlife Federation.

If you have any desire to donate your own item to Help the Gulf Coast, head over there right now (or, well, as soon as you can ;)) and fill out the donation form. They're only accepting donations through July 31.

And if you haven't already voted on the poll in my last post, I'd love to have your opinion on my philosophical blather. Just a couple of clicks to help a poor craft blogger...? ;)