Whether you are buying for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion, there are few gifts as meaningful and unique as handcrafted ones.

In fact, for hundreds of years, one of the most traditional, heartfelt and meaningful gifts that couples would give to each other were Welsh love spoons, with the earliest surviving example dating back to 1667.

With the rise of a cottage industry of handcrafted goods, here are some of the biggest reasons why you should give a unique, handcrafted gift to your loved ones.

High-Quality Goods

After the invention of mass production, handcrafted and traditionally crafted items were made almost exclusively by high-quality craftspeople who put their name to the products they make and their reputation is at stake with every item they make.

As a result, handcrafted goods have a level of love, care and creativity you do not see with mass-produced items, which by design need to be relatively simple to be made at scale.

Environmentally Friendly

Few gifts are as environmentally friendly as a lovespoon handcrafted limewood, sycamore or walnut. There are no heavy mass-production machines, no chemicals, plastics or other non-recyclable waste to worry about with a handcrafted item.

As well as this, handcrafted items last much longer, so there is less waste in disposing and buying something new as there would be with mass production.

One Of A Kind Items

Masters of their craft are creatively and artistically minded, meaning that every single item handcrafted by them will be unique and different yet maintain the utmost level of quality, care and love put into the product.

With many crafts, you can even step into their workshop and see them hard at work crafting. Some online stores even live-stream or film the process, providing a transparent look at how these beautifully finished crafts are made.