About half a year ago, craft association Amata created a Virtual Craft Village (www.puebloartesano.es, in Spanish and English), to offer their members an alternative to all the craft markets that had been cancelled because of Covid.
Ever since then, they have been improving their Village, moving in more workshops, tutorials and even virtual fairs. And now, on the 15th of February, they have introduced one single cart to do your shopping in all the different craft shops.
The “normal” Amata-fairs are well known, because the participants are only allowed to sell their own work, and most of them are at work in their stalls. To maintain this special atmosphere of craftsmen and artists at work, they started a Virtual Village, where all residents invite you into their workshops to share with you the love they have for their crafts.
This makes their website into quite something more than a mere online store: it is a complete village with many delightful corners.
They have made videos to show you the different techniques, tools and materials they use in their workshops. You can follow simpel craft classes or visit the virtual fair. And, last but not least, you can buy original hand made products for very reasonable prices, because you buy straight from the artisan or artist. You can even place special orders!
Up till now, there were no shopping carts in the village: if you wanted to buy from two different artisans, you had to go to their individual shops online, or even get in touch with them by phone or email.
That has now been made much more simple: you can put all your purchases in one shopping cart and pay everything together in one go. Taxes and post&package inside Spain are included in the prices and if you buy for more than € 50 in total, you don’t have to pay the € 4 handling charge.
Of course, buying in an actual street market, where you can see and talk to the artisans in person, is much more fun, but as for the moment these are all cancelled, a visit to the virtual craft village of Amata is the nearest thing! You have the guarantee nd it has the advantage, that you can go there whenever you want and wherever you live!
