NYTimes writer Rob walker pofiles Etsy founder Robert Kalin and other members of the consortium behind the Handmade Pledge. I love this point about Etsy–I think it applies equally to all the popular craft sites:

“the luck or genius of the site is that Kalin and the other founders encountered in the D.I.Y./craft scene something that was already social, community-minded, supportive and aggressively using the Web.”

[Link]

NY Times Profiles the Handmade Phenomenon