If there’s a Ryan Gosling fantasy for everyone, it’s only fair that the handmade community gets one, too.
For Ashley Ray, the Etsy seller behind Handmade Ryan Gosling, the handsome actor is also a crafter in her personal daydreams.
“I’m in the midst of the holiday shopping and selling season, and I kept thinking of funny things that my own Ryan Gosling might say to me, like ‘Another all night sewing session? I know, I know, you’ll sleep in January,’” she told the Daily Dot in an email.
The 34-year-old Chicagoan was first inspired to start her blog by another Gobslr– Feminist Ryan Gosling. Since the star is the subject of many of her crafter friends’ crushes, she decided to join in on the fun.
“I created a few posts for it and then wrote to my friends Allyson, Lily and Katie, and they helped me get it started by coming up with some hilarious posts of their own, and telling their friends about it,” she said.
Once Ray posted a link to the blog on the Etsy forums though, the blog snowballed. She now has 600 followers and counting.
“[The Etsy community has] shared it like crazy and have begun submitting ideas in droves,” she said. “A couple Etsy Admin folks have shared it or told me directly that they liked it, and yeah, at that point my head exploded. I’m not sure when I’ll come down from the high!”
Ray didn’t think much about it when she started her blog, but the 34-year-old mom weighed in on Ryan Gosling’s appeal when we asked. Why does Gosling fit so seamlessly into the role of a dreamy biostatician, feminist, librarian or, well, crafter?
“Obviously he’s a good-looking dude, but beyond that, he seems to have a great sense of humor, an interest in the less mainstream aspects of our world– without being pretentious about it– and, yeah, a sensitivity that is really appealing,” she said.
And as to what he might sell in his own Etsy store?
“Maybe he’d have a shop that’s a spinoff of his band – something that combines music with elements of ghost stories or the macabre. Or—dog photography!”
