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| From plans to product, there is something magical in the making of craft products |
Whenever I sit down to work on a
craft project, I get a thrill of anticipation. With an idea of what I want to
create in my mind, I survey my materials – my felt, my embroidery thread and my
glass jars filled with ribbons and trinkets and buttons that I have collected
–and pick out what I need to my project. I gather up my treasures and lay them
on the kitchen table, admiring the colors, patterns and textures before me. I
pause for a moment, my hand's poised and ready, and then I dive in.
As I work I can feel myself relaxing
and thinking at the same time, constantly changing and altering my craft as I
go along. This process is full of challenges, triumphs, frustrations and
elation, but I can safely say that the joy and satisfaction that I get from
making my crafts exceeds that which I derive from the completed product. And it
turns out that I am not alone – through my research I found that some very
clever people have a lot to say on the act of making things with one's hands.
I began by looking at theories that
emerged at the time of the Industrial Revolution, when machines were beginning
to replace people in the process of production. The work of a philosopher
called John Ruskin began to reveal to me the individual and psychological
importance of making. He was appalled by the "mechanization of
labour" that the Revolution brought about because he felt
that factory labour separated the intellectual from the physical work,
limiting workers to mindlessly and repetitively performing one small part of
the process. He felt that this robbed people of their ability to create whole
works, and therefore robbed them of the ability to express themselves,
diminishing them from being creative agents to mere tools. He saw the need in
people to create works that, even if imperfect, could be invested with the
personality and humanity of the maker.
This opinion is echoed by David Gauntlett in his recent book Making
is Connecting (2011) where he says,
Making things shows us that we are powerful, creative agents – people
who can really do things, things that other people can see, learn from, and
enjoy. Making things is about transforming materials into something new, but it
is also about transforming one’s own sense of self
Gauntlett's work led me to the
writings of Richard Sennet, who explores the experience of crafting in his book
The Craftsman (2008). He emphasizes that working with one’s hands
enables simultaneous making, thinking and feeling, while fostering
self-identity and citizenship.
And then I had a little epiphany: crafting goes beyond merely
taking some raw materials and making something out of them. It is a personal
experience where the crafter is able to express a part of themselves through
their work. Holistic in nature, it unites the intellectual, the emotional
and the physical in the act of creation, engaging with the most human and
personal elements of the maker.
Looking at this, it is of little wonder that in a world where everything
has become disengaged, less personal, and less human – from digital
communication to impersonal, mass-produced products – we are once more yearning
for and returning to that which contains a human spark.
So I will continue to make, to benefit from the joys of crafting, while
hopefully sharing this joy with others as they too begin to participate in the
magical act of making.
