Made by Hand

Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throw Away World

I'm a creator by nature and consider myself a bit of a DIYer. I always have to be doing some sort of craft and my life has been filled with projects from knitting sweaters to painting huge canvasses, from sewing quilts to hemming my own clothes, from building bookshelves to gardening to scrapbooking to making soap and candles to spending hours in a dark room (which has now been turned into hours on photoshop). But I can honestly say that for all these projects, only a handful were done in order to fulfill a need. The projects keep me curious and entertained, they turn into but they aren't necessarily done in order to reduce a reliance on mass produced goods. Much of the time, if I need something, I buy it rather than build it. Why?


While reading Made by Hand this past weekend. Why not make something myself? Much of the time it's because it's quicker and easier to just buy it, or I think that I can't make it myself. But the essence of Do It Yourself culture boils down to the idea that if you can't make it yourself, is it a necessary item, or is it as satisfying of an addition to your home?


Frauenfelder realized that the stress and spin of daily life is grating. But by simply doing things for yourself - things you don't think you can do - you can seriously slow down, and find so much more joy, satisfaction and time, in your day. He writes that many people skip making things for themselves because of fear - a fear of failure, or of not knowing that something can be done by hand.


Made By Hand is a wonderfully inspiring read and makes turning to a make-centric way of life feel not only approachable, but utopian. Coming out on May 27, 2010, you can grab a copy on Amazon for $17.

The reviewer also posted:

So after reading the book, I made a list of all the things I have thought about doing, but haven't done yet out of fear of messing up, impatience, or laziness.


1) Make my own yogurt
2) Sew a shirt
3) Make preserves from local berries
4) Make my own bread
5) Whittle something really cool, though I haven't decided what yet
6) Re-sole my boots

In looking at the list, I feel pretty good. I've done the yogurt, preserves, bread and tried whittling. Repaired a shirt but never sewed one. Repaired my shoes but never resoled them.

The only things I fear doing myself is working with electricity. Not a fear of failure but a fear of electrocution.