Apr 6, 2010 
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When I first heard about Handmade Nation, I was over the moon. It was so exciting to me that such a thing existed, a book covering crafters all across America? Amazing that craftiness, in any form, has gotten to be not just socially acceptable, but cool. Obviously, if you’re here you have a taste for the slightly off-beat side of crafty, so you already know that knitting is rad and mod podge is something serious. The rest of the world doesn’t seem to know this though. Faythe Levine traveled 19,000 miles around America to talk to over 80 indie crafters about what they do and their take over a 2 year period |
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to make a documentary about it. In that time it spawned into a book, while the film came together.
This book opens with a timeline and gives a wonderful look into how ‘the new wave of craft’ came to be what it is today (like from Debbie Stoller’s first Stitch n Bitch in NYC in 1998 to when MyMy went live in 2005 and when Knitta Please bombed Houston, TX the following year. It is filled with photos and write ups of so many extremely talented independent crafters – hello My Paper Crane! There are also essays throughout it by even more crafters on everything from the internet to activism, craft fairs, and of course, the Church of Craft Some of my personal faves include Lekkner, Sublime Stitching, and Naughty Secretary Club (love them). Then there are all the crafters I hadn’t heard of yet that I fell in love with once I read this book like; KnitKnit, The Small Object, Made With Sweet Love and Blissen. Pairing perfectly with the movie, I am sure. I can’t wait to see it! |
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books, Faythe Levine, Handmade Nation, review
- Chad Harbach
. This I also take pretty much everywhere. Love!
