Review: Handmade Nation

Lack of decent sunlight has hindered me from taking good pictures of books for my weekly reviews — the results of which you can clearly see here (cringe!) Nonetheless, enough is enough, so sun or no sun, here’s this week’s book review!

When Faythe Levine travelled 19,000 miles around USA to document twenty-four artists from Olympia, Washington, Providence, Rhode Island and everywhere in between, the year was 2006. I was also one of those who believed I’ve found “my people” when I stumbled on the craft movement online in 2003. Of course, after 5 years, I realized that I wasn’t so much of a crafter. I was more of an artist — more adept at holding a brush than a needle, but I credit the handmade movement for raising my awareness to this global community.

So when I heard that Faythe was going on a tour around USA to interview crafters for her documentary, I was so excited. I waited, waited, and waited with bated breath for her documentary to come out. Of course, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design came out first in 2008 — a precursor to her film that launched in 2009, and because I’m more immersed in the illustration world than the craft world since 2007, it took me quite some time to get a hold of the book!

I know, I know. You guys are going to laugh at me for going back in time to review a book that has already been reviewed to death. But notice that I did say I was already aware of the craft scene since 2003, and hence a lot of names from the book stood out and brought back so many memories. It was way before the internet had Etsy, and before it was flooded with so many people. These crafters were so popular that everyone knew them by their first name!

Title: Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design
Paperback, 176 pages

I have a secret to share: Even now, I head to the websites of people like Sublime Stitching, The Naughty Secretary Club and My Paper Crane (I have a major crush on Heidi Kenney). I’ve seen so many shut down their operations since the 2004. I have a list of blogs and shops that inspired me to go on and try my hand at crafting (though I clearly sucked), and I felt like I was one of the first in my country to have stumbled upon this movement, it was all very exciting. The idea that someone could craft something hand-made and get money for it in return (and lost of appreciation as well!) was a beautiful thing — the world was a stage, and these new age crafters had a global audience to cater to.

I must confess that I haven’t watched the film yet — gasp! — but I am waiting for it to arrive on my shores (which takes a ridiculous amount of time, given this day and age). I think it should arrive in time for Christmas, by the look of it! Though I’m clearly excited, I keep telling myself that since I discovered this book only now, then it would be fitting to watch the movie one year later in 2011 (cough!)

The book is published by Princeton Architectural Press, and also features the lovely line drawings of Kate Bingaman-Burt (featured previously here and here.

My favourite spreads from the book has to be the time line of the whole movement, aka the new wave of craft that’s at the beginning of the book. Kate’s illustrated time-line shows when it all began — from the beginning of Venus zine and also www.getcrafty.com in 1994, to the birth of Etsy in 2006.

The book has short interviews with some of the crafters that she meets during her trip, and is based on footage and interviews from the documentary. There’s also a few articles by contributors such as Andrew Wagner, formerly the editor-in-chief of American Craft, currently editor-in-chief of ReadyMade magazine; and Callie Janoff, the co-founder of The Church of Craft. There’s lots of pictures of the artists’ studio and their work too, which is wonderful. The craft movement gained tremendous traction through the internet, and the speed at which it spread was astounding! People knew these artists by their business name, so it was tremendously fun to be able to see the the person behind the website.

For people like me who are familiar with more than half of the names featured in the book, the book may not be something new. But for those who just arrived on the scene, this book is great to get up to speed on who’s who, and to discover those who had a part in spreading the movement far and wide — across the USA, and across the globe.

Now if I can only get that DVD…

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Happy weekend everyone! I wasn’t able to unveil the new project that I was talking about this week — technical problems caused a bit of a hiccup, so next week it is! (I know, the suspense is killing me too!)