“I like to think that today's handcraft interest is helping us all to re-learn how to live with our hands and our hearts. I know it shows me how to slow down, use all my senses, surround myself with beauty, do something I love, and need less. My hope for everyone is that handcraft becomes a core guiding part of daily life rather than a temporary refuge from daily electronic chaos.
The back-to-the-land movement had many of us learning rural skills that were commonplace only a generation before. Today, the so-called maker spaces popping up, especially in urban areas, are similar to exercise gyms that have taken the place of what were daily activities necessary to simply live in an unplugged world. Unfortunately, most of these maker spaces focus on providing lots of power equipment rather than quality space and opportunity for people to come together to build community and openly share their passion and ideas for handcraft.
Typically, workshops have been relegated to dark, uninspiring basements or out back, isolated from daily life and family. But I am an advocate of having spaces for handcraft right in the middle of our most active living spaces. This is especially important for children. Handcraft activity in the center of a house quickly becomes the place to be – a place full of creativity, excitement, shared learning, and love.”
– Excerpt from "A Partnership with Nature: An Interview with Peter Lamb" in Issue Seven, available here.