Handmade Stories — Listen to stories sharing the value of craft at handmadestories.se
In the current era of technological development, with an abundance of industrially produced things — what is the value of craft?
What is the value of carving wooden spoons, when we have enough spoons already? What is the value of repairing a broken sweater, when we can buy a new one and save time? What is the value of spending time digging up and shaping clay, when we don’t know why?
Handmade Stories is about giving insights into crafts through the voices of others. These stories share how sewing a piece of clothing from an old sheet can bring confidence to build a house, how using a handmade dish towel and hearing knitting needles can bring connections across generations, how wood from a single tree, wool from a herd of sheep and clay from the roots of the forest can bring relationships between people and nature.
The project explores how craft can bring connections between people and nature for sustainability, by asking: what is the story of something handmade that you value?
Kajsa’s repaired sweater. Courtesy of Kajsa Larsdotter.
When you have a friend who has sheep, whom you’ve met and cuddled with and such, and then you knit a sweater out of yarn from these sheep, and then you can go back to them and hug them with their own wool. Then it is really locally produced.
Excerpt from Kajsa’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 10 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Simon’s carved ladle from the garden pear tree, towels made by his grandmother, and a family photograph of his grandmother’s sister and her husband, standing in front of the pear tree (left in photo) in 1949. Courtesy of Simon Jonsson.
To me, these are the best dish towels. But it’s really the whole feeling and just because it’s my grandmother who made them, and I think of her every time I use the towels. So that makes them the best dish towels in the whole world.
Excerpt from Simon’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 15 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Camilla’s knits and photographs of Camilla with her mother and aunt Olga in 1999 and 2000. Courtesy of Camilla Guzmán.
It feels like it was tía Olga who invented knitting in our family, who began knitting, and now I sit here and can knit, thanks to her really.
Excerpt from Camilla’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 6 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Cristina, to the right, wearing her first handmade garment, photographed by her mother Gerd Uhlén in 1981. Courtesy of Cristina Uhlén.
The fact that I started sewing, painting, and crafting; maybe that’s also what made me dare to throw myself into things, to which I know that I’m probably a little handy after all. So maybe I can even manage to build a house, with what that implies, to lay floors and paint and all that — and I did!
Excerpt from Cristina’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 7 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Sebastian’s craft of natural clay, signed with his initials. Courtesy of Sebastian Orehovacki Månsson.
For me, it’s very much about being able to do something just because I want to. No matter how strange others may think it is, to collect a lot of debris in nature and put it together. But I really feel that I can be myself for a bit. There’s just something in me that says ’this is what you should do’ and then I do it. And that feels like freedom, somehow.
Excerpt from Sebastian’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 5 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Noemi’s clothing from her parents, together with a postcard from her father about the story of the handmade vest to the right. Courtesy of Noemi Braun.
You can kind of have everything you want if you just make it yourself. Sometimes I look at way too expensive, super nice clothing, and if you just sit down and have the patience to try to do it yourself, you might be able to make it for less money, and also wear something that reminds you of this self-capability.
Excerpt from Noemi’s handmade story. Listen to the full story, 6 minutes, at handmadestories.se
Handmade Stories exhibited at Southern Sweden Design Days in Malmö, 19-22 May 2022.
Handmade Stories exhibited at Southern Sweden Design Days in Malmö, 19-22 May 2022.
Handmade Stories exhibited at Southern Sweden Design Days in Malmö, 19-22 May 2022.
Handmade Stories exhibited at Southern Sweden Design Days in Malmö, 19-22 May 2022. Photography by Nathalie Hosari.
