In the age of the Internet, crafting is no longer the exclusive domain of artists and artisans. Through platforms such as Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Etsy, online tutorials and communities have invited millions of hobbyists to take up crafting, from knitting to embroidery to tapestry to ceramics. But can the accessibility of knowledge entirely explain the popularity of crafting? Or does this contemporary surge in interest hint at something deeper? Perhaps in an age when the American population feels increasingly disenfranchised by its government, when the country is split down the middle along political lines, to create is a means to reclaim power.
The practice of craft is base; with roots in early civilization, it has carried through history in many forms that represent humanity’s resourcefulness, our capacity to survive and thrive in an often-barren world. Perhaps people feel a certain satisfaction after making something useful for themselves, whether a clay mug or a winter scarf. Perhaps crafting allows us to craft our own identities, uncluttered by commodities and filled instead with unique objects that individualize our lives, reminding us of our values, passions, and beliefs. Alternatively, crafting could be a way to escape our lives by losing ourselves in the rhythm of making.
In this fractured and distanced culture, both metaphorically and literally, crafting has become a means to build community. Last year, for their exhibition Each/Other at the Denver Art Museum, the artists Cannupa Hanska Luger and Marie Watt invited anyone around the world who was willing to participate, asking volunteers to embroider a personal message or image onto a bandana. The artists then turned these components into a large-scale, communal work expressing human kinship, with one another and the environment, as a collective, corrective, and restorative process. Virtual sewing circles allowed participants to connect and converse as they worked on their bandanas. While this project is now complete, with Each/Other scheduled to be on view from May 23 to August 22, 2021, other organizations welcome people to get involved in communal crafting projects.
One such organization is Knit Democracy Together, founded by Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, which hosts virtual knitting circles during which participants discuss the American political system, specifically the corruptive reliance of politicians on large donations for election campaigns from private donors. Knitters create blocks that will be stitched together to make a model of the Capitol buildings, with the stitches symbolizing the citizens who make up the units of a functional democracy. Projects such as these utilize craft as a force for activism. But whether it is knitting a hat or a miniature of Capitol Hill, both activities embody the self-expressive, communal principles of craft making, and contribute to a tradition stretching far back in time.
