When I gave up translating in 2018, I was ready to move on but also feeling a bit sad and lost. It had been such an important part of my life for decades. To mark the occasion in a positive way, I took my husband out for a Very Nice dinner to thank him for all his support. And I presented myself with a book that had just come out – Making a Life by Melanie Falick.
There is some knitting in it, but it isn’t a knitting book. It is a sort of philosophical book (large format, with gorgeous photos!) about makers. About what they make, but mainly about what moves them and what making things with their own hands means to them.
Falick visits quilters, spinners, weavers, embroiderers, dyers and knitters…
… as well as a basket weaver, potters, print makers, shoe makers, bag makers, wood workers and metal workers.
Before her visits to all of these makers, Falick first interviews Ellen Dissanayake, a scholar who has written extensively about the relationship between human evolution and art. Instead of art, Dissanayake prefers to speak of “artifying”, “making special” and “making the ordinary extraordinary”.
Looking back as far as our ancestors thousands of years ago, she considers “artifying” a basic human need. She says, “Modern-day makers might choose to create pottery or sew clothing not because they have to but because they feel the urge, even need, to do it. The fact that it feels good to make things with our hands harkens back to our hunter-gatherer nature, which lives on in our psychology” (Making a Life, p. 21).
By analogy with the French joie de vivre (the joy of living), Dissanayake also coins the expression joie de faire (the joy of making). Yes, joie de faire, that’s what I often feel. I’m not an artist. Often, I find this joy of making in utterly simple things like arranging a few flowers from the garden in a small vase.
And I find it in knitting, too, of course. The pullover for our daughter is growing quickly and it really is a joy to knit.
The plant basket in the photo was a thank-you gift from someone I’m teaching to knit – another source of joy. Maybe I’ll write about that some other time, but I’ll have to ask their permission first. The pinks in it actually have that delicious old-fashioned clove scent.
Focusing mainly on the pullover, I have not been entirely monogamous in my making. A couple of flowers have sprung up around the embroidered bee and I’ve finished a crocheted bear basket for our grandson. He celebrated his 2nd birthday last week and I made it specially for the wooden play food we’ve given him. He has discovered that his own little diaper-clad bum fits neatly into it, too.
When I first had Making a Life, I gobbled it up. This time around, I’m going savour it slowly. With 2 introductory essays + vignettes of 30 makers, I will have something inspiring to read to the end of the year if I take it one maker a week. It is divided into 5 chapters: Remembering, Slowing Down, Joining Hands, Making a Home and Finding a Voice.
The beautiful photographs were taken by Rinne Allen. Some of the photos that didn’t make it into the book (but are still beautiful) can be viewed by chapter on the author’s website (just hover over ‘Making a Life Book’ at the top and you can click on the separate chapters).
May the coming week bring you lots of joie de faire!
A new book for my wishlist!
I have learned about myself over the years that I am a maker. When I started out working in ICT, I was a tester, but when I became a programmer, I felt so much better. Nothing beautiful or creative for most, but I could enjoy a beautiful piece of code. An elegant solution to a problem. A neat way or writing lines under each other. When I started translating, after a while I was also asked to edit translations by others. And that cost me so much more energy than writing my own texts. Why? I don’t know, but it has always been like this.
Artifying, the need of making things extra beautiful or special. There are so many people who think of themselves as ‘not creative’, but the examples you give here are very nice. Arranges flowers in a pleasing way is such a good example. But what also comes to mind is arranging food nicely on a plate. Choosing different colours of food to make a salad look appealing.
For my new job I have read a lot about the language of clothes and about the British Sumptuary Laws, which prescribed who was allowed to wear what. And how these kind of systems resonate in today’s society. And how we all in some way use what we wear to express something about ourselves. And sometimes changing the colour of our shoe laces, or the buttons on a jacket or just mixing up what we already own in a different way can make us feel very differently.
Thank you for sharing this book and your insights!
Oh, I know, editing is something very different from translating and far less interesting and creative for me, too. And I think I can understand about the joys of programming. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I agree that arranging food on a plate is in the same kind of range. And that’s exactly what Dissanayake means with ‘artifying’ – she gives many of these kinds of examples also from different cultures. Making the ordinary extraordinary can take many forms – shoelaces, buttons, clothes absolutely.
Prachtige blog! Bedankt voor het delen!
Heel graag gedaan! Fijn dat het je aanspreekt.