'Use Your Hands for Happiness':: Home Craft and Make-do-and-Mend in British Women's Magazines in the 1920s and 1930s
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‘What is needed is an outflow of nervous energy into other paths, and it probably is a self-protective instinct that makes a woman pick up her sewing or knitting while sitting still.’(Modern Woman 02.1935:10).
With their kits, transfers, patterns, coupons, colourfully visualized transformation tips and step-by-step instructions, home craft features were a prominent and popular component of women's consumer magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. More recently, this form of consumer craft has been accused of limiting and even suppressing women's creativity. In contrast, this article will argue that home craft, as a component of a new commercial culture of home-making in the period, offered women opportunities for self-expression, agency and self-determination. It was a significant means of materializing distinctive skills, values and an aesthetic that was central to a feminine culture of modernity promoted through popular magazines and other media. Furthermore, some Home Editors, such as Edith Blair at Woman, were committed to improving women's taste in line with contemporary design discourse. Yet, it was the business of editors, unlike design reformers, to be well attuned to their readers' needs and aspirations. As such, home craft features may be read as a means of addressing the problems and anxieties surrounding the acceleration of modern life (unemployment, the strain of new work processes and their effects on physical and mental life) as well as imaging the cluster of aspirational dreams and desires symbolized by the ideal home, modern or otherwise.
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... Jackson (2010) explains that the people studied generated rewarding flows through crafting activities, kindling a sense of self. Additionally, these activities stimulate mental agility and creativity, offering cognitive benefits and enhancing problem-solving skills (Corkhill et al., 2014;Hackney, 2006;Turney, 2004). For many, the act of crafting or handmaking items is not just a hobby but a form of mindfulness or meditation (Corkhill et al., 2014) where the repetitive and immersive nature of the work allows for emotional regulation and a break from the hectic pace of daily life (Elliot, 2016). ...
... Finally, another interesting behavior observed as an effect of handmaking is gift-giving. The outputs of the manual activities are sometimes offered as gifts (Burt & Atkinson, 2012;Hackney, 2006) or donations (Cochoy et al., 2022) but the studies mentioning these practices do not follow up in deepening the understanding of these practices on enhancing individual or social well-being. ...
... Sharing skills, ideas, and creations with others can lead to increased social support (Elliot, 2016), and an enhanced sense of belonging (Burt & Atkinson, 2012), but also a platform for self-signaling of worth and competence (Hackney, 2006;Mochon et al., 2012;Turney, 2004). ...
Building something with your hands, whether a piece of furniture, a scarf, or a vase, triggers a unique mental process enhancing a feeling of well‐being. Various research studies explore the potential effects of diverse types of activities involving hand labor. This scoping review analyzes 181 such studies spanning multiple disciplines (psychology, marketing, technology, design, health), and explores the richness of these activities and their distinct effects on individual and societal well‐being. Through this comprehensive analysis, the review enhances the understanding of the effects of handmade activities on consumer well‐being and advances marketing knowledge within the broader context of well‐being. Additionally, it probes into the commonalities among different academic theories, identifying gaps in existing marketing and psychology research and proposing paths for future exploration.
... Bir tepki olarak başlayan bu hareket el işçiliğini geri çağırması nedeniyle kendin yap hareketi ile ilişkilendirilmiştir (Belgesay, 2020). Kendin yap hareketinin örneklerinden olan kadın dergisi Woman's Weekly 1920'li yıllarda yine İngiltere'de kadınların üretebilecekleri ürünleri detaylı talimatlarla yayımlamıştır (Hackney, 2006). Önceleri Amerika'da el işçiliği sınırlı olarak hobi amaçlı tasarım, bakım ve tamiratta görülürken 1920 sonrasında kendin yap hareketi benzer şekilde yoğunlaşmış, dikiş, örgü gibi farklı alanlarda detaylı içerikler sunan Good Housekeeping gibi dergiler yayımlanmıştır (Hackney, 2006). ...
... Kendin yap hareketinin örneklerinden olan kadın dergisi Woman's Weekly 1920'li yıllarda yine İngiltere'de kadınların üretebilecekleri ürünleri detaylı talimatlarla yayımlamıştır (Hackney, 2006). Önceleri Amerika'da el işçiliği sınırlı olarak hobi amaçlı tasarım, bakım ve tamiratta görülürken 1920 sonrasında kendin yap hareketi benzer şekilde yoğunlaşmış, dikiş, örgü gibi farklı alanlarda detaylı içerikler sunan Good Housekeeping gibi dergiler yayımlanmıştır (Hackney, 2006). Almanya'da endüstrileşmeye tepki olarak bu evrede, 1919 yılında bir sanat hareketi olarak kabul edilen Bauhaus okulu kurulmuştur (Grzymkowski, 2019, s. 13). ...
... Kendin yap uygulamalarının psikolojik boyutunda boş zamanın değerlendirilip üretken ve keyifli geçirilmesi, başarma hissi yaşatması ve sosyalleşme sağlaması öne çıkan noktalardandır (Hackney, 2006). Bireyin el emeği ile kendi yaratıcılığını katarak ürettiği ürünler özgünlük barındırır. ...
Kökenleri Bauhaus akımına dayanan ve günümüzde birçok ürüne yönelik uygulamalar öneren kendin yap hareketi, tasarıma yapısökümcü bir yaklaşım olmakla beraber bireye indirgenmiş demokratik bir üretim ve öğrenme hareketidir. Üretimi tüketiciler için deneyimleştirmek üzere, ürünlerin parçalarına ve üretim aşamalarına ayrıştırılması, bireylere hazır ürün satın alma yerine üretim tatmini ve hatta tasarlama olanakları sunar. İşlevsellik, eşsizlik, sürdürülebilirlik gibi birçok ana motivasyon ile eşleşen kendin yap hareketi günümüzde farklı alanlarda yayılım gösteren bir faaliyet olarak gözlemlenmektedir. 19 yy. da bir endüstri ürünü haline gelen giysi ise bu sürecin sonrasında dahi ev içinde üretilebilen bir ihtiyaç olmuş, evlerde giysi bakım onarımının yapılmasının yanı sıra, üretime yönelik makineler dahi bulundurulmuştur. Giysi üretmek için temel düzeyde anatomi bilgisi, temel dikim teknikleri ve kumaş bilgisi gerektirdiği söylenebilir. Moda ile açıklanabilecek hızlı giysi tüketimi, kullan-at giysileri yaygınlaştırmış ve buna bağlı olarak sosyal medya kullanan yeni nesil için keşfedilecek bir üretim alanı yaratmıştır. Bu araştırmanın amacı; günümüzde giysi için üretilen kendin yap kitlerini incelemek ve bunun demokratikleşen tasarım hareketi olarak giysi üretim tekniklerine etkilerini, sunduğu tasarım önerileri üzerinden modaya yansımalarını tartışmaktır.
... O artesanato era ensinado às mulheres para desenvolver suas habilidades "naturais" de sensibilidade e preencher o tempo livre (aquele não dedicado à casa e à família) de modo produtivo (Edwards,2006). Mulheres de várias classes sociais criaram artefatos, porém, localizados no lar, permaneceram "nas margens", embora fossem centrais na construção das identidades femininas (Hackney, 2006). ...
A História do Design tem sido construída, em maior medida, a partir de uma perspectiva euro e andro-centrada, abarcando projetos criados por homens e invisibilizando a contribuição feminina. Logo, a construção de narrativas alternativas às hegemônicas é fundamental para a conscientização acerca das desigualdades de gênero no campo do design, de modo que estas possam ser combatidas. Sendo assim, refletimossobre como estereótipos de gênero atuaram na trajetória de mulheres designers, reforçando hierarquias entre áreas de atuação, saberes e práticas projetuais. Para isso, nos pautamos na articulação entre História do Design e Estudos de Gênero, uma vez quevisamosdesnaturalizar desigualdades sociais, conferir maior visibilidade às designers e colaborar para uma historiografia mais justa e diversa.
... Although Minahan and Wolfram Cox (2007) argue that much of the contemporary nostalgia is tinged with irony rather than representing a wholesale return to the past, Henrik Most (2005) surmises that the digital world we increasingly live in increases a desire for more physical and tactile encounters. While the same stressors remain from a hundred years ago -'the problems and anxieties surrounding the acceleration of modern life (unemployment, the strain of new work processes and their effects on physical and mental life)' (Hackney 2006: 23) -these are supplemented today by new stressors such as climate anxiety and the mental and social effects of COVID-19. A report in The Guardian (Morris 2021: n.pag.) ...
While some maker activities and actions have clear and measurable outcomes with increasing research about the joys and benefits of creativity, there is an aspect of making which is infrequently considered, perhaps because it is largely unconscious or may even be viewed negatively or dismissively. This is the pleasure to be found in the nostalgic aspects of crafting and making. This article examines the current research on the benefits of nostalgia, and how craft activities invoke nostalgia in various ways. Nostalgia is implicated as an element which can contribute to well-being – the perception of purpose, control and satisfaction which supports health and happiness. Although nostalgia is also already a factor in some making projects designed around well-being and health, it might in the future be used more consciously to contribute to other well-making activities.
... Accordingly, with women's creativity having been overlooked and stereotyped, feminized works and aesthetics have also been marginalized in the market. Previously in the analysis of home craft and women's magazines published during the 1920s and 1930s, Hackney (2006)argued that with a strong association with the feminine side, magazine articles, which included embroidery, rug-making, crochet, simple carpentry and woodwork were either mocked or overlooked by professionals. Similarly, in the case of Jingdezhen, the fact that feminized works are understood as mediums to touch on routinized lifestyle also makes them no longer able to be recognized as a high-brow art exhibited in an established gallery venue. ...
Through a four-month ethnographic study from May to August 2020 in Jingdezhen, the Chinese capital of porcelain, I investigated the self-employment practice and work-and-lifestyles of the female craft workers. Despite the increasing presence of female self-employed craft workers in Jingdezhen in the recent decade, its local ceramic labor distribution continues to be gendered. This study incorporated a variety of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, participant observations and diary method. Despite the self-realization of female craft workers in Jingdezhen through self-employed craft work, I firstly highlight the instability embedded in their craft work, marginalization of craftswomen’s roles and works and self�doubtfulness on creativity. I argue that the frequent critiques of craftswomen’s ceramic works have generalized them as being domestic and feminine and ignored their diverse skills, aesthetics, and artistic dispositions. I also suggest that such generalization has further marginalized ‘femininity’ in ceramic cultures and productions. Secondly, I recognize the difficulties that the craftswomen have encountered in non-workplaces and the pressures from family and social expectations and argue that the allegedly ‘work and life balance challenge’ set for women overshadows their compromises and sacrifices in their craft journey. By showcasing my interlocutors’ ‘minor’ feelings and reflecting on my own fieldwork experience, I reveal a gendered power relationship in personal interactions at an everyday level continued to exist in Jingdezhen’s craft world. I finally argue that while self-employment and craft are empowering practices
and have offered the craftswomen opportunities to fulfill their potentials, independent craftswomen in Jingdezhen still suffer from instability, marginalization, societal expectations, daily disrespect in the local male-dominated industrial context. Meanwhile, I showcase their resilience against this background by demonstrating how they negotiate these difficulties and pressures.
... Such healthful schemes were no doubt seen as a corrective to the dangerously seductive power of color for women. 89 Flowers, furthermore, were a staple in color interior features. Readers were advised that cut flowers brought nature and color into the home, especially if they were sourced from the garden or countryside. ...
A home with all modern conveniences became a reality for an increasing number of people, including aspirational lower middle- and working-class families, in the interwar years. Magazines such as Modern Home and Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal helped forge a burgeoning home consumer culture and were an important factor shaping dreams of home ownership. This article examines the ideal modern home—its pleasures, discontents, and potential meaning for women—as it was constructed in and disseminated through domestic women’s magazines. Conceptualizing periodicals as hybrid, composite texts, it argues that the multiple ways in which they framed, positioned, and reproduced word and image set up tensions and connections, opening a space for more diverse readers to engage with magazines in new ways. The metaphor of the magazine as both a “window” and “mirror” helps show how editors strove to balance appealing visions of modern living with advice that reflected readers’ real circumstances. A focus on the dominant ideal of the modern cottage/suburban home helps unpack the complex relationship between rural and modern, the past and the present, conventional femininity and modern womanhood, and private and national life that operated in the pages of these popular magazines.
In Greece, girls’ schooling in the countryside varied depending on regional specificities, time variants as well as gendered social biases. Women were given the basics in education if that was feasible. Urban girls were supplied with the type of knowledge that better qualified them as good spouses, caring mothers and good managers of household economy as society had assigned them this specific gendered role and task.
The present chapter discusses domestic crafts’ education in Greek school curricula during the period 1800–1900 as well as the national dimensions and social entanglements pertaining to female literacy in the above country. It studies domestic crafts as a transnational and transcultural component in girls’ schools. Also, engagement in needlework as well as acquiring skills of other domestic crafts served as a tool of resistance to constraints of femininity, becoming universally symbolic and serving as cultural markers that identified women as protagonists in this field. Schools, both in Greece and abroad, emphasized on the utilitarian aspect of sewing and of practicing needlework as well as of tailoring, knitting and embroidering. The present chapter mainly draws from original sources such as school curricula, school archives and records as well as from the Minutes of the Board Meetings of the school ‘Arsakeion’ from which documentation in real facts is obtained. Likewise, secondary sources of literature such as books and article journals also serve as useful tools because fresh research data are provided on the above topic. Moreover, the present study uses the verses of Greek folklore songs because female characters and social entanglements are vividly described through them.
Penelitian ini adalah sebuah eksplorasi budaya kain sebagai karya kriya tekstil yang dihidupi oleh perempuan Indonesia. Kain menjadi bentuk ekspresi yang mempunyai nilai, fungsi, dan peran yang penting dan kompleks. Namun apakah hal-hal tersebut masih berlanjut pada komunitas urban di masa kini? Tujuan penulisan ini adalah untuk mengetahui kualitas tak teraga dari kriya kain pada masyarakat urban di masa pandemi, ketika ruang sosial menjadi terbatas. Penelitian dilakukan pada komunitas perca Malang Patchwork & Quilts (MaPaQuilts) di Kota Malang. Metode penulisan ini adalah metode penelitian seni berbasis praktik bersama yang dilakukan bersama anggota komunitas di rumah masing- masing. Hasil penelitian ini adalah budaya kain berlanjut karena mengandung kualitas hidup.
This thesis looks at design practice as a method of investigating the relationship between
design and identity in interwar Britain; in particular it considers design from the
perspective of practice, not solely as the final object or the story of the maker. For it is in
the process of making that the varied aspects of design as it is practiced are configured to
create the greatest impact on everyday life. This research proposes that the quest to
construct one’s identity, in particular a feminine identity, can be demonstrated by the
making of goods and objects through the traditionally feminine practice of sewing and
needlework, specifically those made at home. It argues that home sewing, as an
understudied everyday practice, was intrinsically bound up with ideas of who women were,
how they imagined themselves, and how their feminine identities were represented.
Between the wars, home-sewing was an integral daily practice for middle-class women
that left indelible memories of not only the items made, but of specific types of sewing and
design practice, who it was made for and how it was used. It also explores these specific
practices during a period of enormous change- culturally, technologically and politically –
and particularly important for this study are the themes of femininity and domesticity, as
well as the boundaries of private and public life in relation to modernity. Methodologically
it focuses on sewing practices by utilizing mass media, specific objects and oral histories to
elucidate this. This thesis considers the breadth and extent of home sewing as an everyday
practice aligning individual narratives, original source material and theoretical analysis.
Edited and introduced by maker and industrial designer, Daniel Charny, curator of the Power of Making exhibition 2011. Includes contributions from international authors that explore contemporary attitudes towards skill, and the potential that skilled making offer the arts and creative industries. Seemingly disparate objects are brought together in a 'cabinet of curiosities' to unite and reinforce creative, cultural, social and educational points of view - all offering different ways of understanding the potent power that comes with making. The book poses incisive questions about the increasing distance people have from making, and the impact that deskilling and the deterioration of making knowledge may have on cultural production and society.
Craft and design has had a dialectical history since early modernism, where craft often sided with the romanticism of the arts and craft movement, while design became primarily market-led and allied with mass production, industrialism and consumerism. This conflict, which deepened through the twentieth century, is now exhibiting signs of reconciliation.
What happens at the borders between design and craft today, when a new generation of makers trespass and extend across this raft, to combine post-industrial design, open source shared engagement and net political craft?
An exhibition and series of workshops at the Jnkping County Museum, Sweden, set out to examine the new household tactics of the global popular crafts and the transversal movements of critical engagement, re-examining household production, craftivism and critical design.
This article specifically examines the Counterfeit Crochet project of artist Stephanie Syjuco whose works were exhibited at the show, to see how she uses networked craft as a critical tool for investigating contemporary modes of political power, globalized production, consumerism and DIY activism.
What does it mean to turn the public library or museum into a civic forum? Made in Newark describes a turbulent industrial city at the dawn of the twentieth century and the ways it inspired the library's outspoken director, John Cotton Dana, to collaborate with industrialists, social workers, educators, and New Women. This is the story of experimental exhibitions in the library and the founding of the Newark Museum Associationùa project in which cultural literacy was intertwined with civics and consumption. Local artisans demonstrated crafts, connecting the cultural institution to the department store, school, and factory, all of which invoked the ideal of municipal patriotism. Today, as cultural institutions reappraise their relevance, Made in Newark explores precedents for contemporary debates over the ways the library and museum engage communities, define heritage in a multicultural era, and add value to the economy.
This book gives an account of young women's lives, challenges, and existing assumptions about working class life and womanhood in England between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the 1950s. While contemporaries commonly portrayed young women as pleasure-loving leisure consumers, this book argues that the world of work was in fact central to their life experiences. Social and economic history are woven together to examine the working, family, and social lives of the maids, factory workers, shop assistants, and clerks who made up the majority of England's young women. The book traces the complex interaction between class, gender, and locale that shaped young women's roles at work and home, indicating that paid work structured people's lives more profoundly than many social histories suggest. Rich autobiographical accounts show that while poverty continued to constrain life choices, young women also made their own history. Far from being apathetic workers or pliant consumers, they forged new patterns of occupational and social mobility, and were important breadwinners in working class homes. They also developed a distinct youth culture, not only through discerning consumption of fashion, cinema, and dance halls, but also as workplace militants. In doing so, they helped to shape 20th-century society.
Contemporary artists such as Ghada Amer and Clare Twomey have gained international reputations for work that transforms ordinary craft media and processes into extraordinary conceptual art, from Amer’s monumental stitched paintings to Twomey’s large, ceramics-based installations. Despite the amount of attention that curators and gallery owners have paid to these and many other conceptual artists who incorporate craft into their work, few art critics or scholars have explored the historical or conceptual significance of craft in contemporary art. Extra/Ordinary takes up that task. Reflecting on what craft has come to mean in recent decades, artists, critics, curators, and scholars develop theories of craft in relation to art, chronicle how fine-art institutions understand and exhibit craft media, and offer accounts of activist crafting, or craftivism. Some contributors describe generational and institutional changes under way, while others signal new directions for scholarship, considering craft in relation to queer theory, masculinity, and science. Encompassing quilts, ceramics, letterpress books, wallpaper, and textiles, and moving from well-known museums to home workshops and political protests, Extra/Ordinary is an eclectic introduction to the “craft culture” referenced and celebrated by artists promoting new ways of thinking about the role of craft in contemporary art.Contributors. Elissa Auther, Anthea Black, Betty Bright, Nicole Burisch, Maria Elena Buszek, Jo Dahn, M. Anna Fariello, Betsy Greer, Andrew Jackson, Janis Jefferies, Louise Mazanti, Paula Owen, Karin E. Peterson, Lacey Jane Roberts, Kirsty Robertson, Dennis Stevens, Margaret Wertheim