>> Jean Railla is the author of the new domesticity manifesto Get
Crafty: Hip Home Ec (Broadway Books). Obsessed with the craft of
cooking, she is researching a book on underground food cultures.
Il is difficult to take their criticism seriously. With the L quintessential third-wave feminist magazine Bust tike to think of traditional crafting as the ed Zeppelin of the art world: accomplished, alented, but boringly staid. Modern crafters, including craft tutorials, and crafters like Jenny on the other hand, are like The Ramones, the 1970s Hart doing embroidered portraits of The White punk band who distilled years of rock history down Stripes, modern crafting is hardly being embraced by to three exuberant chords. Clocking in at a mere two the religious right or part of some sort of backlash. minutes, their energy-packed songs did more for this In the long run, the most powerful aspect of modern teenager’s soul than the entire canon of classic rock crafting is that it turns the very premise of our results-put together. The Ramones made music that was oriented culture on its head. In crafting, what counts not only fun (“Hey! Ho! Let’s go!”) but also whimsical, more than what you make is how you make it, or noisy, and not at all polished — a breakneck combo rather that you choose to make it at all. of words and riffs. Most importantly, their music Or to put it another way, maybe it’s not about how was so simple, yet so addictive, it said loudly: “You can do it!”
This ethic of Do It Yourself is the baseline of In the age of hyper- modern crafting. If the point of the American Dream is a two-car garage and saving up to buy the Pottery materialism, Paris Hilton, Barn couch, chair, and dining room table, all arranged to match the catalog, then modern crafting is its and thousand-dollar twisted daydream. It’s about picking out an old couch at the Salvation Army and re-covering it “It” bags, perhaps making yourself with fabric — be it kitschy cowboys or sophisticated beige. stuff is the ultimate
This ethic, this DIY approach, makes crafting so appealing to hipsters (for lack of a better word). form of rebellion.
There is something decidedly anti-authority in dumpster diving or knitting in an era where cheap goods can be acquired easily, and corporate perfect your popcorn stitch is or that your table culture and rampant consumerism are on the rise. setting is in shades of matching beige with hand-In the age of hypermaterialism, Paris Hilton, and appliquéd napkins and a hundred-dollar bouquet in thousand-dollar “It” bags, perhaps making stuff its center. There is no hand-wringing about making is the ultimate form of rebellion. everything from scratch in a June Cleaver-style
Crafting is politics with a little “p.” So while crafters hissy-fit of perfection. aren’t necessarily protesting with placards outside Maybe it’s just the fact that, like its punk prede-the United Nations or running for office (or any other cessors, modern crafting encourages you to exist in acts of Politics), crafting can be viewed as a form the world of the tactile, to embrace an activity other of resistance against the disastrous reality that is than making money — and to rock the house. × contemporary America.
And, although there have been those who bemoan modern crafting as a return to 1950s conformity, it
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