Making a Life

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019

Why do we make things by hand? And why do we make them beautiful? Led by the question of why working with our hands remains vital and valuable in the modern world, author and maker Melanie Falick went on a transformative, inspiring journey. Traveling across continents, she met quilters and potters, weavers and painters, metalsmiths, printmakers, woodworkers, and more, and uncovered truths that have been speaking to us for millennia yet feel urgently relevant today: We make in order to slow down. To connect with others. To express ideas and emotions, feel competent, create something tangible and long-lasting. And to feed the soul. In revealing stories and gorgeous original photographs, Making a Life captures all the joy of making and the power it has to give our lives authenticity and meaning.

• “[This] book is filled with stories of weavers, ceramicists, welders, woodworkers, quilters and more, with photos of the art, the crafts, homes and workspaces. Falick examines how making by hand contributes to a good life.” 
  —Associated Press
  
  “This book is a gem, and one that will inspire you to keep (or begin!) making and creating, a desire that’s inside each of us.”
  —The House that Lars Built, November 2019 Book Club Pick
  
  “A remarkable series of 30 vignettes that simultaneously comfort and stimulate. . . . Falick’s treasury, sumptuously photographed, will appeal to anyone who admires the people dedicated to making the world around them more beautiful.”
  —Publishers Weekly, starred review
   
  “Lovely and thoughtfully inspiring. . . . These very up-close-and-personal profiles, supplemented by elegant color photographs of people at work and their projects, capture the spirit of making and the dedication that’s behind the art. . . . In wholehearted agreement with the author: ‘When we get to the point where we aren’t able to make things with our hands and feel no mastery, we feel lost.’ ”
  —Booklist, starred review