Sewing, pottery, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, woodworking, quilting, scrapbooking — these are just a few of the countless ways we can create things with our hands. But crafting goes beyond the physical acts of wheel throwing or needlework; it also has the power to transform our minds and, as a result, our lives.
As Amanda Montell wrote in her book The Age of Magical Overthinking, “Needles and fabric do wonders for the spirit. A study published in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy surveyed over 3,500 knitters and found that 81 percent of participants with depression reported feeling happy post-knitting. More than 50 percent said they felt ‘very happy.’”
It’s fair to assume this also applies to other forms of crafting. Clearly, there’s something special about taking raw materials and turning them into something beautiful that imbues in us a deep sense of joy and fulfillment.
So the next time you’re feeling lost, down, or anxious, consider picking up your tools and using them to process your emotions. If you’re not already a crafter, maybe take a class or hit up a fabric store and watch some YouTube tutorials to get started. And in the meantime, here are 11 quotes about the miraculous nature of crafting.
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.Dieter F. Uchtdorf
For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.David Bayles
Crochet has helped me throughout my entire career by giving my brain and my hands something to do other than worrying about what people might be saying. And that was way better for me than mindlessly looking at my phone and the noise of social media.Sutton Foster
Craft makes our homes more human.Ilse Crawford
There’s something that’s so therapeutic about [ceramics]. It’s like … if you were doing yoga and then some object was produced at the end of it.Seth Rogen
Try to put thought, time, and care into making these useful objects with the hopes that the users will somehow connect with them beyond their intended purpose.Susan Eaton Mendenhall
How can knitting be wasting time? First, I never just knit; I knit and think, knit and listen, knit and watch. Second, you aren't wasting time if you get a useful or beautiful object at the end of it.Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Work done by you with unconditional love and pure devotion goes straight in the category of divine and immortal craft.Seema Brain Openers
Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that — one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right.Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.Louis Nizer
There are no happier people on this planet than those who decide that they want something, define what they want, get hold of the feeling of it even before it's manifestation and then joyously watch the unfolding as, piece by piece by piece, it begins to unfold. That's the feeling of your hands in the clay.Esther Hicks
Featured image credit: Dave Kotinsky/ Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
