Handmade: Learning the Art of Mindfulness in a Norwegian Wood

When Siri Helle inherits a cabin she sets about building herself an outhouse. Handmade is the funny and inspiring book that tells the story of a woman discovering the joys of making things by hand.

Humans have always used their hands to create the world around them. But now most of us have gone from being practitioners to theorists, from being producers to consumers. What happens to our society when we are so divorced from the act of making? What happens to us as individuals when we limit the uses to which we put our hands?

These are questions that preoccupy Siri Helle when she inherits a cabin of 25 square metres, without electricity, inlet water, or a loo, and decides to build an outhouse herself. Without any previous experience of building anything, she has to learn on the job and what she learns is not just about how to lay a floor and construct walls, but about what she is capable of and about craft and about the satisfactions to be found in making things by hand.

Written with humour and insight, Handmade is the inspiring story of someone who tried to do it herself - and did.

By Siri Helle, translated by Lucy Moffatt and Kari Dickson.

Dimensions: 13 x 20cm
208 page hardback book