Making Matters: In Search of Creative Wonders

by Clare Hunter

As children, we made snowmen, paper boats, eccentrically costumed plays. That making fired our minds and imaginations - it altered our small worlds and shaped who we became. But as adults, it is hard to find to find the space for creativity and to remember its power.

Exploring craft traditions and forms of making from across centuries and cultures, Clare Hunter encourages to engage with the world afresh. To use our hands again, to see beauty in unexpected places, to play and protest and embrace imaginative possibilities. From paper crafts to wonders made from light and snow, she searches for creative delight - making lanterns, puppets and pinhole cameras.

Inspiring and fascinating, Making Matters celebrates individual and collective creativity. It blends history, culture and politics with rich storytelling, wonderful characters and tales of remarkable objects. Read this, and then make something.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 14, 2025

About the author

Clare Hunter has sewn since she was a child. She has been a banner-maker, community textile artist and textile curator for over twenty years and established the community enterprise NeedleWorks in Glasgow. She was a finalist of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award with a story published in its 2017 Annual. She was also a recipient of a Creative Scotland Award in 2016. She lives near Stirling in Scotland. Threads of Life is her first book.
http://www.sewingmatters.co.uk

Reviews

[MaryEllen Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Threads of Life, a history of the world through the eye of the needle and Embroidering her Truths about Mary Queen of Scots embroidery in her captivity and last days by Clare Hunter and so picked up this book thinking it would center on making things of cloth. I was surprised and delighted when I began reading that this book chronicles the many ways we make things - ephemeral things out of ephemeral things - paper, snow, sand. It immediately recalled my joy in making paper dolls, paper theaters, doll houses, origami figures, puppets, snowmen and sand castles in my youth. This is a very joyful read that is really summed up by this quote from George Bernard Shaw "Imagination is the beginning of creativity. You imagine what you desire you will what you imagine, you create what you will." In this day and age of digital doomscrolling, movie watching and AI generated conversations, the return to using our creative selves to make things, indeed does matter.

[Giovanna Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet book. Had to remind myself to 'slow read' to enjoy it. A light touch in discovering various crafts over the centuries, with a smattering of history and personal experience of the author. Learnt a little more about some crafts - didn't think that when paper was made commercially how it opened up craft 'to the masses'. Author touches on environmental implications of releases (think lanterns for example).
Would have liked to see some photos or illustrations of some of the crafts. However overall it delivers what it advertises.

[Jools · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an utterly beautiful book. As a maker myself, and as I try to bring people together over crafting in my daily work, I know how beneficial these seemingly simple items can be. The sense of accomplishment, the mindful aspect of the creation of each item, the sense of community and belonging which can be engendered by crafting together, and the joy of gifting something you have brought into being to a loved one.
Read this book - it's beautiful

[Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but it really needed illustrations, and I'd have liked more conversations.

[Debs Lester]

I found it diificult to get into

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Clare Hunter’s books and dropped a very non-subtle hint to be given this for Christmas.

This book made me pull out paper to make paper boats, long for a Summer day sandcastle, and for more time at the Kaniva Puppet Store. Simple crafts, but with such rich history and tradition, although it was sad to see how these traditions are slowly being lost. This made me wonder about how we can celebrate and support slow crafts and traditions better.

I marvelled at how Dior, Wilde and Coward learned their craft from paper dolls and paper theatres, and had a lot of fun looking up shadow puppet movies and Japanese puppetry. And yet, somehow I struggled to read it. Perhaps it’s was the sheer volume of information, or the shift from one craft to another, or just the business of my life. Or the easiness of observing these entertainments on tap without their context - maybe I should have used my imagination instead of the internet. Or maybe it’s just because I loved her book “Threads of Life” so much, and nothing can really compare.

Having said all that, there is so much in this book to love, and I will certainly give it to other people to read. So it must have really liked it!