Handmade: Learning the Art of Chainsaw Mindfulness in a Norwegian Wood

by Siri Helle

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

Published March 3, 2022

About the author

Siri Helle (f. 1982) er utdanna agronom i økologisk landbruk frå Sogn jord- og hagebruksskule. Ho arbeider som skribent, journalist og snikkarassistent. Helle har blant anna gitt ut Handle rett. Lure val i ein matbransje full av juks (2014) og Med berre nevane. Eit forsvar for praktisk arbeid (2020).

Reviews

[Ida Soraas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viktig! Refererer også til en del forskning som viser viktigheten av håndens arbeid. Den stiller gode spørsmål.

[Paul Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunningly good, short meditation, based on the proposition of using our hands and our brains better. Highly recommended! Just exquisite.

[Benedict · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly short account of a Norwegian woman inheriting a mountain cabin and deciding to build herself an outhouse. With no electricity, no plumbing, and just her own skills.

It's a neat account. She really has a can-do attitude, but also goes into depth about how in the 21st century, we're losing the art of so many practical skills, and that these practical skills did more for us than just have practical use. The personal growth than can come from making something with your hands, from the deep understanding we can get from hand-made objects, from understanding where things come from and how we use them, having a sense of value for objects that have been made with expertise and care. Her testimony links heavily to her home country of Norway but really any western person can see what she is talking about.

I enjoyed this.

[Jayne Ireland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Agree we’re forgetting the art of making and re-using and valuing practical skills as well as academic.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another misleading sub-title with chainsaw use barely featuring at all, but an interesting read none the less. Half an account of the building of a privy out of materials from the immediate vicinity, and half a polemic on an education system that pays very little heed to the use of the hands!