Sharp Notions

A wide-ranging anthology of personal essaysfrom diverse voices about their relationships to the fibre arts.Sometimes, the reliability of a knit stitch, the steady rocking of a quilting needle, the solid structure of a loom, is all you have. During the pandemic, fiber arts newbies discovered and lapsed crafters rediscovered that picking up some sticks and string or a needle and thread was the perfect way to reduce stress, quell anxiety, and foster creativity, an antidote to endless hours of doom-scrolling.Chances are you or someone close to you is currently in an ecstatic relationship with yarn, thread, or fabric. As we struggle with the pressures, anxieties, and impacts of daily life, fiber artsknitting, crocheting, embroidery, weaving, beading, sewing, quilting, textilescan be an antidote, a mirror and a metaphor for so many of lifes challenges. Part time machine, part meditation app, the simple act of working with ones hands instantly reduces the overwhelming scope of living to a human scale and the present moment.In this nonfiction anthology, writers and artists from different backgrounds explore their complex relationships to fiber arts and the intersection of creative practice and identity, technology, climate change, trauma, politics, chronic illness, and disability.In answer tothe mainstream craft spaces tendency to centre the perspectives and careers ofwhite women, Sharp Notions showcases Black, Indigenous, South-Asian,Chinese, and queer artists and makers and the cultural traditions of craft indiasporic communities.Accompanied by full-colour photographs throughout, thesepowerful essays challenge the traditional view of crafting and examine therole, purpose, joy, and necessity of craft amid the alienation of contemporarylife.This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A book with many images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.