What’s your story with craft?

Zahra:

As a current designer/grad design student, craft was introduced to me prior to design. My mother had all sorts of craft skills from sewing clothes to knitting and embroidery, so I became familiar with all of them from a young age. For instance, I learned to work with a sewing machine at the age of 9 which then I thought of as a normal skill to have. Craft for me is a safe space that I can immerse myself into without stressing out about the possible result or the process.

I didn’t have a single vision while making this. But thinking about the conversations we were having back then about immigration and leaving our homes, I now see a road coming out of the woods towards an ambiguous destination.

Arghavan:

Putting “yarn” on my fifteenth birthday wishlist as a half-joke, someone actually got me three balls of teal yarn and it all started from there. I had no prior experience with crafting, except for some classes in the middle school that we all mocked, but knitting turned out to be the one that I enjoy the most. And I knit three scarves and my first sweater ever in the COVID lockdown time, so. When knitting My mind goes unburdened from daily tasks when my hands are busy with a rather difficult pattern and I start concentrating more on my breath and my movements. It really is some kind of meditation, to the extent that I knit scarves and hats for my loved ones as random unexpected gifts just to keep knitting.

This one’s the “front” panel of the second sweater I’m knitting. Sent the picture to my grandma (who used to knit all her family sweaters back in the day), she said it looked better than what her own works did. I might make her something too in the near future. Maybe a purple cardigan, as purple’s her favorite color.

Hanieh:

Being a kid I’ve always loved to make crafts for myself and people around me, and I think that was a way of expressing my feelings, by putting them into crafts. Now I don’t do it as much, but I think it might be helping me in some ways if I do.

Kimia:

I started learning different types of crafts like sewing and knitting when I was a kid from my mom. She used to make so many of my clothes for me herself when I was younger and she had learned it from her mom as well. She was really persistent for me to learn these skills as she valued hand-made objects a lot. Even though I never learned it as well as her, I still loved creating with my hands. I loved making random stuff using fabrics and paper and different materials, which is pretty much what lead me to study design. Craft to me is a process that I can escape to, to slow time down. In a high-paced life, craft brings awareness and lets me explore making through a calm process.