Crafting Quality of Life: Creativity and Well-Being

Abstract

The “Everyday Creativity of Women Craftmakers” is a narrative research project exploring the ways that contemporary women narrate the meanings of home craft-making in their lives. Craft-making enjoys continuing popularity among contemporary women including young women, and women from different cultures and socio-economic groups. Many of these women have busy lives; they are juggling domestic responsibilities, motherhood and paid work and yet they make time and space for their craft-making. In this article, we focus on three of our participants who are mothers with children still living at home, the meanings craft-making has for them, and how craft-making is linked with their well-being and quality of life. We discuss the ways these three women use craft as both an expression of themselves as mothers, and as escape or relief from the demands of mothering. We explore a number of key themes emerging from the research: craft-making as a challenge and a creative outlet; craft-making and gift giving; intergenerational connections; and the strong belief on the part of these women that craft-making is important and in some instances vital for their well-being, and contributes substantially to the quality of their lives