Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live Hardcover – October 29, 2019

This is such an inspirational book! Loaded with photos of craft makers and their crafts. Lots of ideas for crafts to try your hand at. Interesting look at the lifestyles and places the wide range of artistic people do their work. There is not enough time in a life to pursue all of the various crafts in this book but, there is certainly enough time to try something new and exciting.

My heart is still wrapped up in the gorgeous, intimate, thoughtful stories told through these extraordinary creatives that fill this beautiful book. Melanie takes a deeply sensitive and thorough exploration into each creative life, sharing the vast and diverse richness that creativity can bring to the way we live and breathe. I loved reading every story and was captivated by the gorgeous images that made me want to jump into the page and start making something too. Melanie has a wonderful, accessible, inviting writing style, exploring the many layers within a creative life and witnessing how creative pursuits play an essential and crucial role in finding personal purpose, joy and fulfillment. This book is a very special gift for the world. A gift of knowing and validating how important creativity is and how making things by hand can truly make a life ~ in so many different ways & interpretations. It’s more crucial than ever that we all honor the infinite potential of our own two hands, as it defines who we are and allows us to connect with ourselves in a way that nothing else can. Each one of us can live out a creative life in the way that fills our own souls, and this book makes that feel possible and exciting!For me personally, this book has propelled me forward to deepen my thinking into my own creative life ~ what it looks like, the various roles it plays, and how important it is to making meaning in my day to day. I am compelled, called and inspired to bring forth more creativity into my days, and what a fantastic feeling that is! Thank you Melanie for this magnificent piece of art.

Oh, how I love this book. I'm only 1/3 of the way through it and have found it so inspirational reading about all of the artists the author highlights throughout this book. In a time when most of us no longer work with our hands to create and beautify, this book offers readers hope and examples of ways in which these creatives are making it happen all around the world. The book is tex heavy, but I enjoy this aspect of it as I am not just reading it to see the pictures, but to hear more about how to go about living a more creative life myself. I am looking forward to finishing it this weekend!

Interesting vignettes.

I absolutely LOVED this book. The artists interviewed offered a variety of points of view, did work in a variety of mediums, and yet all offered basically the same advice...to be true to yourself in your work. This is a book to be savored. The images are all so beautiful, and the text is beautifully written and thoughtfully expressed. I highly recommend this book, not only for the budding artist but for those who have been working for years and just need some encouragement to keep going.

I'm in northern Michigan...it's Halloween...it's snowing...and the postman just delivered 'Making a Life'. The quality of the book is superb...it's nicely organized and - having only read the introduction - is speaking directly to me and my soul. I have recently started using my hands again and am feeling, already, the change it is making in my life. This is the perfect book to accompany me on my quest to slow down and spend more time each day creating. Thank you, Ms. Falick, for your wonderful creation!

Any book authored by Melanie Falick as well as the ones she edited are works of art. This book is the epitomy of her work to date. In this book her research was focused on "making things by hand" while traveling countries and interviews artists, artisans and crafters and it is an eyeopening commitment to their craft.Her tag line sums up the vision.Making a Life :: working by hand and discovering the life you are meant to live

In so many of the interviewed artists' reflections and descriptions of their lives and work, I found "red threads" that also have been "woven" into my own creative experiences and life. My grandmother was one of the most inspiring persons in the importance and meaning of making as well. She cherished any handmade gift more than anything bought. What she would always say, was: "When you make something for me, I know, you thought about me in love the whole time it took you to make it."The book also reiterated for me, how important the daily practice of making is, because it centers oneself and brings such joy and peace.Thank you, Melanie Falick for this wonderful book!