Welcome to the Hands Manifesto
In October 2016 I sat on the floor in the lounge room of a dear friend and attempted to explain the detour my life had taken. We had been close at university in the late 1980s when we were in our teens. At the time I had been focussed on pursuing a research career in science - specifically astronomy. I had the book smarts, the passion and the ambition. I knew exactly where I was headed and nothing was going to hold me back.
Almost thirty years had passed and several forks in the road saw me gradually leave that dream behind. My friend and I had been out of touch for over two decades, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology, our friendship had been rekindled. On this particular evening, I was trying to explain why my new career as an embroidery designer and teacher was so fulfilling. He wasn’t sceptical so much as bewildered I think. The shift from research physicist to textile artist looked like a pretty big leap from the outside.
I had started my business, Beautiful Stitches, four years earlier. I was designing hand embroidered pieces and then selling the patterns and my time as an embroidery teacher. My style of embroidery is called counted canvaswork. It’s all about colour and geometric patterns, so there is a strong mathematical dimension to the designs. My business was just starting to reach a new level with social media increasing my reach to interstate and overseas. I absolutely loved what I was doing - more than anything I had done before.
My favourite hand work
As I sat on that lounge room floor, I remember distinctly saying, “I know that teaching embroidery might seem trivial from the outside, but I can feel that there is something really important going on here. I just don’t know what it is yet.”
It’s hard to describe the visceral feeling I had at the time. Every time I went into a classroom, there was a buzz and purpose I couldn’t quite define. Sure, I was there to teach embroidery, but something much more meaningful was going on too. I could feel it - I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
From the early days of running Beautiful Stitches, I had been fascinated by creativity. I read everything I could find about the creative process and reflected on my own personal experience as a developing embroidery artist. I had regular discussions with my students too. One of the great joys of teaching embroidery is that it is a “slow craft”. There is plenty of time to think and talk whilst the hands are patiently working rhythmic and repetitive stitches.
At the beginning of 2019, I thought that I had cracked my “important thing”. My classes weren’t really teaching embroidery - they were teaching creative confidence. I wrote a blog post about it here - http://beautifulstitches.com.au/i-am-an-embroidery-teacher-but-i-dont-really-teach-embroidery/. This was picked up by Fiber Talk where I did a podcast interview on the topic a few weeks later - https://wetalkfiber.com/2019/02/10/fiber-talk-with-ann-marie-anderson-mayes/.
Lots of wonderful conversations with friends and students ensued. But there was still a niggle in my brain. Why was the simple process of taking an embroidery class making such a big difference in the lives of some of my students? I kept talking and I kept reading, following my curiosity wherever it landed, until late in the same year I had my big “Aha!” moment.
The important thing about embroidery was that it engaged both the hands and the mind. The hands were the critical link between thinking and doing. My passion for embroidery was only one small example of where this is true.
The important thing about embroidery was that it engaged both the hands and the mind. The hands were the critical link between thinking and doing.
I had a new rabbit hole to go down. I started researching everything I could find about our hands and the important role they play in our lives. It was a bewilderingly large field. I would occasionally stumble across an article or a book that would have me exclaiming in delight, “Yes! That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” And yet, in our Western society, manual labour typically comes in second to intellectual labour. In our schools, children who are deemed “not smart enough” are steered into vocational, manual courses whereas the strongly academic students often do little or no work with their hands at all.
There are pockets all over the world where it is clearly known and understood that the link between mind work and hand work is absolutely critical, and yet, at least in Western society, it’s not a widely accepted idea. Furthermore, we live in a time where it is possible (even probable) that the only role our hands play in our lives is to do the utilitarian work of survival and interacting with our technology (there is a whole other rabbit hole there!).
I decided that I had a new project to work on. Somehow, I wanted to reach people with the message that hand work is every bit as important as mind work. And then COVID happened. The initial lockdown gave me time to do some work on the project. I had a huge piece of cardboard on my floor which I covered in sticky notes, connecting as many ideas as I could to the importance of our hands.
A simple mind map of some early ideas
That was to be the only long lockdown that Western Australia experienced, but in other parts of the world where people were enduring months on end of restrictions, craft was experiencing a renaissance. People stuck at home were looking for things to do, and many of them turned to activities that engaged their hands and their minds - cooking, making, gardening, crafting, etc. I rapidly pivoted my teaching from in person to online and Beautiful Stitches stepped up another level as the orders started to flow in.
The Hands Manifesto lay neglected, my sticky notes full of ideas gradually fading as I concentrated on meeting the demands of my growing business. But I kept talking about it to people. It was too important to be forgotten. Every time I started a conversation with someone about the importance of our hands, there would be a spark of recognition in them. It seems that as individuals, we instinctively know and understand that our hands are important. But the society that we live in still ranks hand work as inferior to mind work, a situation that is largely reflected in our education system.
I believe that making things with our hands is absolutely fundamental to being human. It enables us to look outward and learn about the world around us as well as looking inward to understand ourselves. Working with our hands connects us to other people and the universe around us. Whilst modern machines can replicate the products we used to make with our hands, they can’t replace the extraordinary intellectual and creative benefits we gain from the making process. Put another way, machines can churn out multiple copies of the destination but they can’t help us to experience the journey.
I believe that making things with our hands is absolutely fundamental to being human. It enables us to look outward and learn about the world around us as well as looking inward to understand ourselves.
I am on a mission to share this philosophy with the world. I don’t fully understand the scope of my endeavour yet, but writing is a very good way to start. Hence this newsletter. I will write here about the research I have found, the conversations I have had, the anecdotes I have heard, and the ideas I have for making change. I would love it if you engage with the conversation too.
Comments from a previous platform….
Bec: A lovely idea Ann-Marie. I wish we were closer so we could spend more time together and get to know each other better. This will definitely help that. Thank you for including me.
Ann-Marie: I'll just have to come and visit again Bec. Or you can come here. Or we can meet somewhere in the middle :)
Michelle: I’m enthralled already!! Thank you for wanting to share ♥️
Ann-Marie: Thankyou so Michelle! Your kind words inspire me to keep writing more :)
Wendy: This is fabulous, Ann-Marie! First, "teaching creative confidence"❤ is such a brilliant way to view your projects! And I love the "mano a mano" link to creativity and community! Looking forward to your further exploration...👏❤
Heather: I’m looking forward to your further thoughts on this subject. I agree with the lack of value given to working with your hands. It’s systemic in school curricula, ‘smart kids do maths, science and ones that aren’t do the ‘lesser’ subjects’. Why is the weighting of a subject such as music composition so much less than that of chemistry? (Victorian ATAR weighting).
Wendy M: Ann-Marie, you have just given my purpose in life a concrete reality. I have always been creative, but my schooling was directed toward the academic… and I was good at it. I was headed down the path toward the medical field… pharmacy, doctor, etc. Then I took a theatre class and my life opened up, not as an actor but in costume design! I had found how to be creative, use my brain, my interest in literature (reading /analyzing scripts), and my hands on knowledge of sewing. When I finally retired from the hectic world of theatre, I thought I would explore my deep interest in medieval literature, namely Shakespeare, and get that Phd, and teach at the college level. I soon realized that I needed the creativity my hands brought to my existence. I soon discovered embroidery and soaked up all forms of stitching like a sponge. Now my brain needed exercising and I began designing counted canvas pieces. I am now a nationally known teacher of counted canvas and my hands & my brain are happy! I design complex pieces that explore/solve mathematical or perceptual puzzles and are always about exploring my knowledge of color theory. Head to hands and back!
Ann-Marie: Wow Wendy! What a beautiful response to my first post. Thankyou for taking the time to share your story. I totally relate to you story - especially the mathematics in our style of stitching. It’s endlessly fascinating to transform geometric ideas into pieces of art.
Wendy M: I have always claimed that I design from the left side of my brain, not the creative right side. We prove that math can be beautiful!
Marilyn: Working with my hands gives me such peace and harmony, hard to explain the feeling. Love your work and look forward to reading more of your discoveries
Wendy D: This idea has resonated with me. I have had a career in medicine, but have always created things with my hands in my 'spare' time. Life has changed in the last six months, with a accident leading to a change in the function of my right hand. I have rediscovered knitting and crochet, and it was wonderful to discover I could still create with my hands. My first love is embroidery and I am slowly starting to do this again, but have to consider how to use my right hand as best I can. Our hands are wonderful things, and I look forward to your ongoing explorations
Noelene: This really struck a chord with me, Ann-Marie. A fellow lacemaker passed your link on to me. I am looking forward to your future articles. Here's a little poem I wrote about lacemakers' hands: Lacemakers’ Hands Hands above the bobbins Hands with bobbins spread. Move with speed to place a pin, Move slow to tension thread. Old hands, young hands Hands both dark and fair. Hands young and plump with gift of youth Hands lined with time and care. Some with rings or bracelets hung And nails of polish bright. Others show the scars of time In the lamp’s exposing light. But underneath’s the product fine With twisted thread in place A joy to work, a joy to see The delight of making lace.
Louise: This really spoke to me: “Put another way, machines can churn out multiple copies of the destination but they can’t help us to experience the journey.” As humans, we’re here for the journey, minute by minute, decade by decade. I look forward to reading future posts. ❤️
Ann-Marie: I could not agree more Louise. The journey is everything. If you had told my 18 year old self what my journey would look like, I might not have believed you. But perhaps the greatest joy is exploring the unexpected twists and turns :)
Susan: I couldn’t agree more, engaging the hands, mind, and heart will bring you through anything. My aha moment came when I was in the hospital and desperately needed my hand work to calm my fears. I would have been lost without it.
Annette: Wow! Funnily enough those thoughts have been running around in my head as well. When I am using my hands working on embroidery, frustrations, depression etc seem to slip away, no stress. Yet when I am using my brain a lot and technology, I can feel myself getting frustrated and stressed without much thinking. It can be very frustrating. When I was working I was constantly in a state of depression, frustration and stressed out of mind. Since I have started on your projects in beautiful stitches and other forums using my hands more than my mind most times, I forget about the world out there, concentrate on making the best possible job of my embroidery, the use of your colours cheers me no end, and I am learning new things stress free. It is so true what you are on about and I look forward to hearing more. This may be therapy and new awakenings for the rest of us too. Well done!
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