Handmade : learning the art of chainsaw mindfulness in a Norwegian wood / Siri Helle ; translated by Kari Dickinson and Lucy Moffat.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Helle, Siri, 1982- author.

Contributor:

Dickinson, Kari, translator.

Moffat, Lucy, translator.

Jay Newberg Collection Fund.

Standardized Title:

Med Berre Nevane : English

Language:

English

Norwegian

Subjects (All):

Helle, Siri, 1982-.

Helle, Siri.

Woodwork--Norway.

Woodwork.

Mindfulness (Psychology).

Genre:

Anecdotes.

Physical Description:

199 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Granta Books, 2022.

Language Note:

Translated from the Norwegian

Summary:

"The story of one woman, one chainsaw, and one modest plan for a mini-cabin - a book from Norway that celebrates the act of making something with your own two hands. Humans have always used their hands to create the world around them. But now most of us have gone from being practitioners to theorists, from being producers to consumers. What happens to our society when we are so divorced from the act of making? What happens to us as individuals when we limit the uses to which we put our hands? These are questions that preoccupy Siri Helle when she inherits a cabin of 25 square metres, without electricity, inlet water, or a loo, and decides to build an outhouse herself. Without any previous experience of building anything, she has to learn on the job and what she learns is not just about how to lay a floor and construct walls, but about what she is capable of and about craft and about the satisfactions to be found in making things by hand. Written with humour and insight, Handmade is the inspiring story of someone who tried to do it herself - and did"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Introduction: in which my hands teach me a new way of looking at the world

In which I learn to love a chainsaw

In which I convince myself I can make a small but very useful building

In which I climb on something I have built myself

In which I gather building materials from nearby and weave a wall

In which I teach myself something that's almost too niche for YouTube

In which I sit and watch the birds

Afterword: in which I get a new playground and put down roots.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Jay Newberg Collection Fund.

ISBN:

1783787473

9781783787470

OCLC:

1265455800

Publisher Number:

99993395552