Home is where the craft is

(Nimue)

This year’s upheavals have prompted me to think a great deal about what makes a space feel like a home. I’ve spent my adult life wanting (and often having) the apparent security of home ownership. Renting feels precarious. However, having had to move out of homes I’d invested in buying on two occasions now, I’m a lot less convinced that there’s any real security to be had in ownership.

A place feels like home to me when I feel welcome and wanted, and that’s far more important than who owns the ground, or the walls.

One of the things that turns out to be important to me is having things in a space that I’ve made. Even better if I’ve made them specifically for the space. We started out with one of my rag rugs being a bath mat, and a few weeks ago I made awen bunting for my desk, and the octopus draft excluder. At this point I have the space to craft (actual table!) and the space for things I have crafted, so I’m getting to work. In the coming weeks I’ll be making the first blanket for this space, and the first rag rug. Having a rag rug I made for somewhere else isn’t quite the same. 

There’s something about spending time in a place making things. There have been some bits of sewing – cloths for breadmaking, two skirts, some repairs. Really digging in with a big project has a different feel to it and affects my relationship with the space. Making things for a home is an investment in the idea of it being a home for the longer term, and that’s a good feeling too.

Crafting and upcycling create stories around objects. In the foreground of the photo there’s a bag I’m working on, and as all its components come from somewhere, the bag is rich with stories. I’ll be rag rugging with dead clothes, so all of the associations of those garments go into the rag rug and form part of its significance. Buying items doesn’t create stories in the same way and there isn’t the continuity. Making things also involves building a relationship with objects and the space, and I like how that works.