Crafting a Better World: Inspiration and DIY Projects for Craftivists

From beloved craftivist Diana Weymar, creator of the brilliantly subversive Tiny Pricks Project, a collection of projects, actions, and essays to transform your anxiety into action during troubled times.

Ever feel like you’re hanging on by a thread?

From the climate crisis, to racism, to gun violence, to attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, the list of issues facing this country goes on and on, and it’s only natural to feel anxious about the state of our union. Even if you vote, march, volunteer, and donate, feelings of hopelessness (and helplessness) still creep in.

Crafting a Better World is a new kind of call to action: a guidebook for combatting fatigue and frustration with the handmade. Whether that’s sewing a welcome blanket for new immigrants, or making a batch of “vulva chocolates” to raise money at a bake sale for abortion access, this book will teach you how to transform your anxiety into action.

Curated by Diana Weymar, the creator of the Tiny Pricks Project, who knows what it means to meld craft and activism. On Jan. 8, 2018, she stitched “I am a very stable genius” (a Donald Trump quote) into a piece of her grandmother’s abandoned needlework from the 1960s and posted it to Instagram. Since then, she’s turned her embroidery practice into a material record of the trials facing this country and become a leading voice in the movement to save our democracy.

Featuring essays, exclusive profiles of well-known creatives, and projects that readers can create by themselves or with their communities, this book is a means to stay engaged, make stuff, and hold ourselves together as we navigate this uncertain personal and political landscape. With contributions from artists and activists, including:

• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Roz Chast
• Gisele Fetterman
• PEN America
• Nadya Tolokonnikova (founding member, Pussy Riot)
• Guerilla Girls

Crafting a Better World is a response to this unique moment in time when so many feel, in equal measure, deep anxiety and deep hope. So pick up a needle, a pen, a spatula—anything—and craft the change you want to see in the world.