This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - Crafting A Better World with Diana Weymar | 245

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

In this episode, we cover a topic that might just surprise you… but friend, we can always benefit from a departure from our usual discussions. We’re talking about crafting! Because it’s always good to tap into a different kind of creativity, and because you just may discover a new passion or rekindle an old one. Our guest is Diana Weymar, and we’re going to talk about CRAFTING, and even a bit about what she calls craftivism. Diana grew up in the wilderness of British Columbia, studied Creative Writing at Princeton and worked in film in New York, and for the past decade, has been threading the needle to create a material record of our times. Both on social media and in person, she has encouraged thousands of people to find their own creative path. She is the creator and curator of the public art projects Interwoven Stories and Tiny Pricks Project. Her collaborations and exhibits bring people together around textile and embroidery to share personal stories and even to discuss political issues. Whether it’s bookbinding, making jewelry, or even starting a cross-stitching club (which, let’s be honest, I’m seriously considering), there’s something deeply fulfilling about tapping into a different kind of creativity—one that nourishes the soul, keeps us openhearted and connects us to a larger community. Connect with Diana: IG: https://www.instagram.com/tinypricksproject/  Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/crafting-a-better-world-a-handbook-for-making-art-and-creating-change-diana-weymar/21020713?ean=9780063389281   Like what you heard? Please rate and review

I am Nicole Kalil, your host of the This Is Woman's Work podcast. And I have to say, today's topic is a bit outside our typical wheelhouse, but I am 100% here for it. It's a topic I didn't know I needed until I saw it come across my desk, and it makes me nostalgic for the past while also making me think about the future. So yeah, that's today's vibe. Maybe it's because this topic somehow transports me back to my seven-year-old self, who is all about imagination and creating things with her hands. Or maybe it's because it conjures up visions of my 70-year-old future self who might have just finally slowed down enough

to enjoy making something instead of Instacarting it. It could be because it reminds me of my sister, the craftiest person I know, who can whip up a handmade masterpiece in the time it takes me to find the craft supplies. I swear I'm still trying to figure out how she does it. Or maybe it's because there's this tiny voice in the back of my head that worries

that we're losing touch with these timeless arts and trades. In a world where everything is instant and on demand, are we losing the magic of creating something from scratch? Knitting, needlepoint, painting, woodworking, pottery, candle making, baking, these crafts not only collect us to a slower, more intentional way of life, but they also keep our creativity alive.

So today, we're gonna cover a topic on the podcast that might just surprise you, but I hope, like me, that when you see it, it's an immediate yes, because friend, we can always benefit from a departure of our usual discussions. And it's always good to tap into a different kind of creativity. And because you may just discover a new passion or rekindle an old one. I mean, I may start a cross-stitching club on the other side of this episode, so who knows what will happen from here. Our guest is Diana Weimar, and we're going to talk about crafting and even a bit about what she calls craftivism. Diana grew up in the wilderness of

British Columbia, studied creative writing at Princeton, and worked in film in New York, and for the past decade has been threading the needle to create a material record of our times. Both on social media and in person, she has encouraged thousands of people to find their own creative path. She is the creator and curator of the Public Art Projects, Interwoven Stories, and Tiny Pr pricks projects. Her collaborations and exhibits bring people together around textile and embroidery to share personal stories and even to discuss political issues. Okay, so Diana, thank you for being here. And I first have to ask you, what do you see as the benefits of crafting just in general? Oh, thanks so much for having me. I love that introduction. I do feel

like I'm somewhere seven going on 70. Well, I say that too, because you caught the word nostalgia, and that is such an important word right now too. So what are the benefits? There are so many, and you touched upon them in your introduction. The first benefit is to be able to observe your environment and to see what is around you, what I'm working away from. I'm working toward what is right in front of us. that we had was touched by hand repeatedly. We had no electricity, no indoor plumbing. You knew how things worked. You knew what your relationship was to them. And you knew how to make something new out of something that was used up. So a broken pot became a toy. This constant fluid relationship between what's around us and what we want and who we are. And so the benefit is that you're connecting to that part of yourself. So we both are in rooms with things behind us, and we've placed those objects there.

But when you start to make something, you transform those objects more personally. And the best benefit is just to connect to yourself, to see yourself reflected in the things around you. I'm in Provincetown, I came up here to sort of search for Mary Oliver. And I did this quote on the drive up, I stitched in the car. And it said, let me always be who I am and then some. And I think the benefit of this is and then some. This is an and then some. Outside of our work, our families, our politics, this is that little bit of extra you. I love that.

And I can hear myself and I'm sure some of our listeners going, but I don't have the time. That sounds wonderful. I would love to do that. It's one of those things that just sort of falls by the wayside. How would you recommend, I don't even know if prioritizing it is the right word, but creating the time to create? I think of it as stealing back time. And I want to say that even having the time to talk about my time is a privilege of sorts. So I think we're all very aware now, since the pandemic especially, about how we all absorb and consume time and time is a commodity. I find time. So I have four children and I got very interested in art therapy and I went back to art school and generally art supplies are expensive and you need a private space. The economics of being an artist are not always easy to negotiate. And

I just, I had time in little pockets. So it was easier to put a Ziploc bag full of embroidery and go to my son's squash practice and sit in the bleachers and stitch instead of looking at my phone. And I have to be honest with you, as someone who spends a lot of time on Instagram and has benefited tremendously from social media, I am also balancing that. The scales of time, and you would be shocked, or maybe you wouldn't be, probably not, how much time we spend on our phones and how much time we actually have to sit and stitch. So my husband and I went into a restaurant last night on our drive up here, and I started stitching immediately. I was doing a Molly Jong fast quote and the server came over and immediately said to me, what are you doing? And I said, I'm working

because you have all this time. And instead of being on your phone, uh, where it's harder to communicate and look somebody in the eyes, if you're stitching, you can look up and down, you can be present. So I, I don't watch anything now without stitching. I, you know, waiting for an appointment, instead of getting on my phone, I stitch. So I'm always stealing back that time. We have time. We're just all spending it in very different ways. And this is a particular way I've chosen to spend it. And then the other thing is to not think about this. When we look at craft, we think about time. If I stitch a beautiful page and you come into the gallery and you see it, you might ask me, how long did that take you? If you see a beautiful painting,

you don't say, how long did that take you? Or you see a photograph, you don't say, how long did that take you? But whenever the handwork is visible, we are thinking time. How long does a recipe take? You get this recipe will take 30 minutes. It always takes me twice as long. But the point is, we're measuring time, and that's measuring value, and that's measuring work, and then that's measuring that question that we shouldn't ask people. What do you do? What is your work? And so it's a very interesting

way of thinking about time and it helps me reprioritize what's important. So, okay, a few thoughts popped in my mind as you were talking. First, I think we often think of time management and I love the reframe of choice management. It's not time that we're managing, time is fixed and neutral. It's the choices we make with the time that we have. The second thing is how often we are spending slash wasting time unconsciously. I put a feature on my phone that told me how much screen time I average per day, and it was at least double what I thought it was. And so I'm being mindful, more conscious of that. And then also just that, I don't even know if creative is the right word,

but thinking about what we're already doing and where we can fit something that matters to us or something that we love or something that gives us energy or makes us feel good already within it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sitting there watching a practice or warmups before a game. That is a great time or waiting

rooms or while watching TV. Like you said, a lot of this you can do while not being so sucked in, like with our phones. I mean, if I'm on my phone and somebody talks to me, I don't hear it. I don't process what they're saying, but if I'm doing something like this, I can actually have a conversation. So, so many things in there. Now, my next question is around community. Cause I think a lot of times when we think about crafts, we think about it as individual or alone, and that could be part of it and that could be a benefit to it. But how does crafting help connect us? Well, for me, it's been all about connection. I wouldn't do what I'm doing if I were doing it just for myself or for my family or for a small group of people or as a gift to an individual. It is, I mean, I have to say, you and I are talking today because I stitch. So this is the example. This is it. It is something that has brought so many people together.

And the benefit of social media for me is that as a mother for coming out of parenting, I couldn't go back to the career I had before. I took a decade to raise kids. And I lived in Victoria, British Columbia. I didn't have a gallery. I didn't have an agent. And social media is the first step to sort of connecting. So I would say that stepping back and looking at my craft and what I do,

which is a real hybrid. And of course, anyone can do it. You can post on your feed something stitched. And the reason it connects us and how it connects us is that you're seeing something that someone has touched with their hands and you feel them more closely, I think. And so this connection, we could stitch this conversation and it would just read so differently. The minute you make it an object, you can step away but see the handiwork. So it's this push-pull constantly. And I think if we had to stitch everything we say, we would be much more mindful about our words. And so I use that sort of

transferring the craft into craftivism because I've used my work for activism purposes. And so it connects everyone because it's accessible on Instagram, on social media. That's the first thing is who can see your work? This is a very, this is a huge question for artists, for writers, for anyone is who can see it and how can you get them to see it? Because I'm convinced that if you can see my work, you'll connect with it, some part of it, whether it's nostalgia for something that your grandmother put a lamp on, whether it's the stitching or it's the actual text, the seeing is connecting. And that was the big pull of Tiny Perks Project when it went public, was that you could stitch something and send it to me, and I would post it, and you would be seen. This moment in time for you

would be witnessed. And that builds connection and community. There are people who have followed the project for years. There are people who have met each other through the project. There are people who recognize each other's stitching and work. And so it's really craft at its best is sort of witnessing and craftivism at its best is witnessing issue focused work. So work that is around something that says, I would like to tell you my story. So I want to talk about craftivism and some questions about that in a second. But before I do, I want to just recap what I heard is our crafts give us an outlet,

but also an opportunity for people to see and experience us in a different way. And more often than not, when I see something created, it elicits a feeling and it connects us through that feeling or emotion as opposed to lots of other ways. And I think that's really intimate and quick. I also had the thought when you were talking, you mentioned the waiter at the restaurant is like, when you're doing your craft,

the opportunity that it might give to connect people to you when somebody just is curious about it, or when somebody walks up and is like, oh my gosh, I love doing that too. I didn't know. Or there's probably community events around all these different crafts. I think there is just a ton of opportunity. Okay. So before we get into craftivism, my one last question about crafting in general is, and maybe I'm making this up. I have this fear that these are kind of becoming lost arts and trades. If I'm wrong, tell me. But my next question is, what are we losing? What might be lost if we aren't learning and teaching the next generation some of these crafts? Well, I think that for me, this is a lost

and then found craft. I think what we're losing is the opportunity to pursue a common thread. What we're losing is an opportunity to carry on traditions and to, of course, transform them. Everything is changing and many things should change. Many textiles, you know, are no longer practical. I started making my first pieces on little tiny christening gowns and dresses that came from my mother's family. Dresses I could never put on a child today. There's no Velcro. There's no snaps.

It's just impractical. And I don't know who maintained and washed and kept those textiles. But we're just, we're losing the ability to carry forward something and transform it. Crafting in embroidery and stitching and making is something that we have inherited an idea of. And we miss the opportunity to pick up that ball and sort of carry it forward. And it's this kind of storytelling that stops just like recitation or any other kind of activity. We miss the chance to see us ourselves somewhere between seven and 70, as you talked about, and to look back because I guarantee you these objects will be looked at, There's so much coming at us so quickly that what says to us, stop and hold this moment, and that's what we lose

if we give up the things that were more analog, say, for example. We miss that chance to carry forward something like a speed bump that says, hold on, take a moment while your head is, you know, spinning while we are all spinning. So I think what is really lost is something that builds patience and builds a kind of prayer-like state and paying attention that way. That's what we lose. The technique, of course, that changes and that's constantly evolving, but we lose the practice of being content to be still and not placing any value on the outcome of that answer. And I'll also add too is losing the value or understanding of what goes into creating something. Like I think about my husband and I were talking about this the other

day of being, we were watching like Omnivore, like one of these shows about cooking. And one of the things that's evident is how much they respect the food and where it comes from and the people who grow it and the people who catch the fish and then cut the fish. And there's just so much that goes into something before it gets presented as its final product. And I worry that we'll lose that appreciation, respect, gratitude for all the things that come before a final product. I love that idea of what do we see? So how does our food come to us? You know, we see it packaged. We see it in these certain ways. But I grew up in the wilderness, so we ate what we would hunt and fish. I know I saw the fish pulled out of the net in the river, flopping, clubbed over the head, carried back, and gutted. I saw everything that came out of the fish.

I held the beating fish heart in my hand as a child, and I knew my food, and I knew where it came from. That's not practical in our everyday world. But you're right that it's a kind of quest or desire or yearning for to pull that thread a little further back, you know, a little, can I see, you know, where this was? If someone you knew made the bookshelf behind you, you will know something differently. You will know it differently than if it came in a box and someone you don't know assembled it. When we look back, and I think I do this because I had this very specific childhood where I knew every bit of it literally by hand, I know exactly where I belong relative to those things and relative to being human sort of in this world. And I think that's what we're looking for. We want

to watch people making, we want to watch how we assemble our lives and we assemble our food. And, and even this podcast gives us such opportunity to look at how we're making a life, you know, what we're thinking about, what we're talking about, what people are studying, what's important. And specifically to women, how are women, as these sort of archivists, as the keepers of commonplace knowledge, as the ones sort of carrying a lot of things forward. How are we doing that? And I think you're right. We yearn for ways to connect. Agreed. Okay. So craftivism. Now, before we hit record, you and I talked a little bit because I've really struggled and evolved over time in my decisions about what to talk about with politics, what not to, how to talk about it. And I'm not sure, you used the term thread the needle,

and I'm not sure that I'm threading the needle quite, I don't know, I'll put in air quotes, right. I'm playing with it a little bit, but ultimately what I have come to in this particular period of time is I want to be proud of myself on the other side of whatever I say or do. And so I've made the decision to be somewhat neutral publicly. Now you've made the decision to make politics a key component of your work. Activism is, I would say, who you are and what you do. How do you thread that needle? No, fair enough. So I was born in 1969. And in 1970, my parents left the US because of the war in Vietnam. And that was a kind of protest. It was also an intellectual, spiritual decision. And they might have done it had there not been a draft, who knows. But that was a form of protest. So I've always had in my mind that to be a citizen is to be political and that leaving a country may be a patriotic act, that we don't necessarily have one path to activism, one path to politics. I spent the first two years of the Trump presidency, which for me was a challenging

presidency, not knowing what to do. And I wanted to do something. Most of all, I wanted to find a way, to be honest, just to be present, to not have this knee-jerk reaction, not to be sarcastic, not to be, you know, to rely on these kind of props to actually distance myself from what was really disturbing me. So stitching for me, when I heard Trump say, I'm a very stable genius was just enough that I could hold onto that and, and stitch it, which I did sort of very quickly. And I wasn't doing it so much to express my politics as to be present in the moment. And in doing that, I found my opinion. I found a voice that I could share.

And I want to be clear that my project is a protest project, but you could have been, when it was open to the public during the Trump presidency, a Trump supporter and stitch a piece and donate it. I exhibited the work at Politicon, which is a bipartisan convention in Nashville that year. And it was everyone was on the speaking from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sean Hannity to James Carville, all these different people. And the idea was bring everyone together. I had a huge wall installed. And Trump supporters would walk by and look at it and say, yeah, he said that. Or I don't agree with that, but I'm voting for him. You wouldn't necessarily know. So I even was in a situation with my project where I stitch a piece and say, I'm going to build a

wall or whatever it is that somebody might take it and use it as a pro-Trump. So I was not doing, I am not stitching anything that isn't already out there. I was recording, and that recording was my act of protest. So I was not trying to offend people. I'm not, I was upset, but not angry. I think this is a point. And I personally, the pieces that I made were not about Trump's body. I mean, I know the project is called Tiny Pricks Project, but for me, that reference is really primarily to prick your conscience and this kind of stabbing, pricking motion, this numbing pain, this repetition, which I felt that tweets had become. So I'm open to conversations and I would welcome, and I had had many Trump supporters at my shows talking to them about pieces. It always

was meant to be a conversation starter. And especially now as the project transformed from the Trump era and what that meant to different people through the Biden presidency to now, there was a point in sort of 2019 where I needed a balm. And where I went was not to pro-Biden or pro-other candidates, but I went to poetry and music and writers and podcasters, because I realized that if I am craving this kind of balance, then other people must be. And I wanted to give more time on my feed to these positive words. So I'm always threading the needle. I'm always balancing it.

Because on one hand, I want to be able to capture this material record of what's being said. Because it is being said. And it is upsetting in general. But I also want an opportunity to keep the conversation going. And I'm right. I've been, I'm in the middle of it and I got used to trolls. I got used to being criticized, you know, what, what has really broken my heart was the terrorist attack of October 7th and,

and how that split and what happened after that. And, and this massive amount of suffering that we're seeing in Gaza. And so that split my world in half. You know, that is just how to balance how to thread that I can't thread that needle, I am trying. And so I think it's when you are in a nuanced place, that's when you're really open hearted. And I like being in, I can handle the nuanced place, but it's slow. And I can't make broad statements about something that I don't know enough about to make that statement. So I think part of craftivism, and this project, and what you're doing as well, is just taking, just slowing it down a little

bit and saying, I know what I think. I know what my opinions are. I am political, but I'm in a space where you can also be political. I'm not trying to shout you down. And it's very hard for embroidery to shout anybody down. But I think that's my answer is I'm looking for nuance. So much of what you said could and should be embroidered. What a beautiful answer. I teared up several times. I'm not even sure why, but it felt true and real. And the word open-hearted when you said that, I was like, oh, that's really, I think a big opportunity here is to not sacrifice one value for another. I value curiosity and kindness. And yes, there is

so much potential to feel angry and disheartened and frustrated and upset and all of the things and still holding onto those values in those alongside those other experiences and feelings is very challenging. But I think at least what I tell myself is that's what the world needs right now. So my last question is in the face of the trolls and because you do a lot on social media and the upset and the heartbreak and all the things that just happen to all of us in life as we experience everything that's going on, how do you hold on to or remain open hearted? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I have four kids. They're all adults now. And, you know, I feel like I owe them an open hearted world. I mean, I feel like that's that's the answer for me personally.

And it's different for everyone. I don't want to carry around anger and frustration and close-heartedness. And that's sort of been my promise to them. I mean, being in this political world, that and that I won't discuss politics every night. But here's part of the thing I'll also say is I don't have to because I've done my political work. It have, you know, it's not catch and release. That's the wrong term for this. But so many participants in this project had a chance to make their political peace, but also make their political peace as P-E-A-C-E, because that's the process when you take on

a task where you begin and finish something, you can release it. And I think I have released again and again and again, thousands of pieces have been created and they're all a release. And I think that allows you to create more space in your heart. That allows you, you know, the open heartedness means you have to flush out, you know, what's blocking you, what's keep, what is firm. And this can be true in many different ways. What are you holding on to? What are you letting go of? And crafting is a, is a letting go of it's, you know, so it was gardening. And this is why in my book, I, when I was asked to do a book on craftivism, I immediately thought not of a book with a lot of instructions and

prescriptive activities. We have some of those. But I thought of what makes people craft? How is Roseanne Cash a craftivist? How is Jamie Lee Curtis practicing a craft? I'm interested in a wide range of people. And what is sort of common is this open-heartedness is to say, I see a problem. How am I going to address it? Am I going to make vulva-shaped chocolates? Am I going to write a song? Am I going to do an illustration? Am I going to go for a walk in nature? This is just crafting. And it really softens your heart. It has to. It has to. Friend, the book is called Crafting a Better World, Inspiration and DIY Projects for Craftivists. So absolutely get your hands on that. Order it from Amazon or better yet, go into a local bookstore,

grab it there or have them order it for you. And of course you can follow Diana and her great work on tiny pricks project on Instagram. If you don't mind a little salty or political content, but it's so, so, so good. Diana, thank you for, I don't even know the right word, just, um, a beautiful conversation. I was excited to talk about crafts, but it ended up being so, so much more. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I, I feel so lucky that you're interested in my work and you know, I, I was once I went to church for a while and it was sort of out of our, my cultural context. And someone asked my husband why I was going. And my husband said, she feels a combination of curiosity and yearning. And I know this work when it finds the right people and they find it. And so thank you for being one of those people and for sharing it. My absolute pleasure. Okay. As we wrap up today's

episode, I hope you're feeling as inspired as I am to slow down, to reconnect with some of these timeless crafts that allow us to create something with our own two hands and to connect it with something that matters to you, whether that's just getting some alone time or activism or anything in between, whether it's bookbinding, making jewelry, or even starting a cross-stitching club, which let's be honest, I'm seriously considering, there is something deeply fulfilling about tapping into a different kind of creativity, one that nourishes the soul, keeps us open-hearted, and connects us to a larger community.

Thank you for joining me in this little detour from our usual topics and for being open to exploring something new together. Because at the end of the day, that's what this is all about. Finding the things that light us up and then sharing them with the world. After all, that is woman's work.