Making a Life Panel (Featuring Melanie Falick)

Doors open 30 minutes before the start of the event.

Why do we make things by hand? And why do we make them beautiful? Led by the question of why working with our hands remains vital and valuable in the modern world, author and maker Melanie Falick went on a transformative, inspiring journey. Traveling across continents, she met quilters and potters, weavers and painters, metal-smiths, print-makers, woodworkers, and more, and uncovered truths that have been speaking to us for millennia yet feel urgently relevant today: We make in order to slow down. To connect with others. To express ideas and emotions, feel competent, create something tangible and long-lasting. And to feed the soul. In revealing stories and gorgeous original photographs, Making a Life captures all the joy of making and the power it has to give our lives authenticity and meaning.

Join us in the Rare Book Room as Melanie discusses her latest book with contributors Lotta Jansdotter, Renate Hiller, and Elsa Mora!

Melanie Falick is an independent writer, editor, and creative consultant—and a lifelong maker. Formerly the publishing director of STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books, an imprint of Abrams, and the editor in chief of Interweave Knits magazine, she is also the author of Knitting in America, Kids Knitting, and Weekend Knitting, as well as several other titles. Find her on Instagram @melaniefalick and at melaniefalick.com.

Lotta Jansdotter is a designer, maker, style icon, teacher, and author. Her designs adorn everything from fabric, rugs, bedding, and dishes to luggage and paper goods. Her creations have appeared in the New York Times, Elle Decor, Real Simple, Lucky, Domino, O Magazine, and Selvedge, and have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Herman Miller, Barneys, Spiral Market, and Svenskt Tenn.

Renate Hiller is a lifelong maker and a cofounder of the Fiber Craft Studio, originally part of the Sunbridge College training center for Waldorf teachers, where she taught for many years. A mentee of Grete Frohlich, a pioneer of Waldorf education in the United States, Renate helped to develop Waldorf’s Applied Arts program for handcraft-teacher training, including introducing natural dyeing to the curriculum.

Elsa Mora is the artistic director and curator at ArtYard, a contemporary art center in Frenchtown, NJ. She has taught at the Vocational School of Arts in Camaguey, Cuba, and has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco State University, the Art Institute of Boston, and the National Gallery of Art, among others. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the Long Beach Museum of Art; and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.