Abstract
Art and craft practitioners have personal experience of the benefits of making: the handling of material can help to regulate our mental states through providing a means to reach flow states. The mirror neuron system helps in skill learning, and the plasticity of the brain ensures that skills may be learned at all stages of life. Arts and crafts play a role in controlling stress and enhancing relaxation. They also enable us to fail safely and handle our emotions. Furthermore, they facilitate social activity for many individuals who are at risk of social isolation. This article aims to integrate knowledge from both the field of neuroscience and the arts by focusing on the implications that flow experience and the mirror neuron system integral to making processes have on our psychophysical well-being.
Highlights
Crafts have been understood as human–material interaction mediated by the practice of a person’s skill and material-based knowledge (Adamson, 2010, 2)
Hobby crafters in textiles in particular emphasise the experience of the flow of making as a major factor in their well-being
Nurturing well-being through arts and crafts In this article, we have discussed how arts and crafts, and in particular the sphere of making, can enhance our well-being in a holistic way
Summary
Crafts have been understood as human–material interaction mediated by the practice of a person’s skill and material-based knowledge (Adamson, 2010, 2). Using the notion of a ‘holistic craft process’, researchers have strongly emphasised that craft is an entity including the idea of the product, the embodied craft skill of making the product and the reflective evaluation of the product and the process (Kojonkoski-Rännäli, 1995, 58–60; Pöllänen, 2009, 251). This holistic craft process is seen as an exploratory, inventive and experimental activity in its core nature.
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