The joy of handmanking

Simple but forgotten skills

Our grandmothers learned how to sew, knit, and cook at school. Our grandfathers learned how to tinker, repair, make tools from their own fathers. Beyond the gender attributions that we can overcome today, the former generations used to reach adulthood knowing how things were made and how to create an object from scratch. Whether it is making a pie crust or a basket, repairing a snag or a garden tool, preparing a carrot bed or a compost heap, these skills have been gradually forgotten with our urban lifestyle, delegated to experts or machines.

However, it is not that complicated to acquire the basics of knitting, basket weaving or home cooking, to sow a few plants on your windowsill or repair a power outlet. More and more, we try to reconnect with this know-how through tutorials on the internet. Le Moulin des Etrebières invites you to rediscover basic techniques in permaculture, home cooking, craft work and DIY during craft workshops. You will be initiated by passionate craftsmen, eager to pass on their know-how.

A path to empowerment

Once upon a time, my tumble-dryer broke. Stubbornly, I took apart what I could and discovered that the belt had broken. I found a new belt on the internet and managed, with some difficulty, to reinstall it. That day, I felt a strong sense of pride. I had avoided scrapping the device (which frequently happens) and/or the high-price intervention of a handyman.

This feeling of pride when we succeed in creating, repairing, adapting with your own hands is addictive. We feel stronger, more autonomous, capable of fending for ourselves. It is a powerful motivator. During craft workshops, you will rediscover the simple techniques of our ancestors, techniques that have the power to make life simpler.

Reusing resources

Craft workshops are also an opportunity to make do with what you have at hand, to use available resources to transform and adapt an object rather than buying another. It’s a way of recycling and preserving the planet’s resources which will become scarcier.

Whether transforming vegetables from the garden into a delicious and healthy meal, or repairing an everyday object so that it will last for many more years, or again making a kitchen table out of the former roof structure, it is empowering to know how to make by hand.

Besides, we remain attached to what we have fabricated ourselves. The object acquires its own history and beauty despite any imperfections. It has the ‘handmade’ cachet. With a little practice, we get better and bolder at our craft and find joy in making personalized gifts filled with the love we put into them.

Well-being associated with manual activities

After years of grueling physical labor, machines have had a liberating effect on our societies. But in our rush to lighten our burden, we have also lost respect for manual work : ‘thinking is for the smart one, making is for those who don’t have the brains’. However, nothing further from the truth.

A lot of thought goes into the crafting of a beautiful object or into repairing efficiently. This is why today, we no longer dare to do it ourselves and we outsource the repair. We no longer know how to go about it, where to start and what are the steps.

Furthermore, there is a deep feeling of well-being associated with manual activities. For example, there is nothing like a weeding session to clear your mind and suddenly find solutions to problems you have long tried to solve. And how many people love cooking because it relaxes them profoundly?

It is high time to put manual work back on its pedestal, at the center of education, alongside theoretical thinking. Visit Moulin des Etrebières, to reconnect with clever ancient techniques, and rediscover the joys of handmaking.