From an item called DIY Dangerous Toy – The Universel Cycle
Buddhist temple made from beer bottles
Bicycle table
I’m not ashamed to admit it: I’m a dude who crafts. I like altering books, journaling, papercraft, rubber stamping, mail art, making stickers, and… God help me for saying this … “scrapbooking” (tho not the sucky kind, I tell myself).
So, I can totally dig this website, dedicated to men who like being crafty. From Paul’s mission statement:
DudeCraft is an experiment in permission. The permission to learn and participate in crafts of all kinds. Building things from wood and steel is cool, to be sure, but so is knowing how to sew your own clothes, knit a scarf, and make something beautiful from an A4 sheet of paper. DudeCraft seeks to make it acceptable for men to participate in all crafts, not just the “manly” ones.
12 thoughts on “Crafting for guys”
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Gareth,
Thanks for the nice write up on DudeCraft! Glad you like it!
Paul
“I’m not ashamed to admit it: I’m a dude who crafts. I like altering books, journaling, papercraft, rubber stamping, mail art, making stickers, and… God help me for saying this … “scrapbooking” (tho not the sucky kind, I tell myself).”
There is nothing wrong with that. There are no thick lines drawn that separate any two areas of making/crafting. It is all creativity of the mind to motion of hand to molding of material.
You are “in touch with your feminine side” is all.
I was once in touch with my feminine side, but then my feminine side got a restraining order for touching it inappropriately. :-P
I think it’s really weird to assign gender to making stuff. I’ve known guys that knit and crochet, or quilt. They just did it. They liked it, and there was never a big “breaking into the girls domain” thing about it.
One gentleman I know even swore by knitting as the best way to meet women.
I guess I don’t see it as any different from a gal soldering, or playing with electronics.
Stuff is cool because it’s made by someone.
At the zenith of carreers typicaly considered feminin there usualy well paid men involved (Celebrity Chefs, Suit Tailors, Interior Designers, Hair stylist). But that doesn’t make you any less of a nancy boy :-)
The more I think about this, the more I’m convinced that if there were not a stigma involved with doing “girly crafts” then better guys might be at decently decorating their apartments, not dressing like the undead, cooking…
“I was once in touch with my feminine side, but then my feminine side got a restraining order for touching it inappropriately. :-P”
Good one Gizmo!
I was inspired by make/craft to learn how to knit and crochet. I liked how the first few issues of makezine involved crafting and started to break the gender stereotypes… but then the zine split, and it again seemed to go along gender lines.
I thought, surely there are other guys out there who knit, so I googled it. I think the first 2-3 websites I found were run by gay guys. (As Seinfeld would say “not that there’s anything wrong with that”).
All that to say… I too am a new fan of dudecraft.
So… how ’bout those Bears!