Broken

This new book celebrates 25 artists, curators, designers and makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair.

We live in a single-use society, where fashion is fast, disposability is the norm and it is easier to replace than to repair. We don’t need to mend things anymore – and yet we do. What is it about Homo faber – man the maker – that cannot resist fixing what is broken?

As we start to decouple from the linear take-make-waste model that has dominated Western economies since the Industrial Revolution and seek something more circular, an enquiry into what mending means has never been more urgent.

With a foreword by The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades, this new book by craft and circularity advocate Katie Treggiden celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.

About the Author

Katie Treggiden is a design historian and craft writer with almost twenty years experience in the creative industries. Following a 12-year career in advertising, marketing and brand strategy, Treggiden became a craft and design journalist in 2010, focusing on creativity as a positive agent for social change. She has written four books (including Wasted. When Trash Becomes Treasure, Urban Potters: Makers in the City ; Weaving: Contemporary Makers on the Loom, published by Ludion), established an award-winning blog and an independent magazine, and regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, and Monocle 24.