The Creative Instinct: Exploring the Ancient Urge to Make Things by Hand with Suzy Bennett
When photographer and travel journalist Suzy Bennett walked into a Victorian forge to commission a curtain rail, she was bewitched by the sights and sounds she found there.
The experience caused a career change that led Suzy to reduce her worldwide travel and pick up stories closer to home in Devon.
In this episode she looks at what lies behind our compulsion to make things, how craft can benefit mental health and the importance of celebrating traditional techniques and practical earthy people.
Suzy’s book, Artisans of Dartmoor, is out now.
‘Our biggest leap in evolution was the discovery that we could make tools. It was a game-changer. Craft nowadays is a main vein to this primitive instinct – it’s still there.’– Suzy Bennett
For Episode 12 of We Need to Make Things I chat with photographer and travel journalist Suzy Bennett @suzybennett.photography about the human compulsion to make things by hand, how craft can benefit our mental health and the importance of celebrating traditional techniques and practical, earthy people, among many other things.
Suzy is an award-winning journalist and photographer with regular clients including The Telegraph, The Times and Conde Nast Traveller. She spent the first 20 years of her career specialising in adventure travel, but now works closer to home in her beloved Devon. Alongside her travel work, Suzy is one of the UK’s leading writers and photographers of traditional crafts. In 2017 she founded The Dartmoor Artisan Trail, a not-for-profit community project that gives visitors the chance to visit members in their workshops and try their hand at traditional crafts. Her latest book, Artisans of Dartmoor, is out now.
This episode is full of Suzy’s words of wisdom including:
👉 What lies behind the human urge to create
👉 How craft is the antidote to throwaway culture
👉 Why artisans are actually thrill seekers in disguise
👉 What happened when a remote hill surrendered its secrets
Enjoy!
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