If at first you don’t succeed, rip it out and try again: The benefits of failure among DIY handcrafters

Failure is a vital part of the creative process – we learn through failure. However, within the current culture that publicly celebrates success and achievement (sometimes at all costs) people are often hesitant to admit their failures – failure has become not just something to experience, but a negative and stigmatizing label, something to be avoided at all costs. Because of this, our ‘congratulatory culture’ reduces the importance of the creative process (including failure), especially in creative work. In this article, we focus on people who encounter failure regularly. We study people who make things with their hands – Do-It-Yourself (DIY) handcrafters who work with fibres and textiles. In our qualitative interview study with 44 North American handcrafters (e.g. those engaged in leisure weaving, knitting, crochet, patchwork), we examine ‘failure’, how handcrafters discuss the importance of failure, and how failure fits importantly into the creative process. We present discourse offered by the studies of the creative process and the importance of ‘failure’, as well as firsthand examples from our research and ethnographic experiences. We explore the complex creative process, including simultaneously positive and negative experiences.