This class is in a one-hour lecture format. There will be time for Q&A at the end but no hands-on attention.

Why do we still feel the urge to make things with our hands?

For more than 30 years, Melanie Falick has explored handwork as a way to better understand ourselves, each other, and the people who came before us. In The Wisdom of Our Hands, she takes us on a fascinating journey from the earliest tools, containers, cordage, and textiles to the ways making things by hand continues to shape our lives today—including the often-overlooked role women play in this story.

Drawing on decades of professional work in the handwork community and her personal experiences as a maker, Melanie considers what happens when we slow down, make something ourselves, and reconnect with this deeply human impulse. Along the way, she explores how handwork can bring more meaning, beauty, connection, and joy into our lives.

At a time when technology is changing how we work and create, The Wisdom of Our Hands is an invitation to pause, look at what our hands can do, and rediscover why making things by hand still matters.