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Quickthorn is an independent publisher creating practical and ethical books about making and personal resilience
About Quickthorn
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Quickthorn publishes books with an emphasis on making, and personal agency. Making empowers us to be more self-sufficient and take control over the way we consume.
Making something with your own hands is a reflective process, it encourages you to slow down when the pace of life feels too fast, to be patient and to learn that good things don’t happen immediately. There is a huge joy in making, to create something that is unique, tangible evidence of your time and labour.
We have been researching new ways to reduce our environmental impact, using local suppliers and printers where possible, sourcing recyclable packaging and recently using a cellulose lamination process for book finishing that is fully biodegradable and compostable.
Quickthorn Books are distributed to the tradie in the UK and Europe by Centralbooks.com (orders@centralbooks.com) and in the US through IPGBooks and in Australasia by Woodslane
We are always interested in submissions for illustrated non-fiction titles around craft and making (we don’t publish fiction or poetry thanks). If you think your idea might fit with our other books, please send a brief outline of your ideas to info[at]quickthornbooks.com
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Blog posts
- Reviews for Rags
Rag Manifesto offers an introduction and a call to arms for rethinking the way we view and use textiles, particularly textile waste. It encourages us to see rag as a precious material with meaning and potential, rather than as waste. The manifesto promotes the idea of transforming and repurposing textiles, and highlights the importance of creativity, community, and sustainability in this process. Now we’ve had some early reviews for Rags. Thanks to Crafts Magazine, Alice Ellerby at Juno Magazine and… Read more: Reviews for Rags
- We’ve been shortlisted
Intelligent Hands: Why making is a skill for life has been shortlisted for an award for indie publishers by Book Brunch. The announcement will be at the London Book Fair on 12 March and I’ve already booked my train ticket. It’s a long shot or course, but it’s great to be recognised 😊 Meanwhile, Intelligent Hands will be available in the USA from IPG books from 27 February, that’s tomorrow! We’ve had some great endorsement’s for Rag Manifesto already, this… Read more: We’ve been shortlisted
- Events coming up
It’s always good to have something to look forward to and there are lots of lovely events happening this spring connected with Intelligent Hands: Why making is a skill for life. Authors Charlotte Abrahams and Katy Bevan will be talking with Daniel Carpenter of Heritage Crafts at the Dartington Trust Bookshop in Totnes on 8 February As part of Stroud Film Festival we are talking about Intelligent Hands and showing a number of short films related to craft and making… Read more: Events coming up
Press coverage
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info[at]quickthornbooks.com
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Beyond Darning
£19.99This beautiful new darning book is translated from the Japanese book Darning Brooches by Hikaru Noguchi.
Complete with full step-by-step instructions for beginners and creative inspiration for the more seasoned darner from the queen of mending. Available July 2024. -
Darning
£19.00Climate change is making us rethink how we use resources and not subscribing to fast-fashion and re-using and mending our clothes has become a mark of pride. This is visible mending, more akin to embroidery and embellishment that will make your favourite clothing even more personal and save it from landfill.
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Finding Quiet Strength
£24.00Finding Quiet Strength by Judith Kleinman will be your personal life survival kit. The ideas in this book can help on this journey of finding a quiet, flexible strength, which gives us a greater capacity to choose how we want to be in the world. If this intrigues you, then this book is for you.
‘I learned a lot from working with Judith Kleinman. She was able to locate in me a stillness and equilibrium I didn’t know I had…’ Nick Hornby
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Intelligent Hands
£19.99Recent years have seen a decline in craft and creative education in schools and a shift from practical to theoretical learning models in higher education. Young people are leaving school with no idea that craft-based careers are even possible, and graduates of craft-based degree courses are entering the workplace with so few hand skills that their employers must train them from scratch.
Where did the idea come from that white-collar work should be rewarded more with money and status than that of a blue-collar worker? Intelligent Hands looks at this phenomenon, the historical precedents that led us here and why hand skills are crucial in education and for lifelong learning. The authors are on a mission to enlighten the uninitiated and persuade the nay-sayers who dismiss craft as no more than a nice hobby or believe that doing things with your hands is for those who can’t use their heads. -
On Mending
£19.99Celia Pym explores the varied evidence of damage: how repair draws attention to the places where garments and cloth wear down and grow thin. These personal tales document the intimate damage caused to clothing by everyday use and the parallels with the consequent wear and tear on the body.
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Rag Manifesto
£21.00Rag Manifesto is a unique, artist’s view of the traditional art of rag rug making for this age of the Anthropocene. Projects highlight a reverence for our lost textiles, a response to the environmental impact of fast fashion and a proof that rag is a rich resource, wrongly classed as a taboo material. Rachael Matthews gives us permission to cut up our old fabrics offering a support structure for decision making and a chart on how to make liberating decisions about destroying a garment.
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Small Steps to Less Waste
£19.99What are the tipping points that encourage people to make significant changes to their behaviour? This inspiring book includes ten stories of personal enlightenment and the practical changes they made.
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When words are not enough
£19.99Jane Harris is a psychotherapist and bereavement specialist. Jimmy Edmonds is a photographer and documentary film editor with over 100 credits on TV productions including the BAFTA winning Chosen for Channel 4. Together they run Active Grief Retreats as The Good Grief Project. This is their first book, exploring active and creative responses to grief and how they can help you to survive.
When Words are Not Enough: Creative responses to grief was first published October 2022
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