SASQUATCH BOOKS

1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101

206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com
FOR RELEASE AUGUST 26, 2014
Contact Haley Stocking, Publicist 206/826-4318 hstocking@sasquatchbooks.com
Whatever creative demons you're looking to battle, other people have been there, and I
bet I've been there too. Sometimes I've been wounded in ghting my demons, sometimes I've felt
sure I wouldn't survive the ght, and in all cases I came out not only alive, but happier. It's your
turn now. Take a deep breath, sharpen your sword.
Perfectionists, meet your match! Other books might advise
readers on ways to make their crafting visually appealing, but in
Make It Mighty Ugly: Exercises and Advice for Getting Creative Even
When It Aint Pretty (Sasquatch Books; August 2014; $18.95) author
Kim Piper Werker says to go ahead and make something mighty ugly
to get that failure out of the way. Once the fear of making something
less than perfect has been explored fully, creative juices are owing and
the only way to go is up!
This fresh new book is a must-have for any type of crafters,
writers, artists, and even just those who want to explore their creative
side but dont yet have a medium. The book takes a step-by-step
approach through exercises that gently instruct readers to push their boundaries. Part One identies
strengths and weaknesses that are holding you back and guides you as you create your own ugly creature.
Part Two encourages readers to get their hands dirty. Finally, Part Three helps you establish a routine, works
through blocks and procrastination, and explores the value of sharing your work.
Plenty of tips, fascinating facts, interviews with other creative types, and stories from Werkers life
round out this inspirational guide, while the authors warm, funny voice feels like sitting down for a craft
night with good friends. (MORE)
Make It Mighty Ugly
Exercises and Advice for Getting Creative
Even When It Aint Pretty
Kim Piper Werker
About the Author
Kim Piper Werker teaches hands-on and discussion-based
Mighty Ugly workshops and lecture-conversations that help
people confront creative demons, experiment with new
approaches to creative expression, and build condence in what
they make and do. Learn more at www.mightyugly.com. Kim is
also the author or coauthor of several crochet books, including
Crochet Me and Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting, and a
cohost of Knitting Daily TV. She is the former editor of
Interweave Crochet magazine and the founder of
CrochetMe.com. She has written for Crochet Today, Knit.1, and
Yarn Market News magazines. She lives in Vancouver, British
Columbia. www.KimWerker.com. You can follow Kim on
Twitter at @kpwerker.
SASQUATCH BOOKS
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101
206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com
Make It Mighty Ugly
Exercises and Advice for Getting Creative Even When It Aint Pretty
Kim Piper Werker
Illustrations by Kate Bingaman-Burt
August 2014 240 pages
Paperback: $18.95 ISBN 978-1-57061-914-4

Available wherever ne books are sold.
Sasquatch Books 800/775-0817 www.sasquatchbooks.com
Make It Mighty Ugly Events
This fall, Kim Piper Werker hits the road on an 8-city tour with Betsy Greer (Craftivism: The Art
and Craft of Activism) and Leanne Prain (Strange Material: Storytelling Through Textiles).
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
Wednesday, October 1st, 7:30 pm
Booksmith, San Francisco
Moderated conversation with Rena Tom
Thursday, October 2nd, 7 pm
Diesel Bookstore, Oakland
Moderated conversation with Lisa Congdon
Friday, October 3rd, 6:30 pm
Makeshift Society, San Francisco
Hands-on workshop with Kim, Leanne, and Betsy
PORTLAND, OREGON
Sunday, October 5th, 7:30 pm
Powell's City of Books, Portland: Part of Design Week Portland
Moderated conversation with Kate Bingaman-Burt
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Monday, October 6th, 6 pm
Seattle Creative Arts Center
Moderated conversation with Marlo Miyashiro
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Tuesday, October 7th, 7:30
Hot Art Wet City, Vancouver
Short talks by each author, followed by a celebratory meet-and-greet
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Tuesday, October 14th, 5:30 pm
Textile Museum of Canada
Moderated conversation with Amy Singer
(CONTINUED)
SASQUATCH BOOKS
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101
206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Wednesday, October 15th, 6:30 pm
The University of the Arts
Moderated conversation with Garth Johnson
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Thursday, October 16th, 7 pm
Institute of Contemporary Arts, Art Lab
Discussion, Q&A, and signing
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
Friday, October 17th, 6:30 pm
Brooklyn Craft Company
Moderated conversation with Sabrina Gschwandtner
Saturday, October 18th, 1 pm
MakeShift Society, Brooklyn
Hands-on workshop with Kim, Leanne, and Betsy
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Monday, October 20th, 5:30 pm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, MacMillan Education Center
Moderated conversation with Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft Nora Atkinson
Events subject to change. Please contact Haley Stocking at hstocking@sasquatchbooks.com
for up-to-date events information.
SASQUATCH BOOKS
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101
206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com
The Story of Mighty Ugly
From the Make It Mighty Ugly introduction
Sometime in the mid-2000s, my friend Ian threw himself a birthday
party. He lled his living room with scrap craft supplies, set up a couple of
sewing machines, and covered the few remaining surfaces of his apartment
with treats and drinks.
As a Crafter {insert serious-sounding voice here}, I was very
excited for this party. This was my kind of social event. But it didn't turn
out the way I'd planned.
Not so fun, kind of uncomfortable.
After a drink or two, I sat down next to a bag of fabric scraps, and I fell in love with some
upholstery fabric. Hideous upholstery fabric. It was orange and green and white, and made me
imagine the person who might choose to cover an entire sofa in it. People have since pointed out
to me that if you glance at the fabric a certain way, it looks like brain pizza. I was in love with it.
What must a room with that sofa have looked like, in its entirety? Surely something to behold.
Despite my discomfort and the sad time I was having, I desperately wanted to make a doll from
this awful fabric.
Only thing was, I was a yarn crafter. I didn't know a thing about sewing dolls. I could
barely sew a button, and artlessly at that.
I felt my chest tighten. What will people think of me? They'll know I'm a fraud. I'd better
set this fabric down. I'm not really crafty at all. Charlatan!
I was, with sweaty palms and everything, afraid.
Despite the countless times I'd told people they could always start over, it did not occur to
me that I could rip out stitches and start again if I screwed the doll up. It did not occur to me that
it was a party and not, like, open-heart surgery. It did not occur to me that nobody was paying
any attention to what I was doing and that my little project couldn't matter less to them.
It felt like hours passed (really minutes), and I just sat there, slumped over my drink.
But oh, I did so love that ugly fabric. I'd sneak sideways glances at it, and felt ercely
competitive about it I was desperate that no one else would take it.
In the end, my love for the fabric beat out my fear of being found out, so I decided I
would just make the doll ugly. I wouldn't fret about how you're supposed to sew a doll. I
wouldn't care if my seams were uneven. I would just do it. I would do it with abandon. And I
would try to make it as ugly as I possibly could, for real. (MORE)
SASQUATCH BOOKS
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101
206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com
After I'd sewn the doll most of the way around and stuffed it, and then applied a truly
gruesome seam to close it up, I crocheted it a scarf. Because I knew this beast still loved to
accessorize, and to be honest, I needed to make something even something ugly that I knew
how to do properly. And then I found some awful glass buttons and hot-glued them to her face. I
had fun. I felt free uninhibited and unencumbered and unedited.
I named the doll Shoshana, and I loved her. And when I held her up to show her off and
people made their faces blank like they didn't know how to politely react, I announced, "I made
her ugly on purpose! Her name is Shoshana! I totally love her!"
I don't remember any conversations from that night. Not sure if we sang to Ian. I think
there may have been cupcakes. But I do remember being utterly consumed by making that doll. I
remember the lightness that replaced the tightness in my chest. I remember delighting in nding
the ugliest buttons in the bowl.
I still have the doll.
I've since learned to sew.
One evening a few years after Ian's party, I was coming home on the bus, staring out the
window. To the rhythm of storefronts passing by, my mind wandered back to Shoshana. I'd
spoken to colleagues and crafters about how freeing it had been to make something ugly on
purpose; how unusual it was; how there's such pressure to create beauty, especially in the crafts
world, and that pressure can be defeating. But I hadn't given it any more thought than that. On
the bus, though, as I daydreamed, I realized that every person in the world should make
something ugly on purpose. Crafters, naturally, could use a break from the pressures of cute and
desirable, even if it would make them uncomfortable. Artists could gain unexpected perspective.
Engineers might see the way they solve problems a little differently after they'd made something
that's usually considered a failure. Entrepreneurs, for sure, could use taking a step back to stare
down their fear of failing.
I ran home from the bus and told my partner I'd had an IDEA.
An hour later, I'd registered mightyugly.com and had started populating the site with this
notion: That ugly can be wonderful. That striving for it can be liberating. That staring it
down can take its power away, so we stop preventing ourselves from doing big things.
Ugly is failure. It's shame. It's doubt.
But ugly can make us mighty. All we have to do is pay attention to it. When we look at it,
when we stare it right in the face, we take its power for our own. We grow to understand it. We
learn from it. We defuse it.
And we become free.
SASQUATCH BOOKS
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 710 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101
206/467-4300 TOLL FREE 800/775-0817 FAX 206/467-4301
www.sasquatchbooks.com