Queer Crafts: Materiality, Identity and Contemporary Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

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Abstract:

Through a focused analysis of work made from textiles, ceramics, wood, paper, metal, and glass, this book explores how contemporary artists, designers, and practitioners identifying as LGBTQ+ use a range of craft materials and processes to explore their identity and queerness. Queer Crafts provides a nuanced and timely study of the dynamic intersection of queerness and craft, examining a wide range of media – textiles, ceramics, wood, paper, metal, and glass. Daniel Fountain demonstrates how LGBTQ+ practitioners – including LJ Roberts, Paul Yore, Rose Schmits, Nicki Green, Hansel Tai, Affect Metals, Troy Montes-Michie, Antonius-Tín Bui, Raul De Lara, Nifemi Ogunro, Tim Tate, and Hamad Butt – use these materials as powerful vehicles for self-expression, community building, and social critique. Reframing craft through a queer and trans theoretical lens, the book analyzes how these practitioners reclaim histories, rewrite narratives, disrupt hierarchies, and craft their own worlds. A significant contribution to the field, Queer Crafts is an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines. Available via Bloomsbury.

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Reviews:

'This is a beautifully written, brilliantly original, and thought-provoking book that gives full focus to the collision of queer and craft as conceptual tools in the contemporary art world' 

–– Dr Joseph McBrinn, Reader in Irish Art and Design History, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, UK

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'This book playfully highlights various craft techniques that illustrate the fluidity of queer aesthetics. It explores how artists embody histories and personal narratives, mainuplating forms through limp writsts, firm fists, and askew perspectives within intricate and disorienting queer worlds'.

–– Professor Jade Yumang, Associate Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

 

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Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain. Chicago and Bristol: University of Chicago Press and Intellect Books, 2023.

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Abstract:

Crafted with Pride is a collection of critical essays, oral histories, and creative responses that explore queer craft and the material cultures of LGBTQ+ activism in Britain since the 1980s. There is a long history of using craft and DIY processes to explore identities and encourage social change and political change, yet these stories remain undocumented and insufficiently researched.  Daniel Fountain sheds light on them, bringing together contributions from academics, artists, activists, curators, and heritage professionals. Contributors discuss a range of case studies, including the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, the Museum of Transology, Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, Islington’s Pride, Queer Zine Library, Glasgow Women’s Library, Queer Journeys, and more. Accompanied by reflections from contemporary creative practitioners, including Matt Smith, Tanoa Sasraku, Sarah-Joy Ford, Rachael House, and Raisa Kabir. By weaving together these critical essays and oral histories, this collection establishes a crucial connection between craft, queerness, and activism in Britain, making it a must-read for students, academics, cultural producers, and creatives alike. Available via Intellect (UK), and University of Chicago Press (US and ROW).​

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Reviews: 

'Fountain's book fills a gap that has been left unfilled for far too long. Through sharing previously unheard histories of activism – given from a wide range of perspectives – Crafted with Pride is sure to spark debate, discussion and, well, pride. [...] This book shows how LGBTQ+ activists have long harnessed the power of craft to protest and tell their stories, creating objects that come alive through collective making and use.' 

–– Isabella Smith, Deputy editor, Crafts magazine

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'Crafted with Pride offers the first example of craft and activism being queered. The first comprehensive project to foreground British queer craft...this volume disrupts traditional notions of what craft is and can be and refocuses away from the crafted object to highlight the collective and community act of crafting as a political gesture that confronts social injustice'. 

–– Dr Jenna Allsopp-Douglas, Journal of Design History