A 15-year labour of love by educator and folklorist Shirley Pearman has resulted in Bermuda’s first definitive compendium of the island’s traditional arts and crafts.

“I hope teachers and parents will not look at it as a how-to-do book, but as a vehicle that can open minds,” said Ms Pearman of her book, backed by the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, which she has researched since the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, back in 2001.

Hands On! documents “the art of traditional craft and play in Bermuda” and is aimed at stimulating “storytelling, sharing of values, conversing and listening” through the experience of crafting.

From palmetto fishing nets to bottle dolls, Bermudians have been making their own products for centuries, and their techniques evolved and changed with the times.

“As my mother Rosalind Robinson would say, ‘we were the original recyclers’,” recalled Ms Pearman. “My Christening gown was made out of her wedding gown.”

Pulling together the 160-page book took years of research, as well as acquiring the stories from their source, to which Ms Pearman has added historical narratives mixed with photographs, illustrations and quotations.

“I had a healthy recollection of my own childhood, but I knew that if I was going to give this substance, I had to have the input of others,” she said.

Sections are divided into the seasons by which traditional crafting was carried out.

With many Bermudians unaware of the scope of their history, Ms Pearman believes that sharing the activities that once sustained daily island life is “the gem, the secret to a lot of our challenges as a community”.

“It provides a community with a certain amount of sanity,” she said.

“The end product is not the primary value. You’re doing something to enrich and express yourself.”

•Hands On! The art of traditional crafts and play in Bermuda is on sale now at Brown & Co for $29.95.