Book excerpt: This fascinating book features an introduction by maker and industrial designer, Daniel Charny, alongside contributions from international authors that explore contemporary attitudes towards skill, and the potential that skilled making offer the arts and creative industries. Seemingly disparate objects are brought together in a 'cabinet of curiosities' to unite and reinforce creative, cultural, social and educational points of view - all offering different ways of understanding the potent power that comes with making. The book poses incisive questions about the increasing distance people have from making, and the impact that deskilling and the deterioration of making knowledge may have on cultural production and society.