Impact of Making Textile Handcrafts on Mood Enhancement and Inflammatory Immune Changes

The authors hypothesized that a textile art-making activity that was high in arousal, engagement, and positive mood and low in rumination and negative affect would be most effective for mood repair and would buffer inflammatory immune reactions. Forty-seven experienced textile handcrafters were asked to recall an upsetting situation before random assignment to either textile art making, quiet ego contemplation (neutral), or writing (to maintain negative mood). Textile art making promoted the strongest positive mood, highest arousal and engagement, and lowest rumination and negative mood. Only the writing task was associated with cytokine disturbance. Results suggest that high energy, engaging art-making tasks that focus on positive mood may be important for well-being.