silly little craft club
Creating community-led crafty hang outs around London
Industry
Community-led events
Role
Personal project
Art direction
Graphic design
Illustration
Event management
Tools
Mostly offline tools
Team credits
Intro
silly little crafts for our silly mental health.
We’re two friends who love nothing more than sitting around the kitchen table, chatting, unwinding, and doing silly little crafts for our silly mental health. We wanted to share this with our community, so we started a craft club.
We crave doing things with our hands, experimenting new techniques, without the pressure of making things perfect. We want to create a space where we’re able to fail and try again, surrounded by people who value the same things as us: creating more, and consuming less. For the sheer pleasure of making stuff.
The ethos
The anti-workshop philosophy
Our aim is not to build a hierarchical position where we are seen as instructors in a workshop; we all collectively try things out together.
We host monthly sustainable and accessible craft hangouts in London, and we try to bring a new craft every time.
25th of April celebration
Linocut designs celebrating the Carnation Revolution.
We were invited by the Portuguese Love Affair, a queer, Portuguese owned venue in East London, to participate in their 25th of April celebration, marking 52 years since the Carnation Revolution in Portugal.
I created a set of linocut designs for people to print onsite, inspired by the carnation motif and the connection between nature, resistance, and freedom.
The outcome
Community, creativity and putting the bloody phone down
We've organised over 15 sessions in various venues and formats, and we've tried jewellery making, linocut printing, DIY patches and badges, collaging, clothing customisation, and more.
But the best part of organising the craft club is seeing how proud people are of their creations in the end, especially those that are start by being a little overwhelmed because they have always thought that they aren't creative.
We get to see the same people show up, and new friendships form in real time. I mean look at these happy people! It fills our hearts with joy.
