Make S p a c e
I’d always been the artist and crafter. It’s what I was best known for throughout my childhood. I picked up knitting, crocheting, mirror etching, weaving, bead making, and all sorts of experimental craftwork in bits and pieces over many years since secondary school. I've continued to collect these skills, teaching myself what I can however I can, and spending too little time testing that I can actually do them, then inevitably having to put them all aside in a sort of mental toolbox until I “have time to create”.
The thing is, it’s hard to make time for ‘leisure’ in the midst of life’s other pressing demands and I knew that I wasn't alone in that experience. This was where the idea for what I later named 'Make Space' emerged — A free, accessible space where makers could gather and collectively return to their passions.
Today, Make Space has completed three installments where I've gathered friends, artists, and crafters to a day of making. We've collectively knitted coasters, tufted rugs, crocheted loofahs and belts and a few unidentifiable blobs, sketched portraits and painted on canvas, drank wine, wove textiles, beaded jewelry, mixed music and swayed to it in community.
The idea was that everyone bring in their own half-baked craft projects they hadn’t had the time or space to complete, and we make together.
How radical a thing it’s been to continue to carve for ourselves the spaces we need to thrive, and create in the midst of all the chaos.
