Making it a Handmade Weekend

Got plans for the long week­end?

Depend­ing on all that weath­er it may involve tobog­gan­ing and mak­ing snow per­sons.

Or you may be like me and plan­ning to try your hand at pick­ing up a new skill, or sit­ting back and learn­ing how people put their skills to use at Hand­made. Hand­made cel­eb­rates  mak­ing, cre­at­ing & con­sum­ing in all its delight­ful forms. From dump­lings to Tivaev­ae, from zines to sand­wiches and to the Roy­al NZ Bal­let, Hand­made has it covered and classes are repeated so if you can­’t fit in on Sat­urday you hope­fully can find a spot on Sunday.

HQ for the whole event is Te Papa but classes are tak­ing place all around town. My picks involve a mix of learn­ing and a bit of sit­ting back and absorb­ing it all.

I love mix­ing tech and craft so my first pick is AURORA AUSTRALI S with Brid­get McKendry. Brid­get was one of the hive­mind behind maker­tori­um so she knows her stuff and you walk away with a fun shad­ow­box  and the skills to use LEDs in everything.

Some cre­at­ive roy­alty are teach­ing this week­end so classes by Melissa of Tiny Happy, Jo & Jess of coco and co, Ruth Pretty and Tam­sin Cooper are easy picks.

I’ve been lucky to have an early peek at A FRESH LOOK FOR OLD JEWELLERY with Nini Muly­ani from Things Unseen. Basic­ally bring along your old bits and bobs of jew­elry and Nini will help you con­vert them into some­thing new. She’s also shar­ing some of her cus­tom tech­niques so you walk away with the skills to make over your entire jew­elry stash.

I’m a big fan of any­thing Scott Sav­age touches, and the chance to hear him talk on col­lect­ing and take part of one of his classes is tick­ing all my happy boxes. Espe­cially as I’m going to walk away with a custom­ized paper toy based on my cat.

Finally not to miss is a zine-mak­ing class taught by Colleen Pugh of Dear Colleen fame, who you might know her bet­ter as the woman behind the Ryan Gos­ling tea tow­els. She used to teach the same class at Edin­burgh Col­lege of Art and I’m excited about mak­ing a per­fect little book­let from one sheet of paper.

In the gaps in-between I’m going to spend qual­ity time at the Knit Lounge. It’s hos­ted by Tash of Hol­land Road so you can  save your­self some time going out to Petone as Tash and her knitty crew bring along half of the Petone store. The lounge is also home to  a Ravelry and Twit­ter meet-up from 1pm – 3pm with free Ravelry badges on Sat­urday, plus Tash is pulling out all the stops with giant knit­ting needles and an explo­sion of pom poms.