Hand­made has pretty much estab­lished Wel­ling­ton as the place for crafty & makey types from across the coun­try to hang out  this week­end. There are classes, lec­tures, tast­ings, exhib­i­tions & a pop-up shop. This year is that the major­ity of it is tak­ing place in one spot, the TSB Bank Arena and Shed 6. which makes it a lot easi­er to plan a week­end of mak­ing.

Back again is my high­light of every Hand­made, the Hol­land Road Knit lounge – a cosy crafty home away from home cur­ated by  Wel­ling­ton’s Yarn Queen Tash Barneveld . This year the lounge and the area around it is free to vis­it, so you can pop in any time over the week­end. You’ll dis­cov­er a lots of yarn, loads of expert advice and four of the biggest knit­ting needles in the  coun­try!

hollandroad

 

But the core of hand­made is the classes. This year they’ve ramped up the vari­ety a little more (which is always good) so on offer are classes as diverse as Illus­tra­tion for begin­ners,  3D Print­ing, Hand Carved Stamps, Drop Spindle Spin­ning & Raw Food Bak­ing.

Make your own hanging ter­rari­um class with the won­der­ful Kate Setz looks fun. Kate used to be a staple stall­hold­er at Craft2.0 – so you know that means craft awe­some­ness. I know from exper­i­ence DIY ter­rari­ums have a tend­ency to grow mould not plants, so I’m a bit excited about lean­ing how to not make that hap­pen. I like the idea of hanging plants in my win­dow.

katesshop

Or join Angela Young from Craft Me Up where she’ll be  shar­ing the secrets of how to make your own Con­fetti drop ear­rings and rings using Fimo. Angela’s the expert at super cute super happy cre­ation so it’s going to be a class where you walk away with some great cre­ations and a smile on your face.

So see you at Hand­made, and if that has­n’t temp­ted you maybe the Tast­ing Sta­tion will – Ruth Pretty is the mas­ter­mind behind this one so it’s bound to be deli­cious.