So come and have a fun night out all in the name of holiday crafting. $25.00 per person.* Click here if you want to pay using paypal.**

• B.Y.O.B. – all other materials provided
• 7:15-10:00pm
• 411 W. Monroe
• Saturday, December 5th
• Email with questions

*If this is preventing you from attending, please email me and let me know so we can work something out.

**Small surcharge applied

Sign up here or just  email and let me know you’re coming.  FYI, this project takes two craft nights to complete. You can get started here and finish it up at home or join us for two nights. No previous crafting required! Just the ability to sew a simple hand stitch. BYOB – all other materials provided. $25.00 per session.

For these craft nights, everything needed to create is provided – the space, the materials, the tools and the scheduled time. Mamas just need bring themselves and a little wine or beer if so inclined. At the end, walk away, completed project and new ideas for life, living and the pursuit of happiness tucked safely in hand.

For the Fall season the Collective craft nights will focus on holiday crafts – advent calendars and greeting cards.  All craft nights will be from 7:15-10:00pm. $25.00 per night.*

• Saturday, November 7th: Advent Calendar This is a two-part workshop during which we will create an advent calendar to countdown to your family’s holiday of choice – be it Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Festivus or New Year’s Eve. Attend two workshop nights for completion as this project it will take 5-6 hours total. Mostly hand sewing with machine sewing optional. Another option is to come one night and finish up at home.
• Thursday, November 12th: Advent Calendar canceled
  
• Saturday, November 14th: Advent Calendar
• Friday, November 20th: Holiday collage cards or Advent Calendar
• LAST ONE OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON!!! Saturday, December 5th: Holiday collage cards or Advent Calendar completion Bring family photos to create your own holiday greeting cards or skip the photos and make cards to send or give as gifts. All materials provided.

If you can email futurecraftcollective@gmail.com ahead of time and let me know you’ll be attending, that’d be great.  Register here with Paypal** if that makes things easier.

*If money is an issue, please let me know. I’d be happy to work something out.

**A nominal paypal fee is added to the price of admission.

With that in mind I’m putting a few Collective Craft nights on the calendar between now and Thanksgiving – because we all know how the best laid plans for making during that time of year can get pushed aside if not claimed and calendared. We’ll have a few nights of holiday card making using family photos as the base for some very creative collage fun. We’ll have a 2 part craft night making Advent calendars – counting down to whatever your family celebrates that time of year, be it Christmas, Solstice, Hannukah, Festivus, the New Year or whatever.

Advent by Sarah Bork Hamilton

There’s also talk of a possible costume making craft night organized by a very amazing costume maker in town so stay tuned. And come back soon for dates and other important details. These craft nights have been super fun so far and I am really looking forward to hosting some more.

Last one was pretty fun. A bunch of mamas crafting, talking, sharing, having a drink and a crafty night out. This time we’ll be making Appreciation  Banners to up the appreciation ante in your home. These simply sweet banners will help you and your family focus on what’s working in your house thereby raising the gratitude all around.  So come craft with some other mamas, make something fun, drink a beer or a little wine and have a delightful mamas night out. BYOB. Everything else provided.

Where: Austin Amp 411 W. Monroe, Austin, TX 78704

When: Friday, October 2, 7:00-10:00 pm

What: Appreciation banners $30.00 per person or $50.00 for two

Why: Because you need a night out with some mama friends and why not make it a crafty one?

Who: Any mamas you know. Be they mamas in the literal sense or figuratively speaking. This is a fun project and can be applied to home, work or even presented as a gift to some family you know and love.

Email if you have questions. RSVP if you can. I’d appreciate it.

If you want to pay in advance, click here.

So, it’s not actually a competition of course. And each one really does have its attributes beyond what we could ever count. But there is no doubt teaching 8 kids ages 8-12, 2 days a week for 2 hours after school is a totally different experience than teaching 7 moms on a Saturday afternoon all of whom have left their kids at home and I can’t help but put them side by side for a little comparison.

We laugh hard in the kid classes because they are just so raw and open and bring us back to that time of life of being 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. We can remember the disjointed-ness of that age and the geekiness and the feeling on the verge of coolness and trying it on in a fun(ny) way.

We talk seriously in the mama class about ritual and sentimentality and connection and setting our families up with traditions of our own.They are there to make something for their families and there is much talk about many aspects of family life from infancy onto nearly teen-hood.

The kids sew fast. Sometimes furiously so. They are not so mindful of aesthetics as much as they are with completion. We do talk to them about enjoying the process and all that but sometimes, I’m afraid, it just becomes sort of background noise. Or maybe they hear it and they’ll remember later, somewhere down the road, those sewing teachers they had that talked about being in the moment.

The mamas are more thoughtful and maybe even a little hard on themselves worrying about colors and layout and making it look perfect because they are all after all making an heirloom and they’re hoping they’ll still enjoy the aesthetics of it all when it is being used for their own children’s children. They are able to look to the future because when watching children grow the velocity of time becomes all too clear. To them too we speak of trying to enjoy the process but it is hard when the time is limited to one 3.5 hour chunk on a stolen Saturday afternoon.

After each class we are exhausted but for a different reason. With the kids it is manual labor in a way with all their technical difficulties and the need for much hand-holding. We hope we can give them enough and we try our very best to do so.They let us know instantly if they feel neglected or ignored or if they aren’t getting what they need and came for. They are not shy about that and while it is tiring sometimes, it is at least clear-cut.

With the mamas we can only hope we have given them enough. We ponder whether they got what they came for but with each coming perhaps for different reasons it’s really hard to know whether we’ve reached that goal or not. They leave with a mostly finished product that we hope they get finished in a timely manner. We will nudge them virtually to do so but it’s in their hands now.

For each class we are grateful to offer the space to sew and create and think about sustainability and reuse and recrafting. And for each class too we are grateful for all we learn in the midst of our teaching. And believe me that is a lot – each and every time.

Check out the mama class story and more pics on the blog of our dear pal Average Jane Crafter.

We are happy to announce that our Advent Calendar class to be held on November 15th is full! This is our first mama class to fill up and we are quite excited about it. Our Advent calendars can be designed to countdown to Christmas, Solstice, New Year’s Eve or whatever day you want to count down to. They are a beautiful design inspired by the one we had in our house growing up, created by my aunt Dorathea.  This one was made last year by our friend Sarah Bork Hamilton at Ramonster World Headquarters.

Tis the season to get sentimental folks! And to truly make your holiday celebration your own.

**We are pondering the addition of another class, so let us know if you might be interested**

New month of Kid Classes…

November classes start next month. We’ve got one spot in our Monday and Tuesday afterschool classes and a few spots also in our Monday homeschool class. We’ll be making gifts and discussing the value of handmade as we kick off this great season of giving.

So we took a few old sheets, (carefully selected from the thrift store of course) some old worn out pants, some tossed off burnt orange University of Texas Theater curtains, various scraps and cut-offs from Kathie’s myriad Ramonsterwear projects, and even a few old upholstery sample books and look at what these girls whipped up in class. Incredible! This hat project was totally fun and totally satisfying for the girls. Partly I think it was the flexibility of fabric choices, partly the coming together of pieces in a way that made it so that the end could be seen before it was even completed and partly the fact that it was a totally cute, totally styling project with enough room for individual style to shine on through.

These girls worked solidly through on their hats and let their sheer creative vision shine, shine, shine. Check it out…

Day two was the birthday class and mamas could choose between the wish flags, birthday crown or anticipation calendar. We’ll have more photos later especially of the anticipation calendar which gives your child and you a chance to reflect on the year past and look to the year future all the while counting down the days until the actual big day. Thanks to Kathie for her incredible wisdom in creating that work of art. Again, photos forthcoming.

Right now I just have a photo of the crown I made which will for sure be featured on all of our heads for all our future birthdays to come. It’s reversible which makes it all the more fun and you can see I got to use that vintage curtain I mentioned earlier. More embellishment will surely be forthcoming in the way of old buttons and maybe even some handwork. In fact, Kathie’s brilliant idea was that perhaps a bit of handwork could be added at each birthday thereby marking the occasion with great thought and intention. I think that would suit us perfectly.

It was also brought to mind about the excitement of keeping everything in a special box that was brought out a week or so before the big day. Everything could be unfolded and displayed giving the occasion the honor and anticipation it deserves – beyond just cake and presents.

We’ll definitely be doing mama classes again, so stay tuned for further details.

Come make your very own Family Appreciation banners to spread the love and share the gratitudes. You’ll walk away with an amazing gift to present to your family but we’ll also talk about why family appreciations are so important. We’ll discuss family rituals, and ways to make your family life feel that much more connected. You’ll receive top notch technical assistance from Kathie Sever and Bernadette will regale you with ways and whys of making appreciations work for you. This class will combine sewing with a little appreciation and while we’re at it, why not combine it with a little BYOB. $45.00

Homeschool Craft Collective
The Future Craft Collective is starting a new class series the first four Mondays in June from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. For kids ages 8-12 years old. Sign up by May 29th to reserve your spot. $85.00 + $10.00 supply fee.

Future Craft Collective kids 8-12
The 3:30 – 5:30 classes will continue also. Hurry to reserve your spot because classes have been filling up.

Have I mentioned how much fun Kathie and I have been having? And how much cool stuff has been coming out of this studio all made with recycled materials?