Future Craft Collective Mission:




The future craft collective is about inspiring children to get crafty, to create beauty, while simultaneously teaching them ways of minimizing our impact on this earth.  It's about understanding ways of recycling, reducing, reusing, and at the same time, making some really cool stuff.  
Throughout the craft sessions, kids will discover ways to create a world in which the belief in handmade looms larger than the messages of the marketing machine.  In this era of relentless advertising and planned obsolescence, the time has come to infuse our children with our own messages of creative living and sustainability.  This message too can save a kid from a lifetime of seeking contentment through consumption.
The future craft collective wants kids to understand the thrill of making it themselves.  We want them to look at the used goods all around them not as trash, or as items to be tossed in the recycling bin, but rather as raw materials in their crafty creative pursuits, thereby allowing them to experience the innovative feeling of instilling new life into old objects.  
From the idea, to the completion of a project, to showing it off in public, we can teach children to recognize the value and pride and indeed the thrill in saying "Thanks, I made it myself."  And the even greater thrill of utilizing old-fashioned ideals of resourcefulness and ingenuity and of finding the hidden life in abandoned materials.
in addition to making some really cool things we'll cover:
-why is there so much?  understanding that less is more.
-what are retailers doing to the value of handmade?
-the pride of making it yourself.
-the joys of creating personal style.
-the value in knowing the ability to create is within his/her realm.
-tapping into a kids' inherent desire to create.
-recognizing the marketing machine of a consumer culture.
-spreading the love and celebrating the thrill of handmade.

Each session stands alone with a lesson in sustainability and a hands-on project, which will lead to a greater understanding of the thrill of consciously crafting.  A follow-up discussion of each project will lead to greater understanding of the thrill of handmade, the need to minimize the impact and the necessity of creating rather than consuming.

Monday, March 3, 2008

sew boy!


sew boy!, originally uploaded by ramonster cowpoke swankwear.

sunday marked the debut of a new series of classes i've begun that are specifically for 8-12 year old boys. we had five boys and one dad- a full house indeed! i was, admittedly, quite nervous about five itchy 8 year old feet raring to put the pedal to the metal, so to speak.
But much to my delight and surprise, (and with a little help with damage control from our studio dad), the boys were so wrapped up in getting to know their machines they hardly remembered to whack each other upside the head or make fart jokes. (i said they HARDLY remembered... thank god they DID manage to squeek in a whack and a fart here and there, otherwise it may have gotten downright dull...)
it became apparent to me that sewing really is a great gender equalizer, even though boys do seem to still battle the whole "you SEW? but you're a BOY." mentality . i mean, it's all about getting to know and work a MACHINE, right? a MACHINE with a SHARP POINTY thing that could, potentially, do a good bit of hurting to an unsuspecting operator. how much more macho do you get? but, once you add in the elements of patience and care that we often associate with our fairer gendered children, you get one talented sewer. yin, and yang. balance.
what the kids want to sew, however, definatly varies depending on gender. so, with that in mind, as well as the intention to create a space for boys to explore the world of sewing devoid of potential gender issues, our boys class was born.
who-hoo! sew boy!!!

Posted by at

2 comments:

barbara said...

my son Max took this class and is officially a sewing bandit! he has been making little pillows of all shapes and sizes and giving them to friends and family members.
kathie a great teacher and is able to "channel boy" with ease and grace! (she is also a champion belcher and proud of it!)

March 27, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Kathie Sever said...

heck yeah i am!

March 27, 2008 at 2:07 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)