New Weekly Workshops at the Craft Works

Our workshops at The Craft Works Torbay are designed to encourage everyone to explore their creative side.

Whether it’s learning traditional skills like spinning wool or contemporary crafts like 3D felting there is something for everyone happening during the week in our base at St Andrews Church, Sands Road, Paignton.

One thing we’d like to say. All of our tutors are experts in their fields and have been working in their area for a very long time. We hold DBS checks and have teaching experience.

We are also all committed to getting everyone in the community learning. We know workshops can seem unaffordable. We work in a way that removes any worry of coming and learning new things.

As we have funding from trusts like the Peoples Health Trust, The Gane Trust and The Coastal Communities Fund some of our workshops are free. This means anyone can come and join in. Some workshops we charge just enough to cover the cost of the materials that get used, about £5 per session, so we can replace our stocks. Other workshops we charge a competitive rate for. For these we also have some bursary places. Please talk to us about how that works.

Once a week now we’ll also be running masterclasses. This will be looking at certain elements of crafts or textiles in more depth. We’ll try new things like Extreme Denim Knitting using massive needles, arms, hands and fingers to create new textiles for the home from old clothes or Dyeing on Beach so what can we find thats natural in a rock pool to change the colour of fabric or wool. Perfect for a summers day beside the sea.

We insure all of our workshops are of a really high standard. Free does not mean that the workshop will be of poor quality or the tutor won’t have the skills to deliver. Working this way is our way of giving something back to our community and supporting people to develop new skills.

Our workshops are also really social. We don’t much like learning in a classroom type environment. We like talking to people, drinking tea, eating cake and working through things together. We want people to make new friends and have those friendships extend out beyond the time you are with us into the wider world.

As a community project its also really important to us that you tell us what workshops you’d like to see in the future or what areas you are interested in learning about. Japanese Embroidery? Shoe Making? Lace Making? Decoupage? What’s the one craft you’ve yearned to know?

For more information visit https://thecraftworkstorbay.wordpress.com/workshops/workshop-programme/