You could accurately say I’m a generally artistic person, creative, visually motivated, and drawn to good design in any medium. However, I consider myself only a casual crafter. By that I mean to say I don’t have one particular craft I’ve focused on, perfected, and practice consistently in my spare time (i.e. signs of a non-casual crafter, see also: artisan). I do admit to an obsession with pretty paper and washi tape. I compulsively buy stacks and stacks and rolls and rolls. I make greeting cards every so often. These infrequent flurries have been the extent of my crafty manifestations.
Enter Craft Lake City, my DIY spirit guides.
Much like my foray into the world of crafting, I was peripherally familiar with this hip nonprofit org. I’d been to their summer festival, I flip through SLUG, I try to live/shop as locally as possible and engage with the most interesting bits of my city. And yet it wasn’t until I attended my first Craft Lake City workshop that I experienced the profound communal aspect of all this do-it-yourself energy.
I bake potluck cookies and show up to my fair share of crafternoons hosted by my girl friends . This was different. There was something electric, almost subversive, in the act of gathering around a table with complete strangers and creating something unique, together. I say “subversive” because the paradox of our hyper connected culture is that we aren’t really connecting with each other at all. With a flick of my finger on an iPhone screen I’m connected to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr, Yelp, Blogger, LinkedIn, Gmail, etc. etc. ad nauseum. I run this exact cycle of connectivity every day, multiple times a day, but when was the last time I started a conversation with a complete stranger? Let alone create and laugh and spend hours with them. In the same moment that these workshops are a return to simpler times, they are also a radical act of subverting a culture that tells you to go go go it alone. I dig that.
I also respect the attention Craft Lake City pays to the local economy. Local First Utah recently published a study that shows “locally owned retailers return 52% of their revenues to the local economy. For comparison purposes, national chain retailers return just 14% of revenues. That means every dollar spent at a locally owned, independent business returns almost four times more to the local economy than a dollar spent at a national chain retailer” (read the full study).
The artists who sell handmade crafts at their summer festival are the same who teach the workshops. Also, the workshops themselves are hosted by local shops. I’m not a sewer (seamstress? one who sews?) and have only window shopped the beautiful Tissu Fine Fabrics store on Pierpont Avenue. If it weren’t for the Craft Lake City workshop held there, in support of their locally-owned neighbor, I may never have gone in. I may never have Instagrammed photos of the beautiful space. I may never have referred three friends to the shop who saw the photos and who do sew. When you’re intentional about building local economic networks, the impact is exponential. Monetarily and culturally exponential. It’s beautiful.
It goes beyond economics for me. My career, my nearly-long-forgotten grad school thesis, and my life in general is focused on organizing and building communities. Yes, hence me getting all preachy and stuff about the meta politics of water bottle tote workshops. The point is that now more than ever we need spaces like this. Now more than ever we need time for creative, communal experiences like this. Craft Lake City is creating that space. Casual crafters and artisans alike are making the time. We’re gathering with strangers and creating far more than handmade journals and dreamcatcher necklaces. We’re creating a culture. We’re creating our version of Salt Lake City. Join us.
Gail Jessen makes colorful memories through travel, photography, design, food, and cultural adventures. She is a higher ed administrator by day and a creative soul in real life. She blogs at my madeleines and Instagrams as @fourthirtyam.