Crafting is well-known to be good for the soul. As a nation, it seems we have taken to it like ducks to water during the lockdown. The Sunday Times remarked last weekend on the increased demand – among children and adults – for paints, brushes, glue, multi-coloured paper, sketchbooks, colouring pens and knitting yarn.
Join the throng with our pick of the best craft classes online now.
Molly Mahon Block Printing
@mollymahonblockprinting
Knowing that block printing is enormously therapeutic and a good way to amuse children, the mega textile designer Molly Mahon has started doing special quarantine tutorials from her studio and delivering them to us via YouTube and her Instagram feed. She makes so much sense when she says: ‘Join us on a journey of using this time to make our homes the most welcoming, special places of solace, calm and joy.’ I bet you didn’t think you’d spend the isolation period learning to block-print tea towels and wallpaper from your kitchen table, did you?
Art For Kids Hub
Hosted by Rob – a cheerful American dad, who is usually accompanied by one or other of his four kids – this YouTube channel has 2.4million subscribers. Discovering it has been one of the few silver linings of lockdown for many of us here at The Good Web Guide. Get your child to dream up anything – literally anything – they’d like to draw and you can bet that Rob has filmed an episode to teach that lesson. Children of all ages – and probably the odd adult, too – can while away much of the day with Art For Kids Hub.
Grayson’s Art Club
In response to lockdown, Channel 4 has commissioned several new programmes, including one in which the Turner Prize-winning artist teaches us how to draw, paint and sculpt. It will inspire viewers to create art from the comfort of their homes. Perry told The Evening Standard: ‘Accessibility is a part of what I want to do, which is make art an ordinary part of life but a stimulating part of life. I’m not really talking to the art world, I’m more interested in the average Joe on the sofa.’ Coming soon.
Nicola Fitzgerald
@nicolajfitzgerald
Nicola is a London-based artist, teacher and mother. In her new weekly IGTV series, she guides her daughters, aged four and seven, and her viewers through wonderfully imaginative art projects. Her calm and knowledgeable technique is compelling – whatever age you are.
How To Knit
Ryan Collett is a writer, editor and online knitter. (That is genuinely how he describes himself.) Originally from the US, he lives in London and is working on his first novel. He also teaches knitting online via his YouTube channel, RJ Knits. His absolutely brilliant tutorials are not a response to Covid-19, but they work perfectly for us at home while the virus wreaks havoc outdoors. Suppliers of knitting wool have reported a surge in sales since isolation began. Knitting has become a thing, we promise.
The London Refinery
Lucy Heale, founder of the natural-candle makers, is taking her candle-making class online. In the two-hour Zoom tutorial (you can book your place on the website), you will learn how to heat the wax, blend the oils and pour your own candle. (You will most likely have to buy a bit of kit from The London Refinery first but the website, packaging and customer service are such that it will be a pleasure.)
Artful Box
@artfulbox
While people are housebound by the pandemic, the clever people at the art-box-subscription-service have started a daily drawing challenge on their Instagram feed. They say: ‘We think, in this climate, it’s important we continue to get some positivity into the world, and that’s why the daily drawing challenge was started.’ A new challenge is posted at 8am each day – and their followers’ uptake has been immense.
Kirstie’s House Of Craft
There isn’t yet a fixed date for the transmission of the new show from the nation’s queen of craft. But be sure to look out for Kirstie Allsop’s daily craft club. With her reassuring poise and blitz spirit, she’ll guide the whole family through projects that require only regular household items for completion.
Photo credit: Plush Design Studio/Unsplash
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By Becky Ladenburg
April 2020
