Tag: event

Open day: hand stitch

Saturday 2nd March 2024, 12-2pm (public, drop-in)

Join Penny and Cassian at Machspace for our Hand Stitch Open Day!

Bring your own project or choose from:

  • Fun cross stitch patterns and kits 
  • Learn ‘painting with thread’ using long-and-short stitch
  • Make an embroidered rose
  • Bring your mending project and create a decorative mend
  • Use our interaction badges – choose to craft quietly or stitch ‘n’ socialise
Image via LovemeoksEmbroidery on Etsy. Pattern will be available to stitch on the open day.

Here’s a few of the cross-stitch kits we’ve bought to share, pay-what-you-feel:

Some of them have beads too!

Plus we have a whole selection of embroidery hoops to go with them, so you can join in even if you’re a complete beginner. We also now have one of those giant magnifying glasses with LEDs on it, which clamps onto the table, like so:

As it’s an open day, Machspace will be open to the public, and we invite you to read our open day rules before attending.

We look forward to seeing you there! 🙂

The laser cutter countdown has officially begun!

Thanks to an exciting £12,500 grant from the National Lottery Awards for All (Wales) scheme, we are delighted to announce that our laser cutter has been ordered and it will be installed in early March!

National Lottery Awards for All (Wales) Logo: Cronfa Gymunedol / Community Fund

The laser cutter itself was just a portion of this. The rest is going towards a lot of related and unrelated stuff, like a laptop to use with the laser cutter, installation of something to safely extract laser cutter fumes, an A3 printer-copier-scanner, and an enclosure for the 3D printer. (Though we’re thinking maybe we might wait and use the laser cutter to make an enclosure for the 3D printer actually…?)

Help us rearrange the furniture!

We’ve planned a new layout for Machspace to accommodate everything, and we need people to help us move all the furniture around! Can you come and lend a hand?

It’s this Sunday, 11th February 2024, 11am – 4pm.

In other news

We now have 50 members – the number that we optimistically projected we’d have by the end of the SVFDF grant period in March 2025. We’re over a year ahead of schedule! It’s pretty amazing what this grant has made possible, not least the pay-what-you-feel membership model, and we’re so grateful for it. Just today we bought a bunch of supplies with it and stashed them at Machspace. 🧶🍫🥛

Open day: zines and badges

Image credits, L-R: Machspace, GM Zines (Wikimedia Commons), David Silver

The next open day has a dual theme, two crafts that go together like cheese and pickle.

A zine (pronounced “zeen”) is a homemade booklet, often copied by photocopier, with big counterculture vibes. Informative or arty or silly or serious, they’re versatile and limited only by your own imagination. At this open day we’ll teach you how to make a mini zine using just an A4 sheet of paper, no staples required, and then you can copy it using the Machspace inkjet printer-scanner.

Our badge maker was one of the first things we bought for Machspace, and we’re very proud of it! Put your art into the die with all the right layers, crunch the handle, and voila, now it’s a proper badge. From brain to badge in 3 minutes! Very satisfying. We can do 25mm and 45mm badges.

It’s a drop-in for members and non-members (ages 11+), so feel free to pop by anytime between noon and 2pm. If you’re into the theme you can bring your own art supplies and stickers and washi tapes. Machspace can provide printer paper and printer ink. And you’re very welcome to bring anything else to make instead, or just come to hang out and drink tea.

It’s free to attend, and food, drinks and materials are free – donations welcome but not required.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us: hello AT machspace DOT org

Open day: knitting

Our first open day of 2024 is on Saturday 6th January, 12-2pm – and as you can see, this time we’ve picked a theme. Avery and Cassian will be hosting, and they knitted all the items above. They can help you get started, and they can probably help you with knitting pattern questions or advice with mistakes, too.

It’s a drop-in for members and non-members (ages 11+), so feel free to pop by anytime between noon and 2pm. If you’re into the theme you can bring your own knitting project(s), or learn the basics from Cas and Avery. Machspace has a stash of donated yarns and a collection of knitting needles, or you can bring things with you. And you’re very welcome to bring anything else to make instead, or just come to hang out and drink tea and eat leftover mince pies.

Please be aware that you can take yarn away with you afterwards, but you won’t be able to take Machspace knitting needles with you. (We recommend checking out the local charity shops, who often have a good supply of knitting needles for cheap, but they usually keep them behind the counter and you have to ask at the till to have a rummage.)

Event: Winter Holiday Open Day

Wednesday 20th December 2023

6pm – 9pm (drop-in, open day)

This open day is a little longer than usual, because of the festive season!

We’ll have mince pies, hot beverages, and spiced berry cordial (hot or cold). You’re invited to bring sweet and savoury snacks to share, and festive crafts to work on together. Tell us in advance if you have any dietary requirements, so we can make sure there’s stuff you can eat and drink.

With any luck we’ll have been organised enough to get some decorations up! Any members who would like to mastermind any decorating sessions are invited to email us: hello AT machspace DOT org

Who can come?

  • Any adult (18+), regardless of whether or not you’re a member.
  • People aged 11-17, accompanied by one responsible adult each.
  • Assistance animals, provided they can sit quietly beside their human throughout the visit.

It’s free to attend, and food and drinks are free – donations welcome but not required.

Event: T-shirt stencil-bleaching

Sunday 3rd December 2023

11am – 1pm (drop-in, members and guests only)

Facebook event here.

Here’s what it looks like:

You should bring (if you can):

  • A cardboard box
  • A newspaper
  • A pair of rubber gloves
  • Any t-shirts, clothing or other fabric (non-white, containing natural fibres) that you’d like to enhance
  • Warm clothing – we’ll have the front door wide open for ventilation

What we’ll do together:

Avery will walk us through the process of designing a stencil, cutting it out, preparing the t-shirt and stencil, and spraying the bleach onto the t-shirt. Different dyes and fabrics react differently, so Avery can also share his advice and experience about that.

Dress warmly, because it’ll be cold in the space! Bring a good face mask if you’re not into the smell of bleach. If you already have stencils you want to try out for this (or share with others), feel free to bring them along!

Any natural-fibre fabric will work, but maybe bring a t-shirt that you don’t mind destroying, because as with pancakes and any other craft, the first one is always rubbish.

Who can come?

This is a members-and-guests event. That means if you want to come, you need to be a member already, or be the one guest of an existing member. Guests must be 11 or older. If you want to become a member by Sunday, email us ASAP – we can accommodate that! hello AT machspace DOT org

It’s not a private event, so the space will remain open to members and guests who want to do other activities, but please be aware that it will probably smell very bleachy in there and it might be a bit cold.

It’s free to attend, and it’s free to become a member.