Hosting a craft workshop is a great way to share your own skills, as well as making new friends in the crafting community.
If you’re not sure where to start with a craft workshop, don’t fret. We’ve listed our top ideas for your next craft workshop.
How do you host a craft workshop?
When you initially start to host a craft workshop, you may feel overwhelmed. However, there are a few tips you can follow to help you on your way.
- Know your craft
- Know your audience
- Get craft workshop insurance
- Create a lesson plan
- Prepare in advance any learning materials or instructions you may need
- Set up your space
For more in depth guidance, head over to our complete guide on hosting a craft workshop.
What crafts are trending this year?
If you’re looking for a new craft to pick up this year, why not have a go at one of the craft trends for 2023. Even if you’re not an experienced crafter, there are many simple crafts that are perfect for beginners.
Some of this years tops crafts include:
- Resin art: Much like last year, resin still dominates in the crafting world, with many crafters making and selling personalised, custom products.
- Macrame: Moving away from traditional decorative pieces, macrame is becoming a popular technique for clothing and accessories.
- Disco ball art: Disco is back! Using mirror mosaic tiles is an affordable and fun way to add unique pieces to your space.
- Upholstery: With a growing interest in recycling fabrics, it’s no wonder that upholstery is becoming popular amongst those flipping second hand furniture.
What types of crafts are good for workshops?
Generally speaking, crafts that don’t require a whole host of experience work the best for workshops. Although you may expect your participants to have some basic crafting skills, it’s worth remembering that some may be complete beginners to the world of crafting.
Ideally, you should think of using a craft that doesn’t require advanced skills. For example, if you wish to do a pottery workshop, you could host a class on making pinch pots rather than using potters wheels, since this is more advanced.
You could also think of a craft that will allow participants to take their outcomes home with them on the same day, such as cake making or flower arranging.
Crafts like resin art require some drying time, which would be ideal for courses which go over two or three days.
Which crafts are easiest to teach?
When you’re thinking of which craft you’d like to teach, consider how easy it was for yourself to learn it. People learn crafts at different speeds, but in general, if it took you a while to learn and master the skill, chances are that it may be difficult to teach it.
Consider crafts which don’t require too much knowledge or experience of it beforehand.
Remember that you should have a good amount of knowledge on the craft before you host a workshop, as this will make it much easier for you to teach your participants.
Top 6 ideas for craft workshops
We’ve listed our top ideas for crafts workshops below to help you get started.
Jewellery making
Jewellery making is an excellent craft for workshops since there is a variety of different products you can make, such as rings, bracelets, earrings and so on.
You will need to make sure you have the correct equipment for participants to use depending on what type of jewellery you will be making. This could include moulds, metals, jewels and gemstones and practical pieces, such as tools and PPE.
Jewellery making can be a relatively easy craft to teach since there is no right or wrong to how the outcome should look, and participants will usually have a lot of creative freedom once you have explained the instructions.
Pottery painting
Much easier than pottery itself, pottery painting is a great way to have your participants flex their artistic muscles on pre-made clay items. You could make these items yourself or buy them in, but either way, you don’t have to worry about teaching any pottery techniques.
This has become a popular trend and many choose to do pottery painting as an activity to do with friends or family, or as even as dates.
Those who host pottery painting workshops will usually add another incentive to go, such as “sip and paint” in which participants are allowed to bring their own alcohol to drink.
Flower arranging
As more and more of the population are becoming more DIY oriented, many are looking for inspiration when it comes to making their own floral arrangements. Hosting a flower arrangement workshop is super simple, and all you need is some flowers and decorative elements, such as ribbons and paper.
You could teach a variety of different arrangements such as bouquets, wreaths, pressed prints and so on.
Not only is it a relatively easy craft to teach, it allows your participants to have a final product that they can leave with at the end of the workshop.
Cooking and baking
Whether you plan on hosting a workshop for cooking or baking, there are a variety of simple recipes that will attract participants. This is a great craft to teach since it’s a skill that people are always looking to learn and develop.
You will need to establish which recipes you wish to teach and ensure each person has the correct amount of ingredients and equipment. Again, this is another craft which has an immediate outcome that participants can enjoy straight after it’s made.
Candle making
Candle making is another super simple craft to teach and it is another great one as your participants have free reign over their outcomes. You will need to ensure that everyone has their own amount of wax and candle holders, as well as general pieces of equipment like scents, colours and decorations.
Whilst candle making does require some skill level, you do not need to be a complete expert to teach it, which is why many use it as a beginners or introduction only class.