Crafty eye for business

For many people the word “crafty” applies only to the occasional cigarette. But since the start of recession, and indeed during historical recessions, Britain’s make-do-and-mend antennae have been twitching and a number of environments for the craftily inclined have sprung up to bridge the gap between “entertainment” and “money making ruse”.

A straw poll of my friends, most of whom are Twenty-something females with full-time jobs and a stretched bank balance, reveals a prodigious knitter, a mismatched plate stand creator, a patchwork quilt and appliqué expert, several dressmakers and a pop-up café chef and entrepreneur who updates her blog out of working hours. Another makes her own sloe gin and is currently perfecting a recipe for elderflower wine.

Most of these activities take place as much for fun as for the homemade presents, small bits of cash and socialising they glean. I’ve spent wonderful caffeine fuelled Sundays and drunken weekday evenings sat around in somebody’s flat for impromptu “Stitch and Bitch” sessions, where the chatting over the clacking of needles and the swapping of discarded garments is enough to rival a Women’s Institute meeting.

It follows then that businesses which tap into this revived interest in using craft to enjoy ourselves and save money have sprung up since the start of the credit crunch in 2007. Like glammed up home economics classes there are now quirky little cafes which provide sewing machines for hire, pubs which hold tutorials on sock puppet-making, bars with free life drawing classes in exchange for a glass of wine- and the fruits of all this labour are being sold every day on eBay.

I was invited to try a screen printing class at one such venue the Papered Parlour in London’s Clapham Common last week. Set up by two young visual artists Claire and Louise in 2009, it is a studio space for artists with a workshop attached where the pair and other creatives hold classes. Originally aimed at children and after school clubs the business progressed as the craft craze escalated and they soon found themselves switching from kids’ groups to grown-ups.

The interior of the Papered Parlour itself reflects the zeitgeist the ladies have cottoned onto. It has a sensible classroom layout but the walls are papered in sumptuous patterns and there are hundreds of kitsch tea cups, a dressmaker’s dummy, vintage furniture, chandeliers and a gorgeous wrought iron staircase. Refreshments are served in pretty china cups with homemade cakes.

Responding to demand and their loyal fanbase the duo have come up with different kinds of workshops ranging from silversmithing to dressmaking, screenprinting and wallpaper making. They do parties, office away days and customised events. They even run fascinator workshops which are popular for hen parties.

My artistic bent is somewhat limited to textiles so I thought I’d try out the screen printing class to produce some unique fabrics for a cushion making endeavour I’ve currently got on the boil. Having never screenprinted before I was slightly nervous about giving it a go in front of a bunch of strangers but I soon became firm pals with my fellow comrades: Laura, a charity worker who could draw enviably; Lucy, an events organiser; and Pernille, a teacher who runs similar workshops in prisons and for kids in care.

The afternoon was spent under the keen instruction of our teacher Helen learning the rudiments of screenprinting and then quickly giving it a go by cutting out shapes on paper and the pressing them onto nylon screens and testing out the relief shapes they produced with acrylic paint mixed with medium. It is a remarkably easy technique and we happily hummed away the morning making ever more complicated paper stencils, helping each other to hold down the screens and gasping in admiration at what was being produced. There were mishaps and spillages, yes, but generally what was being produced was of an alarmingly high standard. I kept asking “Have you done this before?” and feeling inadequate discovering that most of the attendees were beginners like me.

Armed with two paper prints to put on the wall, a long stretch of colourful fabric I’d printed pineapples onto and a bag with an apple core design (pictured), I came away marvelling at the economic possibilities to be explored in craft. Perhaps I should persuade my talented friends to open their own business.

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