String Art Adventure

Art alchemy!

When I first decided that Craft Box Club would go fully plastic free I freaked out a little bit. I was already plastic free on the packaging side, that’s never been a huge problem really. But the kit! Would going plastic free really limit the range of crafts that I was able to offer? Would I be able to keep the ideas coming? Well the answer was a big fat NO! I sat down and wrote a list of plastic free crafts that I really wanted to try, and I got to 15 in just a couple of minutes and this craft, string art, wasn’t even on there!

String art

I’ve got to thanks London studio Make Your Own for the inspiration. I saw this craft demonstrated on an Instagram live and I fell in love. The idea is super simple, all you need is nails, string and wood and you can make an epic piece of art! Real art alchemy! I’ve had quite a few experiments with this now, and it’s been great fun. The image above is my latest creation. Not all there yet but I’ve got the design down now. The next go will the the final design that will go into the kit.

If you’re thinking of having a go at string art here are my top tips. All of these will make it into the final string art video guide, coming soon.

String art top tips

• Plan it out - You might notice that my creation is a bit wonky. For the final kit I’m going to make a template so all the lines are straight and it’ll really tighten up the final look!

• Keep it simple - The simplest designs are definitely the best. Let the texture and the colour do the talking

• Get that string tight - The whole design relies on nice straight lines. Don’t let those strings go floppy!

• Hammer the nails in firm - I’ve had some disasters where I tried to pull the string tight and pulled out a nail! Really annoying!

• Get the right kit - You need to make sure that the nails you’re using are the right length, about 2cm is good, and the wood is not too hard. You need a good solid hammer too. If you’d like us to do the hard work and send the kit right to your door, then join the club and ask for this kit when you get your welcome email.

What now?

I can’t wait to get going on making the video for this craft. I’m having to wait a bit longer for deliveries than usual at the moment but I’m still aiming to have this ready for next month!

Looking forward to sharing the kit with you all. In the spirit of Craft Box Club, I’ll be using recycled wooden pallets so I need to get sawing!

Happy crafting everyone!

Inspired?

It feels awesome getting creative, using your hands and getting off your phone. All our kits are simple and beginner friendly! Ready for your mini art adventure. Join Craft Box Club below…

The Magic of Campfire Chats

how crafting fires connection

It’s mid-summer. It’s getting late. The sun is drifting over the horizon to end a long hot day. You notice, just a short way off, in a clearing in the forest, shadowy figures flicker and dance around an orange glow. The campfire has been lit.

The draw of the fire is impossible to resist. You wander over to find your friends and family nestled around the glowing flames. It’s quiet but there is a murmur of conversation. Everyone is relaxed, the day is done and there is nothing to do. Just to be together, sharing any thoughts or feelings that bubble up, close and connected with each other.

Have you ever noticed the magical atmosphere created by a campfire? As the pressure to “make conversation” is lifted, conversations start to flow more easily. Discussions move away from day to day life to deeper, more abstract stuff. Our passions, our feelings, our beliefs. We start to tell stories. Deep in our history, our discovery of fire sparked a massive leap forward in our evolution as stories were shared around the fire. An instinct for connecting in this way remains deeply ingrained in us to this day.

“Stories told by firelight put listeners on the same emotional wavelength,” and “elicits understanding, trust, and sympathy.” - University of Utah anthropologist Polly Wiessner

There are good reasons why we find a campfire setting such a natural way of connecting. The fire mildly grasps our attention. This keeps us in the moment but in a way that leaves much of the brain unoccupied and open to deeper thinking. As we have our attention focused on something there is less fear of that uncomfortable silence as the fire somehow fills the gaps. We’re not looking at each other. It seems counter intuitive that looking away from someone would stimulate connection but being free of eye contact makes it’s easier to open up and discuss more difficult topics. Sharing thoughts that are often closest to our hearts.

So often I find the campfire feeling at Craft Box Club. It’s sort of a heightened, slightly excitable peace where people find it easy to connect and share. Also there is the bonding of learning something new together, making mistakes and being a little bit silly.

So if you want to get to know someone a bit better, or make a more meaningful connection with someone, spark up the campfire or come along to Craft Box Club. We run adult craft clubs in Reading every month. The next one is this Friday

What are the business benefits of workplace creativity?

Why we need creativity now!

More than ever we need creativity, innovation and problem solving just to keep pace with the ever changing world we live and work in. There are huge opportunities to take advantage of and new threats on the horizon. Businesses need to do more than ever to compete and gain an edge over the competition. The key to this is recruit and retain the best staff who are equipped and empowered to think outside the box, be flexible and act decisively.

The wellbeing and mental health of staff is gaining increasing awareness. Showing staff they are valued and supporting health and wellness in the workplace are key to maintaining a happy, productive and engaged workforce.

In my decade or so working in the City of London myself and those around me have experienced the highs, the lows, the excitement and the pressures of the modern working environment. I set up Craft Box Club to help by providing regular, accessible and fun craft sessions in the workplace to boost creativity and aid wellbeing.

Benefits of creativity in the workplace

There are many ways to be creative but we believe that getting your hands dirty and making something real has some incredible benefits for your employees and therefore, your business!

• Reduce stress, anxiety and depression

  Mental ill-health is costing the UK more than £94bn every year, counting treatment, social support costs and the losses to the economy from people who cannot work, according to the OECD. Nearly half of this costs is due to people not being able to work or being less productive. Getting hands on with craft is a mindful activity. Mindfulness has been shown to have great benefits on wellbeing by bringing people into the present moment, calming the brain and body.

• Spark eureka moments

  There is no doubt that people enjoy making. In our sessions people find it easy to focus and engage. Doing something completely different from day to day work builds new connections and stimulates the brain. Our brain does much of it’s thinking without our being conscious of it. Often when we stop actively working on a particular problem, more ideas just come to mind naturally. Crafting shifts our attention and gives our minds the focused break it needs for eureka moments to appear.

• Staff retention

  Finding and hiring the right staff costs a lot! You really don’t want to lose your best assets. Show your staff they are valued with benefits that stand out! The best people have come to take the usual staff benefits for granted. Offer something a bit different that people will take notice of.

• Bring people together

  One of the best ways to innovate is to collaborate! I know from experience that, all too often, different departments work in silos. Parties and after work drinks are great but they can often reinforce silos and cliques. Making something together really brings people together and creates connection like nothing else. As people play and discover together bonds are formed that stimulate a positive flow of ideas across the organisation.

• Increase confidence

  Look out for the introverts, they are often the quiet but powerful source of innovation. A craft session will bring out hidden talents for creative thinking that you didn’t even know you had. Increasing people’s confidence in feeling that they might just be creative will carry into other aspects or their work.

• Improve creative thinking and problem solving

  Successful innovation requires both divergent then convergent thinking. First we need to generate multiple potential solutions to a problem (divergent). Imagine a blue sky sessions with loads of post it notes all over the place. Then select the best idea and implement it (convergent). Crafting stimulates this kind of thinking naturally. Especially when you make something unique so you’re not only working out how to use the materials but using your imagination too.

If you’d like to find a simple way to boost creativity in your business please get in touch with me via adam@craftboxclub.co.uk.

My story

My name is Adam and I started Craft Box Club to help you

craft with nature

Well that’s half the story.

I am not an artist

For the last decade I’ve been a catastrophe modeller for an insurance company in the city. It was actually pretty cool. Since I was 8 years old I’ve been kind of obsessed with the weather. So getting to learn about, study and analyse natural disasters was kind of a dream come true. It had been good, but I felt more and more that I needed to create and express myself.

I’ve always been a bit creative. I’ve dabbled with bands and the theatre. I play a few different instruments which I fiddle with in the evening whenever I get a chance. I was, and kind of still am, passionate about bringing data to life using colourful, engaging and err… pretty visuals. But I wanted more and was drawn to visual art and crafting as it’s so tangible. Once you’ve made something, it’s there for everyone to see, forever!

I tried

Youtube art tutorials. Most of them were garbage or aimed at people who were already experts. When I found ones that made sense to me then it was hard to get my hands on the kit and by the time I’d found what I needed, I ran out of time to make. I tried arts and craft classes, but most of them were so expensive I could only really afford to go a few times a year or they were during work hours or weekends when I was looking after my little one. I had a go at muddling through on my own but found a strange, but common, fear of being presented with a blank page. Where should I start? Should I draw or paint or…? What if it looks rubbish? Maybe I’m just not a creative person?!

I’m just not creative

Is something I have heard loads since starting Craft Box Club. In my heart I just don’t believe it. Humans are born and driven to create. It’s part of us! But more on that later.

I want to give people the awesome feeling of making, that is affordable enough to do regularly and where anyone could get a good result. So…

Craft Box Club

was born. Each month I go through the process of researching and learning the first thing about a new craft. Let’s be honest, learning the first thing about anything is the most fun right? I make a super clear and quick how to video to teach you everything you need to know. I source or make the right materials to get you crafting. All of this gets lovingly packaged, plastic free, into a craft box which gets delivered straight to your door.

On top of that I’ll be sharing some hints and tips for how to squeeze more creativity into your life. Sign up to the mailing list to hear all about it!

So now you know the whole story, Craft Box Club is for you, but it’s my journey too. I hope you can join me!

HAVE YOU BEEN CREATIVE TODAY?