Craft classes to inspire you

Take your pick from the wide range of beginner craft classes on offer

Do you wish you could make ceramics or jewellery, do you need to brush up on your knitting or dressmaking skills, or would you love to try something really different like glass-blowing, scrap-booking or traditional rural crafts? There are hundreds of classes for beginners held all over the country which offer a fast and relatively inexpensive way for anyone to learn the basics of a new craft. Here are some of the best. Most are either one-day classes, or short courses held over a few days or once a week for a few weeks. Most cost around £50 for a one-day class, with a few charging several hundred for a more intensive, equipment-heavy or residential course - please check the websites for each course provider for the exact costs, dates and details.

 

Need inspiration?
If you don't know where to start, go to an open day at a college which offers a range of craft classes. One of the best is West Dean Arts College in Chichester, Sussex, where you can do short courses in dozens of crafts, including printmaking, basket-making, willow work, bookbinding, papermaking, calligraphy, glass engraving, mosaics, metalworking, silk painting, millinery, tapestry weaving, furniture-craft and even musical instrument-making. You can search for colleges near you offering craft courses by searching on the Directgov website.

The trendy Make Lounge in London runs a stream of evening craft workshops, varying from decoupage to candle-making to book-binding. Or stay at rural haven The Old Kennels on the Devon/Somerset borders, where you can sandwich together one-day classes in traditional crafts like silver-smithing, bookbinding, printmaking, knitting, soap-making and floristry.

 

Ceramics
What could be more therapeutic than spinning clay in a real pottery studio? The Clay Centre in rural Shropshire runs weekly evening classes where you can learn pottery, as does The Potters Barn in Sandbach, Cheshire. At holiday cottages Upper Court near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, there are short pottery classes by arrangement where you can try out the wheel, fire your work, glaze and paint it. For something more substantial, what about a weekend or week-long residential immersion in pottery with family-run Gosforth Pottery in Cumbria, or with Pottery Courses in Shotley, near Ipswich, whose teacher has been giving pottery classes since the early 1970s?

 

Metal, wood, glass and paper-work
These crafts can seem daunting to crafters more familiar with soft fabrics, but there are some fantastic workshops for beginners to get started on beautiful projects. The Weald and Downland Museum in Sussex runs classes on traditional rural crafts, including workshops on making cane seats and stained glass (as well as other age-old crafts like tapestry-weaving and making herb dyes). If you're ready to get serious, try a five-day residential furniture-making course at The Wood Workshop in the Lake District. Want to make things with paper and preserve your memories beautifully? Paperarts in Stroud, Gloucestershire, runs regular one-day scrap-booking and card-making classes for under £15. Or, for a new skill to wow everyone you know, take up glass-blowing at The Liquid Glass Centre, in a remote corner of Wiltshire.

 

Sewing
Whether you're a novice with a sewing machine or want to improve your tailoring skills, there are many classes to suit. The School of Sewing, in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, is the UK's biggest independent sewing school. As well as dressmaking classes on everything from making the perfect dress, trousers, lingerie and even bridal-wear, there are easy workshops on customising clothes, making bags and cushions, machine embroidery and using a sewing machine. The Modern Approach Sewing School in Preston runs similar courses, covering everything from curtain-making to heirloom sewing and couture tailoring. Sewing Tuition in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds teaches sewing with an emphasis on making soft furnishings - it runs one-day workshops and also sewing holidays.

 

Textile arts
At The Textile Workshop in Nottingham, there are quick classes introducing creative skills like making sock creatures, fabric dying, felting, making textile cards, appliqué, patchwork and quilting. If you want to learn embroidery, the grand Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey is the ultimate place to study. In Wiltshire and Somerset, Vine Embroidery holds one-day and residential embroidery classes, and Embroidery Now runs one-day classes in Winchester. Fabric-ation in Leeds is running classes on various textile crafts including felting, and the perfect place to learn patchwork quilting is the Tikki patchwork shop in London, where students have access to a shop full of charming fat quarters.

 

Jewellery-making
Want to create something truly precious? Tons of jewellery-making courses are held at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery - from a beginners' silverwork weekend to an introduction to kiln formed glass to making your own wedding rings. The Stitch'n'Craft bead shop in Shaftesbury runs one-day jewellery-making classes, and at In the Studio, in Kegworth, near Nottingham, you can embark on a variety of residential jewellery-making weekends or weeks in rural bliss.

 

Knitting and crochet
Rowan, one of the best names in yarn, runs knitting classes all over the country: search for one near you here. Many yarn shops offer lessons in knitting and crochet basics, too. The best value for money knitting course we have found is held at the The Amoré Group craft shop in Leek, Staffordshire, where a weekly beginners' knitting course lasting 11 weeks is free! In London, trendy yarn shop Loop has excellent beginners' classes for knitting and crochet which run once a week for three weeks. Classes at Purl in Brighton are always popular with new knitters, and Fibre and Clay in Knutsford teaches a great selection of more advanced knitting skills including beginners' lace knitting and sock knitting.

 

By Olivia Gordon

 
For more craft inspiration, see our projects for beginners.