Big News About 2019!

Dear Crafters!

Without further ado, I'm blogging to let you know that The Craft Sessions' events will be on hiatus for 2019. This means no annual Craft Sessions retreat, and no Soul Craft in 2019.
 
For some of you this will come as a big surprise, but others of you will have felt it coming.
 
The Craft Sessions started as a total passion project – I simply wanted to bring people together who crafted for joy, and foster a love of hand making! And it worked. So many wonderful women have got to know one another through the incredible events we have run over the last six years. And I have been so grateful to be able to be there, and bear witness to the magic that happens when you bring people together around their shared passion.
 
You see the thing is that The Craft Sessions and Soul Craft have never been about building a business for me. I believe that connection is the secret sauce of life, and that hand making elevates our lives by giving us buoyancy. Sharing those beliefs at the events I've run has been so joyful and inspiring - but events also take a load of work and intention. I would never want to put on an event where I was just going through the motions. I think you can feel when an event has been put together with intention and care and love.
 
Some of you know I’ve been working on writing a book on how making impacts our wellbeing and elevates our lives – it’s my next passion project! (Or you could say it’s simply a continuation of this one.) Through running the events and talking with so many of you, both in person and online, I’ve realized the things I’ve been writing about, the ideas we have been in conversation about, don’t yet have broad understanding and acceptance in the wider world.
 
And so I’m on a mission – to promote hand making as a process that can elevate our lives by improving our wellbeing. And that means I have to finish the book I have been trying to write for the last few years. I believe that a hand making practice could be incredibly supporting and elevating to so many people, if only they knew why and how they could use it. These ideas deserve a much broader audience. These ideas could be of service to so many people.
 
The ideas contained in the book are too important to do a shitty job. A half-assed book isn’t going to cut it. And once written, I need to launch it, promote it and talk about it. I need to spread these ideas as widely and as loudly as I can.
 
The problem has been that when I run events I have a really easy opt-out for how I can spend my energy. For example, I worked on Soul Craft for nearly six months full time alongside the lovely Claire. Everything else in my life took a back seat, including blogging…. and I got to avoid the harder heart-work of writing the book by “having” to work on the festival. Realising that the festival was an incredibly joyful avoidance tactic on my part was a little painful, especially because it was so magical to be there, witness it, be part of it. Soul Craft was a total joy and all I'd hoped it would be.
 
This is why I need to take a year – I need to take a year to focus on getting my next passion project off the ground. This work deserves my full attention.
 
I promise there will be more events - more Soul Craft and Craft Sessions goodness! Just not any major ones in 2019.

I'm sincerely sorry to those of you who were excited about coming next year. I hate disappointing you!
 
The best way to keep up to date with all I’m doing is to join the mailing list. I am going to shift to a semi-monthly newsletter during this outwardly quieter period. And I’ll be back blogging every Friday - like in the old days :). There are already quite a few new posts up there from the last month or three, like Stash Less - For The Love Of Opportunity Cost , Making Shit Up, and Intentional Craft As True Comfort.

Please comment and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this, and I want to wholeheartedly thank you for your ongoing and passionate support.
 
Love
Felicia x

Soul Craft 2018 - Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Won.

Wow! So I've tried to write this post many times. And it's hard. It's hard because it was just so special but rambling on and on about how special it was can make a person seem gushy and inauthentic. But as my Dad reminded me yesterday on the phone when he called me to tell me to "post already", I don't need to say that much as the photos will speak for themselves.

We set out to do something really different with Soul Craft. We wanted to create a space where we could come together and share, share our love of craft and share a bit about ourselves. We wanted to talk about how hand making improves our wellbeing, how it sustains us. And we wanted to create a space that facilitated connection with others - where saying hi to someone you vaguely recognised from online was welcomed.

"Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!" is what Coach Taylor gets his players to repeat before they go out on the field in Friday Night Lights. Now you might think that Texas high-school football and Soul Craft have little in common..... except that "clear eyes, full hearts" is exactly what happened.

Everyone arrived with such joyful, invested, interested, open energy that we couldn't help but have a good weekend. Conversations were had, and because the hearts were open and our passion was shared, the conversations were of a depth that doesn't normally happen so quickly among groups of strangers.

Lovely women you blew my mind with what you brought with you - your joy, your kindness, your enthusiasm, your stories. It showed me that it is possible to create spaces that are different - spaces that fill us up, sustain us and connect us.

So thank you! Thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for showing up in such a beautiful whole hearted way.

Felicia x

I believe in a beautiful stash.

Stash Less is an ongoing series where I talk about creating a conscious stash. Have a look at my Stash Less project here....

I had a lovely woman on the phone the other day tell me that she felt kind of embarrassed with her love of materials - and talking about how she loved purchasing - in front of me because of Stash Less. The whole conversation made her feel a bit naughty, like she was doing something wrong. Which reminded me that it had been a while since I've stated "I believe in a beautiful stash".

I love purchasing beautiful things too. I love having them and holding them and opening a cupboard that contains them. I love having possibility at my finger tips.

The point of Stash Less was not to not have a stash, and not even to necessarily have a very small stash - but rather the point was to have a conscious stash. Because at the start of Stash Less that is not what I had. I had chaos - too many things and the wrong things. I had overwhelm. I had guilt.

What is a conscious stash?

A conscious stash is a stash of materials that supports your making practice. It should have materials in it that inspire you in quantities that are usable for the kinds of things you want to make. A conscious stash is one that holds possibility and inspiration.

It should not overwhelm you with it's size or it's chaos, make you feel guilty, frustrate you because there is so many things in quantities too small to use or that don't go together. If it does any of these things then in probably needs some work.

When your stash isn't conscious then it isn't as useful and inspiring as it should be. The possibilities are too disparate and too vast which leads to a brain that zips all over the place and constantly feels like you don't have enough time. And that "I don't have enough time" feeling - that we all have sometimes - sucks time and your energy. And who needs that?

Recently I went away for two days to write my book. When I was planning to do it there was a possibility that I could have extended it to three, when Martine wisely told me not to do it. "Three will make you feel like you have 'all this time'. Two won't and so you will feel a sense of urgency and get a lot more done". She was right.

And this is the case when we have too many materials. We are often overwhelmed by possibility of what we could do, which takes up energy. This leads to do less of the thing we really want, the thing that fills us up, which is the making part of making.

We all need tension in our lives. Tension helps us to prioritise what is important to us. And this is the case with our stash. When we have enough materials that we have a few wonderful project options available to us, but not so many we are stuck in indecision, we are in a happy place.

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And speaking of tension, let's talk about the marketplace at Soul Craft.

The one thing that I didn't want Soul Craft to be was simply a big market with a few classes tacked on. I wanted Soul Craft to be our dream festival - with nourishing beautiful food, things to delight the senses like our exhibition, places to really get involved like our community projects and our craft dating, ideas to expand our hearts and minds like our talks, and community building in a million small ways.

I also wanted to have a marketplace to support your making for the coming year. But a small marketplace where I could bring together a bunch of amazing and thoughtful stores to the one place. Due to our vast geography, we often only get to see a small variety of materials in person, and many of us do much of our shopping online. While I'm grateful to have online shopping I have also made some howling mistakes....

And so at Soul Craft I have pulled together beautiful shops, brands and businesses - each with special goods, many of which have a great story. Weaving, spinning, yarn, fabric, embroidery, quilting, books...... my plan was to provide you a place whereby you could see and purchase what you needed to compliment your existing stash.

We encourage you to plan your purchasing, to come with a list and know what you are after. To know what will support your making over the coming year, and inspire you, to make rather than overwhelm you.

I have a strategy for these types of events (and for many of you coming from a long way away - trips!) which I've blogged about before where I come with a list which I mainly stick to, except for one special purchase. My special purchase is something beautiful, off piste and satisfies the rebellious part of me that is totally anti-list. 

And to help you build a conscious stash - we have put together a Soul Craft Marketplace Page which we are launching today. This will show you who, and what, will be coming to the market so that you can think about your purchased before the event.

Many of these businesses have mentioned to me that they are happy to receive emails from you - asking them to bring specific things along to the Soul Craft Market for you to look at - so please feel free to browse their websites and ask them to bring specific stock.

Because conscious is where it's at; it's how we live a more satisfied life.

Felicia x

Join the #soulcraftalong!

By now I hope you've heard the tagline....

“Soul Craft Festival aims to celebrate craft and connection!”

One is not more important than the other. This festival celebrates how craft creates connection, and how our connection elevates our craft.

And so we were brainstorming what we could do to help you all get to know one another before the event, when a super obvious idea floated to the top. We should start a knit-along and a sew-along and weave-along as most of you attending will engage in either knitting and/or sewing AND many of you will be making something to wear to the festival.

And so I give you the #soulcraftalong! A joint knit-along/sew-along that aims to celebrate craft and connection in the lead up to Soul Craft Festival.

Why so much joy about the #soulcraftalong?

Well - because it means;

1. We can find one another on the socials before hand so we can see who else is coming, and maybe make some connections in the lead up to the event.
2. We will already know one another a bit through chatting about our projects.
3. We will be able to “recognize” one another on the day because we will already have seen one another’s projects.*

All about the connection and all about the craft!

So how will it work?

To participate you simply need to start making something that you plan to wear to Soul Craft Festival. It might be a frock, some leggings, a shawl, some socks, a sweater, a coat – any thing you like!

The only other thing you need to do is to have a ticket to Soul Craft!

I’m so sorry lovely people who are following along from over-the-seas or are in Australia but aren’t coming - but the #soulcraftalong's primary aim is to help connect people who are attending Soul Craft!

Special AVFKW yarn for my childhood sweater.

And will there be prizes?

Yes. Always. Just for fun and for joy. Not because knitting and sewing are a competition. They aren’t. Obviously.

At this stage I’m thinking there will be three prizes;

1.     A knitting prize to be awarded at the event

2.     A sewing prize to be awarded at the event

3.     An interim prize on May 9th – for WIP photos and participation in the #soulcraftalong

Now I don’t know what they are yet – my apologies! But I wanted to get us started and I will gather the prizes over the next couple of months. We are always lucky as we have amazing shops who support us and give us gifts of true beauty. I promise you they will be good.

I’m thinking that the knitting prize will be a sweaters worth of beautiful yarn and a pattern or two, and the sewing prize will be a frock or two's worth of fabric and a pattern or two. And maybe the interim prize will be a bit of both.

I have a couple of ideas for judges who I will share with you soon.

Which brings me to our #soulcraftalong facilitator Bex!

I’ve asked the lovely Bex to facilitate the #soulcraftalong because to tell you the truth I’m a little strapped trying to make sure this festival is magic. Some of you might know her from Instagram @bex_inreallife? She will be highlighting some of your beautiful work and will be crafting along beside you (as will I). She is another good woman – both a knitter and a sewer – who will be chatting to you all via the @soulcraftfestival account on Instagram about what’s what. I’m so happy Bex is on board to help out with this.

Are you, Felicia, participating?

Great question and the answer is yes?!? I hope so??

I’m trying not to overstretch myself, and I have birthday knitting and sewing to do for the kids, who are currently lovingly grumpy that they aren’t getting as much homemade as normal because I’m a little busier with this festival malarkey.

That said, I’m hoping to participate by making a sweater (probably the childhood sweater using my special purchase from AVFKW) and some pants (my half cut-out Terra pants) that were gifted to me by Nita-Jane. And maybe maybe some socks using Viola's Favourite Sock pattern and the beautiful yarn from the top of the post from Miss Click Clack. I often claim I don't like purple** but these colours are heartbreakingly beautiful.

Giveaway!

If you are participating - leave a comment on this post by this Sunday (March 25th) 9pm EST - and let me know what you are thinking about making. I have one beautiful goodie-rich gift-bag leftover from The Craft Sessions that I will send out to one lucky (ticket-holding!) winner.

So crafty Soul-Craft-attending women, are you in??

Felicia x

*I once met a lovely woman in a national park south of Sydney, not because she recognized me, but rather because she recognized the smallest kid’s Nani Iro skirt!! Such a lovely memory of a beautiful day – we later met up and had icecream at the farmers market she recommended - a wonderful connection with a good woman.

**Another fine example of me being off-base :).

Giving Back Policy

Soul Craft is about giving back. Me giving back to this craft and this community who have given me so much over the years - who have literally acted as life support.

But it is also about us giving back - as a community. What we are able to do - make things - is a privilege. No matter how tiny the amount of time we have in any phase of life, or how tiny the amount of money we have for supplies, we get to engage with this thing we love because we have the time/money to do so. We are also lucky enough to have the knowledge that craft is there for us when we need it. That is our privilege.

And so Soul Craft wants to share that privilege around. To create a bit more space and time for someone who doesn't have craft in their lives as a life support.

To see our Values and our Policies then please follow the links. But for your convenience I thought I would share our Giving Back Policy here.

“We believe in giving back. We know the power craft can have in our lives, and want to share that with as many people as we are able to. As we all know, making things with our hands can dramatically affect our wellbeing and support us in our everyday.

As such 10% of all profit made by the event will be invested in projects that improve the wellbeing of women through craft. Some of this money will be given in the form of scholarships and grants to people and projects within our community. Some will be in charitable donations through things like micro-loans. We will be fully transparent on where this money has been assigned, and a page will be added to our website after the event giving details.”

— https://www.soulcraftfestival.com/our-policies/

What our Giving Back looks like in reality? Well, that is what I am asking you?

This is our first year of running the festival and the first time we have attempted something like this. In the past we have run scholarships to The Craft Sessions but our Giving Back policy aims to target a larger number of women.

So my questions are;
1. Do you know of a community group that needs resources or even a cash grant. It could be for materials, for hall hire, for teaching support?
2. Do you think we should keep it totally within Australia or should a proportion of what we do be spent through charities like Give Directly or Kiva loans allowing women to support themselves and their families through craft?

We will take any advice you have for us - and will share after the event what we have decided to do.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this post. Please comment here rather than on Facebook and  Instagram just so we have all your comments in the one place.

Thanks as always for your support.

Felicia x