The Make Escape Makerversary

Last week's Nice Day Out was more of a Nice Night Out as I spent the evening at the Make Escape,
an awesome free craft night in Hackney.

I had planned to spend the day in London, sitting in nice cafes, reading a book, maybe leisurely strolling through a gallery... but life got in the way and I ended up getting into the city pretty late in the afternoon. There was still a bit of time before things started closing for the day though, so I popped to the Natural History Museum for a look round their Minerals gallery (one of my favourite parts of the museum - interesting rocks and gems displayed in the museum's original Victorian cabinets? Yes Please).

 

It is impossible to visit the Natural History Museum without doing a lot of "oohing" over the building itself. The Central Hall is especially wonderful but the whole place (inside and out) is an absolute treasure trove of delightful details. Even the pillars of the Museum gates are decorated with animals.

 

I particularly loved this panel:

 

I had an early dinner in South Ken then headed to the Tube to make my way to the Hackney Attic for the Make Escape  It was raining pretty hard that evening, and I very narrowly escaped getting totally drenched by a bus as it drove through a huge puddle! (Phew).

The Make Escape was founded by crafty superstar Momtaz two years ago. I've wanted to go along for aaaages as they always look a ton of fun, so when Momtaz invited me to come along and help celebrate their two year Makerversary I jumped at the chance.

 

It was (apparently) a little quieter than usual thanks to the horrid weather, but the space soon filled up with people happily chatting and making things.

Usually there's a theme for the month (I was especially sad to miss out on the Egyptian night!) but for the Makerversary they were repeating some of their popular crafts. You could sew fabric cupcakes, make a pop-London scene from card, work on your own knitting or crochet project, make fun strawberry pompoms, do some colouring in or cutting and sticking, or make paper beads or brooches.

 

 

 

A veritable smorgasbord of crafty goodness, all accompanied by an excellently quirky selection of tunes (I don't think I've ever been to a craft event with a DJ before, pretty darn cool) and a fun a slideshow of pics from previous Make Escapes.

To celebrate the Makerversary there was a raffle with lots of great crafty prizes, and a journalist from London Live came along to film the night and do some interviews (I talked total nonsense in mine, I'm sure!).

Here I am modelling my paper bead necklace, with my bead-making-tutor the lovely Clarissa of Chrysalis Designs.

Ah, how awesome it would be to have this as my local craft night! Sigh.

Fancy going along to The Make Escape for some free crafty fun? They're now switching to bi-monthly craft nights, on the last Tuesday of every other month. The next event is on Tuesday 29th July at 7.30pm, with the theme of "Village Fair". Visit their blog for more details or follow them on Twitter.