Bringing Craft to Children in Need in San Diego

Happy New Year!

We recently hosted a craft supply sale to raise funds for a new dust collection system in our woodshop. We had a fantastic turnout, and it has helped us to make more space in the studio as we start to organize in the new year. It also reminded us about how much people love to create things!

Next up is taking a look at all of our Craft Kits and looking for the best way to package them and keep getting them out to the public and into the hands of children in need. We have a new team member, Viri, who is dedicating some of her time to helping us rebrand the Craft Kits and come up with beautiful new packaging and instructions for each one.

We're currently in the process of adding new string art kits to our lineup. String art is made by using piece of wood (we use upcycled lumber and sheet goods in our kits). Then the student places a paper template with dots over the piece of wood. The dots tell them where they'll hammer in each nail. Once all of the nails are hammered in --- only halfway, not all the way through! The template is removed and the stringing fun begins. A string is tied on to one nail, and then it gets wrapped around each nail head as the student goes around the outline and then fills in the middle. There are so many fine motor skills at work here! Keep the tension of the string and don't let it unravel!

We recommend stringing the outline first, and then filling in the interior of the design after. The color of string can be  changed out for details based on the template design (take a look at the mushroom sample in the image). It becomes a bit like a puzzle to fill in all of the design without leaving any holes or blank spots. You can also take a very geometric, organized approach like the sample with the colorful wheel. 

The wonderful thing about this project is that it's very scalable-- meaning we can serve up more challenging templates for older students or make it more accessible for neurodivergent students. We can also change out the string for littles or use embroidery floss for students interested in more intricate details. Here's a fun fact about our studio: we don't buy acrylic yarn because it's essentially plastic and is bad for the environment. We do accept it as a donation though in an effort to divert it from going directly to the landfill, and we sometimes use it for projects like string art! 

Thank you for your continued support!

In gratitude, 

Steffanie