Creative Hearts Introduces ‘Teach Your Craft’

Junior+Bubbles+Thomas+introduces+attendees+at+Oct.+18s+Teach+Your+Craft+event.

Photo by Colleen Moore

Junior Bubbles Thomas introduces attendees at Oct. 18’s “Teach Your Craft” event.

Caspar Dowdy, Editor-in-chief

Amid the sounds of chatting voices and spilling beads, Creative Hearts Art Club held its first “Teach your Craft” event, allowing students to learn new crafts while a student instructor demonstrated the process.

The first student teacher, junior Bubbles Thomas, showed attendees how to make beaded keychains in the shape of a lizard. To participate in the event, students paid $3 at the door, with snacks available for an additional $2. More than 30 students attended the event, which came as a surprise to those leading it.

“I was just expecting maybe five of my friends to show up… but it was really nice to see people interested,” Thomas said.

The unexpected crowd wasn’t a source of anxiety for Thomas, who was excited to share a craft they enjoyed with classmates.

“I wasn’t super nervous at all,” they said. “I really enjoy kandi and sharing it and talking about it is something I really enjoy.”

“Kandi” refers to accessories, like bracelets and keychains, made from beads. The style of jewelry, popularized by music festival and rave communities, is designed to be traded and shared.

The sharing of kandi is associated with the “PLUR” movement, which originated in rave circles of the 90s and stands for “Peace, love, unity and respect,” according to the Digital Folklore Archives at the University of Southern California.

“It’s a nice community. It makes me feel like me,” Thomas said. “It’s an honest way I can express myself and feel okay with myself.”

As the year progresses, more students will have the opportunity to share crafts that are important to them.

Art Club plans to host “Teach your Craft” events on a regular monthly schedule. Members of Art Club who paid a membership fee are able to attend this year’s events without paying at the door.

Though this is the first “Teach your Craft” that Art Club invited the entire school to attend, the idea for the event was first tested last year, when sophomore club officer Samantha McKenney taught club members to make wire jewelry.

In its second year, Creative Hearts Art Club plans to expand its schedule to include more events and focus on giving back to the community. As “Teach Your Craft” matures into a monthly event, the club looks to December to bring back its student-guided “Poppin’ Paint Nights.”

While the money earned from Tuesday’s event will go mostly to gathering materials for the next craft, Art Club hopes to use future club activities to raise money for charity.

“We’re going to do a sale during the holiday, and part of that money will go to the food pantry…” art teacher Cassie Flynn, who sponsors the club, said. “Part of our thing is making artwork for the community, and giving part of the money to other organizations.

For Thomas, taking a turn leading “Teach Your Craft” provided an opportunity to help students get involved with a new form of art as a community.

“It’s really fun to share something of interest I like to others, mostly to kinda share and have people explore new things,” they said. “Like, I saw so many different versions of lizards today and I felt really inspired to create more.”