In April, I posted an offhand reel about how any bar can be a craft bar if you bring your own craft and don’t give a shit about what anybody else thinks you’re doing. Then I turned it into a real craft club.
Every now and then, I say something that really resonates with the masses, and this ended up being one of those times. At the time of writing this that reel has been viewed over 360,000 times by more than 280,000 people and is still making the rounds. I think it’s going to end up being one of my most shared and saved reels, too.
People, especially women of all ages, yearn to craft.
A few weeks after I posted it and noticed it was starting to gain some traction, I decided to move on the interest I was seeing. I reached out to my favorite bar in Downtown Phoenix, The Churchill, to see if they would be interested in hosting a craft club event with me. They responded with an enthusiastic yes, and Craft Club was born.
And then, of course, I started to stress about it.
Who is going to bring all their stuff to a Bring Your Own Craft night at a partially outdoor bar in May when it’s hot? Did I post about it enough? Will I look silly if not a lot of people show up? Should I have planned more? Should I have made it more official? Is it weird to casually invite people to come craft at a bar with me?
Turns out, all that worrying was for nothing.
At our first meetup, 14 people showed up and crafted for two full hours. One of the women who attended with her mom friends messaged me afterward to tell me how grateful they were to have a space to just hang out, and it made my whole night.
People worked on vision boards, spy scopes for kids, bedazzled pill containers, beadwork, diamond painting, and more, really proving that the only limit is what you can carry into Craft Club.
After that first event, I took the next step and asked if we could make this a regular thing. Now Craft Club is a monthly event at The Churchill.
It has been such an honor to see how many people want to come hang out and do their own thing, together but separately, in one of the best community spaces in the Valley. It has also been really cool to see how important this event is to my friends, family, and community. My mom and sister are coming to the next event, my best friends have it on their calendars and are talking about it at work, and I’m even getting news coverage about it.
Which is wild, because this started with one reel and one ask the response to which could’ve easily been a “that sounds fun, but it’ll cost you” or “lol no”
I’m also learning things through hosting this that are great lessons as a recovering perfectionist.
The very nature of this craft club is relaxed. It’s BYOC: bring your own craft. We meet in the courtyard at The Churchill or up on the rooftop patio of an indoor/outdoor bar that has misters going and, yes, is sometimes still kind of hot in the summer. I started it with no registration process and may only implement one now so I can keep track of headcount and make sure we’re not disruptive to people who are just at the bar to hang out.
There are so many opportunities to grow this event within my Downtown Phoenix community while also using that growth to help propel my own endeavors as a creator. I would love to eventually get crafts sponsored for everyone to do together. I would love to keep making this more organized and useful and fun. I would love to keep building something that gives people a reason to leave the house, meet new people, and make something with their hands.
But the biggest opportunity Craft Club is giving me is the chance to learn on the fly that people enjoy things I put together, even when there is always some part of me that thinks I could have done it better.
I’m always going to think I could have posted about it more. I’m always going to think I could have organized it better. I’m always going to see the gap between what something was and what I know it could become because that’s what I’m good at, but I don’t always need to optimize the shit out of everything I do for it to be valuable.
My background is in event organization, and I’m proud that I’m known for doing a good job at that. But I’m also really enjoying the opportunity to learn that my perfectionist tendencies are not necessary to create something worthwhile.
The next Craft Club dates are June 9, July 15, August 12, and September 8 from 7–9 PM at The Churchill in Downtown Phoenix. I moved it later in the evening to try to beat the heat – I was sweating straight down my legs in that pink jumpsuit.
I’d love to have you with us. Come craft, cutie!
