From gentle glueing to throwing shapes on the wheel, or sandpaper, or chisels at the ready, sign up for a crafting session, workshop, or one-day class to learn skills you can show off at home.
Crafting can be super social. Taking a class is a low-commitment way to explore new hobbies, maybe make some new friends and also add decorative touches to your home that no one else will have.
Time to get social and upskill from decorative easter eggs to stonework and rug tufting.
Here are six ways to add custom elements to your home.
Make your own decorative easter eggs for free
From a low-commitment point of view, a DIY Easter egg decorating session at your local Søstrene Grene store is a great way to play with small-form crafts.
From today, Thursday, February 19th, to Wednesday next, February 25th, you can drop in and join a class on how to make and decorate your own Easter eggs, mixing hygge and creativity.
The stores have busted out the pipe cleaners, stickers, and sequins, so children and adults alike make imaginative pieces that have a personal touch.
The event is free of charge and takes place during the stores' opening hours.
If hoping to visit on Sunday, check in advance that your nearest store is open. Not all stores are open on Sunday, 22 February.
Give tired furniture a fresh look
If you have tired pieces in your home that need a refresh, then join Marianne Heaphy, aka The Revamp Tramp, and learn how to prepare and paint your furniture, exploring various techniques such as decoupage, stencilling, glazing and distressing.
Bring a small piece of furniture with you and discover how to plan and complete your design, leaving the workshop with a fully finished piece of revamped furniture.
The next class takes place on Saturday, February 21st, at The Rediscovery Centre, at the Boilerhouse, Main Street, Ballymun, D09 HK58. A day-long class, from 10 am to 4 pm, costs €120.
Throw shapes on a pottery wheel
Fancy making some crockery or ceramics for the house?
Brookwood Pottery, which has a shop and studio at Marino Mart in Fairview, Dublin 3, offers full-day throwing classes on Saturdays.
The class runs from 10 am to 4 pm, and you get use of your own electric wheel for the day and unlimited clay.
Classes are usually limited to six, and you learn how to throw and keep the two best pots, which will be fired and glazed for you. This part of the process may take two to three weeks to complete.
It costs €140.
Refresh antique finds
Anyone who loves antiquing should learn how to French polish furniture so as to be able to rehabilitate pieces you find.
Partners in life as well as in business, Jay and Jo, Joson Cloak and Joanne Fetherston of The Dublin Polishers, are French polishers with 40 years’ experience in the business.
Now engaged, they first met when they worked at EV Kidd, a large establishment whose finished work features in the nation’s staterooms and in many OPW buildings.
The couple spend much of the week teaching secondary school pupils but do classes at weekends.
They have two sessions coming up at The Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun on Saturday, April 11th and on Saturday, June 13th. These are suitable for small pieces that you can transport in the back of a car.
The class runs from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm and costs €130.
Get in touch with the stone masonry in Wicklow
If you love the idea of making something from stone, then the eighth-generation stonemason family O’Flaherty in Ballyknockan, Co Wicklow, home to the source of much of the granite that still paves Georgian Dublin, could be the place to whet your appetite.
The place is run by Killian O’Flaherty and his sister Petra, an almost-qualified apprentice stonemason offers one and two-day workshops where you are encouraged to make the item you want to make, be it a garden ornament or an anniversary gift.
They counsel you to do the two-day course.
You get more time at the craft.
You can try booking into the Stonecutter’s Cottage and take a short drive to Valleymount for a pint at O’Connor’s The Star Inn, overlooking Blessington lakes.
Brad Pitt was spotted filming there last week.
The next course takes place on Saturday, April 25th and Sunday, April 26th. One day costs €250 while two days cost €380.
