The Make and Do Studio is a small but enthusiastic contemporary craft studio, located in Stockton Heath, Warrington, offering short courses in a relaxed environment. Originally opened (with a small "o"!) in 2009 to focus on sewing and sewing related activities, soon the Studio expanded to add additional courses in complementary workshops such as feltmaking, embroidery, knitting and making beaded jewellery. The list continues to grow!
All of the tutors who teach at Make and Do are extremely passionate about their craft and want to ensure that you absorb this passion as well. All of workshops come with excellent instructions to help jog your memory when you leave and if you still need help when you leave, we have excellent "after workshop" care. The studio also:
- Carries a growing library of books that are there for everyone's use!
- Have tutors who are skilled in their craft and professional in the teaching of each workshop.
- Have sewing machines to lend for free to those that need them!
- Are available to discuss any part of your creative process that you get stuck on - and if we don't know how to answer it, we will put you in contact with someone who can.
- Offer free help for small, creative businesses through the Creative Cooperative, a local organisation which supports people who own "boutique" companies trying to make a success of it in challenging economic times.
- Don't see a class you would like to take? Have an idea for a class you'd like to see added to the schedule? Just send an email to maeri@themakeanddostudio.co.uk and we will see what we can do.
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Maeri Howard Founder/Tutor
...a conversation between Maeri and her partner - sometime in late 2008, after Maeri had taken voluntary redundancy and had been at home with her third child for a little under a year....
"I need to get out and do something creative or my brain is going to crack...". She says.
"Get online and see if there are any courses locally that you can take." He says.
"Well, it will have to be a short course because I don't have much free time and to be honest, I just need a bit of a creative push, not a full on shove. But yeah, that is a good idea".
"Great - now I am going to go and watch my movie in the cinema room". He says.
So look as she may, there were no courses locally that would fit the bill - the short, creative, relaxed approach was no where to be found. So, (if anyone knows Maeri this will not surprise them), she decided to start workshops from her house - where she was lucky enough to have a studio space (he says "ummm, that used to be my cinema room, remember?"). The goal was to teach a craft in a relaxed but very focused way and to give the confidence to those that attended to keep working and developing it at home. So the first set of workshops, focusing on sewing, were up and running!
......"Would you like to meet up to discuss whether my skills in felt making would be of interest", the e-mail said. In mid 2009, Beryl Woodcroft had seen an advertisement for the courses listed in a local paper and had thought that she too, wanted to do something creative but was keen to teach. So Beryl and Maeri met, over a lovely cup of five spice coffee from the Algerian Coffee shop and the rest of the syllabus is, well, history. Beryl's skills in embroidery, felt making and knitting compliment the sewing courses that Maeri offered.
And as if that was not enough diversity for our courses, in the Spring of 2010 Jen Harris contacted the Studio wanting information about feltmaking. She has been making beautiful beaded jewellery for twenty years, but wanted to expand into making her own felt beads so that she could have complete control over what she was including in her jewellery. So now, she is going to share with us all of her experience in making beaded jewellery.
