Do you love to make stuff?
Do you find your car pulling into the craft store parking lot when you meant to go to work? Or maybe you are a experimenting with creating digital content for your social media brand or company and need to play with some more professional equipment. The Studio has what you need. As The Studio associate, I have the best job in the library. I get to help people create in all kinds of ways.
Greenwood Public Library’s makerspace, The Studio, has a variety of materials that allow people of all ages to get creative. I am so excited to finally be welcoming patrons back for the full Studio experience again after a long year of limited services. All of our kits are now available, and we are starting to see happy (masked) faces making use of the space again.
Recently, we had a family come in to make buttons to round out a child’s costume for a school report on Clara Barton. We also had brothers come in to record an original story in our A/V room. And I was thrilled to see a mother bring her own craft projects from home to work on while her children experimented with different Studio kits. As a passionate crafter, I love to see families get involved in making something together.
While our kits are always great, this summer we have also planned lots of programs to get those creative juices flowing. We will be hosting periodic family-friendly drop-in crafts, where we will supply everything you need to complete a fun craft during a visit to the library. Some of the projects include a paper popsicle garland, a Father’s Day photo holder, Perler bead drink covers and Q-tip art. These are projects that are great for all ages, and you can make them as easy or fancy as you want.
We will also continue to provide our Make and Take Kits with fun projects that can be completed at home or in The Studio. These are usually fairly straightforward crafts that can be completed with minimal additional materials — usually scissors, markers and glue — and come with instruction sheets. These are free projects that do not require any registration and usually change about every two weeks. Our summer offerings will be in line with our summer reading theme, Adventures in Reading.
Adult Craft Week for those 18 and older will continue each month, and we are bringing it back in person for the summer. Our Adult Craft Week programs have limited spaces available, and specific times, so registration is a must. I have already started making samples for these activities, and am so excited to make them with you.
While I love making videos to share the projects (which I will still do), there is nothing like watching people make a craft with his or her own unique spin. I am particularly excited about doing jewelry making with polymer clay and an adorable sign made out of flip flops. These crafts are beginner friendly, but we always have options to make them more elaborate for experienced crafters.
Check out our program calendar at www.greenwoodlibrary.us/calendar for more information and times, www.greenwoodlibrary.us/thestudio for more information about what we have available in The Studio, and our Studio Sessions playlist on YouTube for more crafty inspiration at www.youtube.com/greenwoodlibrary.
Amber Parsons is The Studio associate at the Greenwood Public Library. GPL staff members share in writing this bi-monthly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].Â
