The crafting and DIY worlds are oddly divided, as are, too often, music making and hand-making other stuff. And with these divides comes a rather pronounced gender divide, as well. At the Maker Faire, the gender balance — while not fully split — was more than a little noticeable in the Craft and Make areas of the floor. I think there’s hope, partly because I personally enjoy making stuff and partly because I’m evangelical about music and DIY electronics and software and believe we can build a diverse army of people involved in them. And whatever the medium (felt, steelworking, electronics, a rack of synths, Java code), I think we share a love of creating stuff and not just passively consuming.
Our friends at Etsy feel the same way. They’ve invited a Canadian group that combines DJing and communal crafting sessions, called Spins & Needles. They’ll be in New York this Friday.
Spins & Needles is a Canadian group that travels about hosting parties that are a combo of crafting and dj-ed music. On Friday, September 14, they’re coming to Etsy Labs, and the party will be on! Bring your own project, or craft along with the projects that we’ll have here (DIY plush monsters, fused glass beads, and more). The fun starts at 8PM and goes to whenever…
Please rsvp@etsy.com if you think you wanna come…
Etsy Labs
325 Gold St. 6th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Etsy Labs Blog
Spins and Needles
To our NY readers: do go invade the event if you can, and maybe even try a combined music + craft project of some kind. (Or just make a sock puppet mascot for your band; that works, too.) Maybe we can start to reach across various communities. Unfortunately, I’ll be here in Pittsburgh still on Friday so can’t make it, but I promise I’ll provide an opportunity to laugh at how clumsy I am at making stuff another time.
To our non-NY readers: know of other, similar events you’ve put on yourself or have seen elsewhere? (I really don’t mean to make this an NYC-centric site. And a calendar is definitely on our mid-range site upgrade plans.)