Adults find creative outlets in DIY craft classes
You can try your hand at macramé or make one-of-a-kind felted slippers — craft a custom sign made from oversized Scrabble tilelike letters or personalize a home decor item with your monogram.
“Everybody needs a little creativity in their life,” says Dawn Mohrmann, who owns Hydrangea Home in Northport. Her shop has been hosting craft nights to teach modern calligraphy and macramé. The latter, she says, is just a series of easy-to-do knots, and “it happens to be very relaxing.”
Here are several workshops where you can spend a couple hours making something creative:
Wood pallet paint night
WHEN | WHERE 6:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, 15 and 22 at Make it Too, 182 Bethpage-Sweet Hollow Road, Old Bethpage
INFO 516-293-0000 makeittoo.com
COST $35-$55
Choosing from 200 designs and 100 paint colors, patrons can personalize messages on sanded pine wood.
“Moms really like to do it. It gives them a lot of different creative options that they can do,” says owner Richard Friedman.
Donna Stein, 57, of Merrick, has made custom signs there with friends, and helped her daughter design a sign for her college sorority.
“The finished products are something I’m proud to display in my home,” Stein says.
Beyond crafting, there’s a big screen projector on which groups play Fibbage and other crowd-pleasing games. “They bring their own food and drinks, and there’s a party out of it,” Friedman notes.
Macramé wall hanging
WHEN | WHERE 9-11 a.m. Feb. 25 at Hydrangea Home, 146 Main St., Suite. 3, Northport
INFO 631-239-6688, hydrangeahome.com
COST $50
Meagan Dowling, 22, of St. James, who teaches classes at Hydrangea Home, says many people are intimidated at first by some DIY projects. So, it’s awesome to see their reaction go from “ ‘this is going to be so hard,’ to, by the end of it, ‘I can’t believe I did that.’ ”
Macramé designs trending now are wall hangings, backdrops for weddings, plant hangers, bags, rugs and hammocks.
Custom-painted home decor
WHEN | WHERE 7-9 p.m. Friday Feb. 9, Feb. 10 and 17 at ArtSea Studios, 65 Deer Park Ave., Babylon
INFO 631-579-6063 artseastudios.com
COST $45
The studio has broadened its canvas paint nights by inviting patrons to create custom signs and other home decor items. Kelly Cabasso, 28, of East Northport, took a wineglass painting class at ArtSea Studios with her sister and friends, and came away with a pair of glasses with a pretty, flowery beach scene. “We wanted to do something a bit different,” Cabasso says, noting that a bunch of her girlfriends had already tried the canvas paint night workshop.
The studio provided a wide array of colors to choose from, and the instructor demonstrated various painting techniques for the uninitiated, Cabasso explains.
“We loved the class,” she says. “It was very laid back. It was very easy. We had a really good time.”
MORE DIY PROJECT CLASSES
String art on wood
WHEN | WHERE 7-9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6, and 4-6:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at Bubble Learning, 25 East Main St., Babylon.
INFO 631-587-0050, bubblelearning.com
COST $49
The shop is also hosting a couples’ night framed wood sign project 7 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 15 ($45) and regular framed wood sign Feb. 27 ($45 to $55)
Jumbo Scrabble-inspired signs
WHEN | WHERE 7-9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Suite Pieces, 569 Broadway, Massapequa (516-308-4447) and Feb. 15 at 1038 New York Ave., Huntington Station (631-560-9759)
INFOsuitepieces.com
COST $55-$89
Valentine’s pink or red macramé
WHEN | WHERE Noon-2 p.m. Feb. 11 at Steller Jay, 232 Merrick Rd., Rockville Centre
INFO 516-600-9319, stellerjayshop.com
COST $55
Felted slippers
WHEN | WHERE 6-9 p.m. Feb 16 at Hallockville Farm Museum, 6038 Sound Ave., Riverhead
INFO 631-298-5292, hallockville.com
COST $70