An Introduction To Raffia Craft Make A Bag Workshop Fri 24th May 2024

Join us for an exciting new one-day workshop discovering raffia craft.  Raffia is a great craft material to work with and you are guaranteed a mindful day of switching off and enjoying the calm of crafting.

During the workshop you will learn about where raffia comes from, how to dye the raffia (everyone works in natural in the workshop) and how flexible and forgiving it is as a craft material.  

From the workshop, you will make your own clutch bag and there will be options available for you to individually decorate your bag.  Complete beginners are welcome, no previous sewing skills are needed.  Once you have mastered the plaiting and sewing skills you will see that there are many options for working with raffia, to making beautiful hats or a wide range of bags.  There will be samples available for you to see different raffia projects.

About the tutor: Claire has been working with raffia for nearly 30 years, creating hats, bags and home accessories.  She is an experienced tutor and teaches at several venues across the south of England, including running residential workshops at West Dean College of Art in Chichester and Marlborough College Summer School.  Her enthusiasm for raffia does not seem to be waning and she regularly creates new raffia products...some of which even make it out of the design department (front room), others don't...

What to bring: The workshop includes all materials and equipment needed to make your clutch.  If you do have a supply of material (approx. A4 size piece) and/or accessories that you might like to use on your clutch, please do feel free to bring them along.  There will be a selection of accessories for you to choose from also.  There will be the opportunity to buy more raffia if you decide to make more bags or other raffia projects and there will also be a discount code for all students to buy digital patterns for other raffia projects if they wish.

Your ticket includes a complimentary hot drink per person. 

Students need to have suitable dexterity for plaiting and sewing which are the two key skills in raffia craft.

We recommend you read Careys general Terms and Conditions, and Accessibility Guide before booking which can be found on the main website.