Birmingham City University runs an exciting Craft&Making Saturday Club – Make, Do & Mend – giving young people the opportunity to develop their creativity, imagination and explore the more practical side of craft and making through Making, Doing & Mending.

At the Make, Do & Mend sessions, Club members will get to work alongside brilliant lecturers from the College of Jewellery, Fashion and Textiles where they will be introduced to the sustainable practices of re-using, up-cycling and mending. Using found and donated materials they will be encouraged to engage in important conversations and narratives that promote sustainability, equality, diversity, and mental wellbeing.

Club members will recycle, up-cycle, weave, sew, fold, pleat, emboss, collage, sculpt, stitch, print, collaborate, communicate, curate, film, organise, smile, laugh, learn, and be inspired while exploring some of the hand-making skills and techniques used within DIY craft.

Craft comes from community and lineage; through processes and practices, passed on from one individual to another. It’s one of the most democratic art forms, practiced by people of all ages and socio-economic and racial backgrounds. This distinction affords craft the opportunity to instigate critical conversation, and has the potential to be life-changing.

The Club will help members to understand how craft and making based skills can lead to rewarding careers and will provide an insight into the future possibilities and professional opportunities open to them within the jewellery, fashion, textiles and design sectors.

Club members will also take part in free national events including the Summer Show, where Saturday Clubs nationwide exhibit their work in a public exhibition, and Masterclasses with leading industry professionals. Click here to find out more about this Saturday Club’s 2022-23 Masterclass with Lily Deeming.