Crafting and creating in Brum?

Last weekend, two friends and I went to the UK’s largest creative crafts event at the NEC and spent a small fortune of crafty items.  Over lunch, we were discussing crafting in Birmingham and how we hadn’t seen any Birmingham based companies (but a lot from Worcester).  We were a little disappointed by this, and I hoped it was because none had been invited or that the craft shops in Brum are too small to be able to give up trading for the day.  In any case, crafting in Brum seemed to be something my friends and I want to do, but can’t seem to find out how.

I’m really hoping that with the help of the wonderful, wonderful people on the internet might be able to help.  I want to try and find out more crafty things to do.  I’m not talking a 30 week fine-art level sculpture course, although I wouldn’t mind, but more the down to earth crafts – knitting, sewing, jewellery making with beads, crocheting, quilting, tatting and anything else anyone knows about.  I’m not sure whether I’m including food in this quest, but baking certainly seems an option.  The more informal, the better.  Oh and I don’t mind Sutton Coldfield or Solihull either, they’re not Brum, but if I can get there on a bus, they’ll count.

Once I know more about crafting class and the like, I’m hoping to go to as many as I can over the year and blog about it.  Really it’s just that I like to craft and would like to be able to learn more.  I’ve been describing it to friends as “creating in Brum”, somewhat plagiarising the wonderful Created in Birmingham website’s name.  But hopefully you get the idea.

Things I already know about

1. The Birmingham Bead Shop – including Bead Club and the bead workshops run there.
2. Creative Open Workshops.
3. Stitches and Ho’s at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath.
4. A Crafty Beer at The Victoria, Birmingham city centre.
5. Loaf, based out of Cotteridge, Birmingham.
6. The Bead Loft, Jewellry Quarter, Birmingham.

If you know of anything that I really ought to know about, please comment on the blog, tweet me (@lauracreaven) or email me laura [dot] creaven [at] gmail [dot] com.  I’m really keen to hear about everything and anything.

Things to do in Birmingham: Debate at the Birmingham Salon

Where: The Studio, Cannon St, Birmingham
When: monthly (I visited Tuesday 9 March)
Cost: £5

What: A group of people felt Birmingham suffered from a lack of debate and so the Birmingham Salon was set up to allow people to watch a debate and follow it up with discussion.

February’s topic was appropriately titled ‘Whose election is it anyway?’ with guest speakers Dolan Cummings from the Institute of Ideas and Peter Kerr, senior lecture in politics at the University of Birmingham.  Both speakers talked about a broken political system.

Dolan Cummings discussed the general malaise of the general public, who felt divorced from the political system and the conflict over whether MPs should be viewed as “one of us” or whether this downgraded them and they should be viewed as leaders.  His solution was to reignite politics in a way that inspires the public and becomes what they want.  He suggested a 21 topics which needed discussing, but were currently being ignored.

Peter Kerr believed that to most people there was no difference between the political parties, with the major parties more interested in the cult of celebrity and battling over who could do less and shirk responsibility.  He pointed to membership numbers of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds having more members than the Conservative party.

The audience, it seemed, myself included, believed that the general public were still involved in politics, but couldn’t find a place in the current system.  People spoke about the wider world, with reference to the recent Iraqi elections and the popularity of pressure groups on social networking sites and community groups.

Go back? Absolutely.  It was nice to finally see a place that allowed for people to discuss current affairs and challenge the ideas of themselves and others.  The organisers were friendly and accommodating of new people.

The next discussion is ‘Mr Science and Mr Democracy:
the pursuit of modernity in China’ on Wednesday 21 April at The Studio.  For more information, visit the Birmingham Salon website.

LUCIA bookcrossing challenge

Our contribution to the LUCIA challenge

Through library book-sales and charity shops, my housemate and I carried, in bins and broken bags, 14 books home for the LUCIA bookcrossing challenge which starts on Tuesday.

Our friend and bookcrossing legend, Liz Broomfield, has organised a group of bookcrossers to release books for the LUCIA charity.  Bookcrossing is an online community where members leave books in public places for people to, hopefully, pick up and read. They’re then left, or released, in all manner of places; cafes, pubs, toilets, bus stops, parks, etc…  There are many variations on how they do this, one being challenges, where books are picked around a theme, but also charitable releases.  The two have been combined to raise money and awareness of LUCIA.

Liz has arranged a group of people who are going to release books in September themed around women’s roles, as LUCIA primarily supports women’s groups in Ethiopia.  The response has been overwhelming; there’s over 500 books ready to be released all sporting a specially designed bookplate telling anyone who picks up the books about LUCIA.  The challenge is taking place all around the world, from Birmingham, where the charity is based, to America, Scotland, Canada, Switzerland, Finland and Australia.  There may be more as the challenge starts.

Some of those people who’ve amassed books for the challenge are also sponsoring any of the LUCIA books that are picked up and registered on the bookcrossing site.  So not only will people be made more aware of the charity itself, but it’s raising money too!

More information about the release can be found on the LUCIA site, where Liz has written a post describing the challenge.  There’ll also be regular updates on the site, their twitter and wherever it can be mentioned.

Now, if someone could tell me where best to leave a book called Help! I’m a stepmother…