A craft club is, of course, a sociable activity but doing crafts together can also be a great confidence-booster. We’ve been running a club in a local retirement complex for a couple of years now, but last December had to pause things as we searched for new funding.
Thanks to a grant from the Northamptonshire Community Foundation’s Randal Fund, we’ve now been able to re-start the group, but for all sorts of reasons the craft club has a rather different vibe about it.
It’s a small craft club, but only because the space where we meet is small, so membership has to be limited to eight people. Even then, the sessions are a squash as the tables offer very little space to work on, and that obviously also restricts the crafts we can offer. It’s become a bit of a running joke that we have to keep the materials and tables tidy, because if everyone spreads out too much, there’s no space for the tea and biscuits!
In fact, it was the lack of a decent-sized community lounge that originally prompted the site manager to contact us. She told us that even organising a coffee morning was a challenge because the community lounge was so small, and she knew many of the residents felt lonely, because there is nowhere on site they can easily meet and get to know each other.
The problem was (and is) particularly acute for new people moving to the complex. The craft club has, at least, helped some residents to make new friends.
Starting again
Last year the group had felt confident enough to produce some wonderful artwork for their community spaces, including some mixed-media mosaic plaques which are now displayed at the entrance to the site.
After the club had been paused for a few months we needed to re-set things when it started again, not least because there were two new members. So we decided to focus our first meeting on ideas for future activities and to discover if they had other community projects in mind. We also wanted to find out if there were particular crafts they’d like to try.
A different place
They told us that their site manager had recently left and everyone in the group was feeling her loss keenly. She’d worked there for ten years and was a popular and charismatic figure who had enthusiastically encouraged the craft club to do projects for the site’s public spaces. They had entered into the spirit of the challenge, surprising her at every turn with the work they produced.
At the time of this first club meeting the complex still didn’t have a new resident manager and the place felt different – a bit less of a community and more a collection of flats. The mindset of our craft club felt different too.
Generating ideas
We soon realised that everyone’s desire to work on community projects had been suspended. Now they said they’d rather work on things for themselves – either to use or display in their own flats, or to give as gifts. But we were encouraged that they wanted to do more of some of the crafts they’d tried previously, and our discussion also developed some new ideas to try.
Art and artists
In a session last year we’d looked at the art of Matisse and Alfred Wallis and asked everyone to create a collage picture. Initially, the group had been wary, with some convinced they wouldn’t be able to produce anything worthwhile. But using these two artists as inspiration we’d encouraged them to have a go and they all produced wonderful pictures. Most importantly they all enjoyed it!
In fact, a few months later they felt confident enough to make some large collage pictures for the community lounge, referencing Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Working together, they used pastels to draw the vases and backgrounds and made paper flowers and butterflies for the arrangement.
This year they want to look at other artists, and their first choices were Monet and Van Gogh. We provided canvases to work on, which were small enough that they’d be easy to display in their flats. We also provided Inspiration Cards to help people develop their ideas.
Some chose to work in collage, others used acrylic pens or paints. We were really impressed with what they produced.
Keen to start again
The original members are delighted the craft club has started again and our two new members have already contributed ideas and suggestions. And because everyone understands we have a limited budget for craft materials they’ve suggested we include a few upcycling projects in our plans.
We just hope that the new site manager – whenever they arrive – will re-establish the feeling of community that made such a difference to this retirement complex before.
Final thought
Over the years we’ve run craft clubs at several retirement complexes and it never ceases to amaze us how many of them have small community spaces (apart from the gardens). Many elderly people move to retirement flats because they can no longer drive and have health or mobility problems which make it difficult for them to get out. So why do so few places have decent-sized community rooms and spaces where people can socialise or do different activities? By definition, custom-built retirement complexes will have a higher turnover than most residential developments, and new people will be arriving, knowing no-one.