News
Workshop News!
Thanks to Kent Community Foundation and Roots Timber Reuse CIC we have started on the workshop refurbishment. Walls are going up, safety flooring going down, and good lighting, and storage going in.This will make the workshop much more accessible to everyone.
We would also like to thank Jason at Thrift and Thrive and Steve-the-videographer for helping us unload our wood delivery.
Open Northfleet Arts Festival
We had a great day at Open Northfleet, joining local artists at Clubbs Yard as they opened up their creative world and shared their work with the community!
There was lots of making going on, with visitors creating their own badges and keyrings, as well as having a go at our heritage bookbinding workshops. It was wonderful to see people stitching and decorating their own handmade books, discovering a traditional craft and making something special to take home.
And we had quite an age range of bookbinders! Our youngest was nearly two years old, while our oldest was 85. How lovely to see so many generations getting creative together!
A big thank you to everyone who came along, had a go and shared the fun with us. Events like these are a brilliant reminder that creativity is for everyone, and that making things together brings people closer.
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Out and About
We’ve been out and about in the community, taking our makerspace on the road to local events! From heritage crafts to fun, hands-on making activities, we’ve been getting people of all ages involved, trying new things and getting creative together. It’s been great to meet so many people, share skills and bring a little bit of making magic to the community!
Sticks and Stones Festival
We had a brilliant time at the Sticks and Stones Festival, a free community wellbeing event held at the University of Greenwich campus in Brompton. The event brought people together to celebrate wellbeing, connection and community, highlighting the importance of accessible activities that support positive mental health and social connections. We loved getting visitors involved in hands-on creativity, with people of all ages making their own colourful badges and keyrings to take home. It was a lovely opportunity to share the joy of making and show how getting creative can bring people together!
Medway Open Studios
We opened our shutter for the first time for Medway Open Studios. The workshop itself is still a work in progress so we partitioned off a small area just so we could share what we are doing.
Lots of you visited us there - thankyou to all of you. We had 60 new subscriptions to our newsletter and lots of enquiries.
Visitors made badges, learnt some bookbinding skills, and tried some bike repair amongst other things.
We also had the chance to find out what you need from a community workshop.
We are National Lottery Funded!
Make Medway has been awarded lottery funding towards equipment that will help our environmental aims and our repair cafe. Look out for our community bicycle ride and repair sessions coming in September as well as other exciting reuse/recycle/repair projects.
Revival at Thrift and Thrive
We attended the opening of the new Thrift and Thrive hub 'Revival' and met lots of lovely local creative people. As well as our workshop, the hub is home to a vintage store, a community grocery and lots of independent boutiques and workshops - go and see!
Our workshop is at the back of Revival so it was great to be able to show what we are planning. We also had our photo taken with Medway Councillor Vince Maple.
Collaboration with
Cowling and Wilcox Art Shops
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We have been fundraising through selling our workshop kits, and designed a bespoke version of the bookbinding kit exclusive to Cowling and Wilcox art shops. These are in stores now at Canterbury, Shoreditch, Highbury and Camberwell. All income goes directly to the CIC to buy equipment.
Heritage Skills collaboration with University for the Creative Arts and Made by Many CIC
​We planned teaching sessions and created a customised educational book binding kit for the Visual Communication department at University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, which the students are now using to take heritage skills out into the community and provide outreach workshops