By Hannah Haliburton, Undergraduate Library Making Fellow, 2025-2026
In my first semester at the Makerspace, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate three of our monthly workshops. The topics I selected with my peer fellows were clothes mending, halloween decor making, and stamp tile carving. These workshops have become one of my favorite parts of the Undergraduate Library Fellowship.
I co-facilitate the workshops with one or more Makerspace fellows. The workshops begin with the obligatory major and crafting experience introductory questions. There’s often an eclectic mix of majors, from English majors taking a break from Austen to an astrophysics major who found two hours in her busy midterm week to create a needle-felted ghost. Then we ask our icebreaker, such as “What’s your favorite Halloween candy?” or the one that keeps me up at night, “What’s your favorite dinosaur?” They may seem silly at first, unimportant questions leading to small details about an individual (though every crafter knows it’s all about the details). From these silly questions, someone has branched off into a childhood memory, or everyone’s learned a new fact (my favorite was that in the Jurassic period, dragonflies grew up to sixty feet long). Mandatory icebreakers sound reductive, bringing to mind a disinterested GBO leader going down a checklist, but in this space they’re meaningful. Every person at the workshop always answers with sincerity and good humor, and starting off on that tone makes it a warm workshop every time.
Then we move on to the instruction part. Teaching another person a handicraft is difficult. You’ve got to find the balance between describing and demonstrating, and then guiding, offering direction and yet also giving space to let their creativity shine through. It’s a tricky yet interesting balance to find, and I’ve learned a little, with a lot left to go. Every individual learns differently as well, and by about an hour in usually everyone in the workshop is at a different stage in the creative process. There’s a wonderful silence held within a group crafting. When it settles it’s welcomed, and broken by questions or easy chatter. There’s no awkward tension to diffuse, everyone’s focus is on their project. There’s no need for talk of weather or majors between the group of strangers present, our conversations are naturally guided not by an obligation to keep it afloat but genuine interest in the others around us. I find this one of the most beautiful parts of parallel crafting activities. Silence and conversation are equally easy and preferable, so there’s no pressure, and it’s easier to get to know someone when everyone’s hands are busy.
By the end of the workshop, we usually get at least one life long Makerspace convert, and many promises to return. But my favorite part is seeing what each person has created. I’ll never stop being amazed by the endless variety of creation among a group of people who had the same materials and tutorial. Every workshop I’ve been a part of re-affirms my belief in the connective power of crafting and the creativity inherent to every person. I look forward to more workshops next semester, and the connections and crafts that will be made.