Come & Try 

A series of six evening twilight sessions delivered by the Crafts Council, the national charity for craft.

Booking for the Come & Try sessions open on Wednesday 10 September 2025.

Each twilight offers a stand-alone evening of creativity, peer conversations and refreshments. They are designed to support playful exploration, reimagining craft for the classroom as well as for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

No prior experience is needed for any of these sessions, which will be suitable for complete beginners as well as for those interested in rekindling past interests. We aim for these sessions to be fun, supportive and enjoyable, as well as beneficial to your creative classroom practice.

Participants at each session will:

  • Work with craft educators.
  • Gain confidence in the use of craft.
  • Enjoy conversations with peers over drinks and snacks.
  • Take away resources to use in the classroom and craft materials to practice with.

Access & Inclusion

These twilights sessions will take an inclusive approach and are suitable for teachers, Teaching Assistants and any support or admin staff working in primary mainstream and SEND settings. An access budget is available to support participant engagement in this programme, for example for transport, BSL interpretation or other costs.

Eligibility

Primary Arts Come & Try twilights are aimed at staff working in any role in state primary mainstream and special schools in London. This may include teachers, Teaching Assistants, SENDCos, support staff, and admin staff. The programme is designed to support your own personal enjoyment and enrichment through the arts, as well as supporting learning.

Your school must be in a London borough to be eligible for
the programme.

If your school or a member of your school staff is participating in another area of the Primary Arts programme, you are still eligible to take part in this strand of the programme. Places will be limited to two participants per school for any given session.

What's on offer?

  • Come & Try: Surface Values with Kim Chin - Tuesday 25 November 2025

    Date and Time: Tuesday 25 November 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Kim Chin is a transdisciplinary artist-facilitator-curator-organiser who uses making as a tool for self-discovery, connection, and inspiring agency. They use absence, grief and dissonance as a site for imagination and transformation, while integrating neurodivergent adaptations in cultural, education and community spaces. Kim pivoted to a purpose led practice after an extensive career in the textiles and fashion industry. While in her last post as a Design Director (Textiles & Colour), overseeing a team of 10, touching 30 + brands, Kim was diagnosed with ADD. This critical understanding inspired Kim to nurture activities that build self-awareness and gain tools that can support resilience for people who often are overstretched and rooted in taking care of others.

    The benefits of the workshops include a holistic approach to creativity, a friendly space to experiment and take risks, dedicated slow-down time to attune self-awareness, connect and build networks, learn different textile techniques, create a new memory manifested in their textile keep sake.

    Detail of activity
    Through different prompts and creative demos, in this session you, and the other participants will reflect on a symbol or pattern that brings them joy and grounding and translate that onto fabric using texture, colour, form and words.

    Different mediums include experimenting with collagraph printing, creating “beads”, “sequins” and 3-D embellishment made from upcycled fabric off-cuts, threads, paper, old magazines and everyday upcycled materials like cardboard that can be easily sourced from home. There will be a sharing and closing exercise at the end of the session.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

  • Come & Try: Quilting and Patchwork for Social Justice with Jahnavi Inniss - Tuesday 13th January 2025

    Date and Time: Tuesday 13 January 2026, 5pm - 7pm.

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with textile artist and craft educator Jahnavi Inniss. Participants will learn the history and significance of quilting within marginalised communities.

    Details of activity
    The session will begin with a short presentation for participants to learn the history of quilting as a tool for social justice. Using a selection of fabrics, embroidery thread and bead embellishments, participants will create quilt blocks which affirm a social, political and/or personal belief that they are empowered by or want to advocate to change.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

  • Come & Try: Working with Wax with Lola Lely - Tuesday 10 February 2026

    Date and Time: Tuesday 25 March 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with the founder of Wax Ateiler Lola Ley. Learn how to craft with beeswax and natural circular materials and celebrate the coming of spring, creating a bouquet of long-lasting wax flowers.

    Details of activity
    In this session, participants will have the opportunity to create their own long-lasting spring bouquet flowers made from wax waste. Participants will explore forming wax materials and both traditional dipping techniques and contemporary techniques developed by Wax Atelier.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

  • Come & Try: Nature’s Palette: Dye, Paint, Twist, Create with Alice Burnhope - Tuesday 12 May 2026

    Date and Time: Wednesday 27 November 2024, 5pm - 7pm.

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with award-winning sustainable textile artist Alice Burnhope in this playful and sensory workshop that blends ancient and contemporary craft practices to inspire ways of making in the classroom.

    With sustainability at its core, participants will explore accessible, hands-on textile techniques that connect creativity with nature. The session supports creative confidence and wellbeing while offering simple, practical ideas to take back into the school setting. No experience needed—just curiosity and joy in learning through touch, colour, and collaboration!

    Detail of activity
    Together, we’ll explore the contemporary natural dyeing process of bundle dye, painting with handmade natural dye inks, and transforming dyed fabrics into vibrant, tactile rope. This ancient method of rope-making is accessible and engaging-perfect for collaborative classroom projects. Participants will leave with their own painted samples, dyed fabric, handmade decoration, and ink pots to take back to their schools.

    You’ll also gain fresh ideas for reusing textiles, working with natural materials, and embedding sustainability into creative learning.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

  • Come & Try: Introduction to Coiled Basket Weaving with Tabara N’Diaye 

    Date and Time: Tuesday 24 March 2025, 5-7pm

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with Tabara N'Diaye, designer, author and founder of La Basketry for a for a vibrant, hands-on introduction to coiled basket-weaving. Inspired by her Senegalese roots and love of modern craft, Tabara brings a fresh, accessible approach to this age-old technique.

    Details of activity
    You’ll wrap and stitch using rolls of colourful twine and a variety of playful materials to create your own unique basket. Along the way, you’ll learn about the cultural significance of basketry and discover its meditative, creative joys. Whether you're a complete beginner or simply curious, this session promises inspiration, community, and something beautiful to take home.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

  • Come & Try: Working with Metal with Jacky Oliver - Tuesday 7 July 2026

    Date and Time: Tuesday 7 July 2026

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Venue: Crafts Council Gallery, 44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY (map).

    Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with maker and metalwork artist Jacky Oliver. Using a mix of metal, wire, and other materials, you’ll have a chance to ‘make first’ and explore your creativity through sculpture.

    Jacky creates sculptural pieces that combine the heaviness of blacksmithing with the refinement and delicacy of jewellery work. Jacky’s work combines composition using line, space and shadows with work that tells a story and sparks conversation. You’ll use a range of metal pieces, wire, and off cuts to bring your ideas to life. Take part for your own enrichment, while also learning how to use your new–found skills to support classroom learning.

    Details of activity
    Get creative using the everyday material of metal. You’ll have a chance to apply Crafts Council’s Make First pedagogy: diving straight into making and using materials to develop your ideas. You’ll then work with Jacky to create and refine your ideas, learning some of the techniques she uses in her work.

    In this fun and enriching workshop, participants will experience working responsively with materials and create a unique decorative object that they can take home.

    Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

How to Book

There are 25 places available at each Come & Try twilight. You are welcome to book to attend more than one session; each must be booked separately. Come & Try will sessions are now available to book, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Booking opens Wed 10 Sep

If your chosen Go & See session is fully booked, you will be able to join the waiting list.

Please note that while these sessions are free of charge to attend, please let us know at least three working days in advance if you can no longer attend so your place can be offered to someone else.

Crafts Council

The Crafts Council is the national charity for craft. We inspire making, empower learning and nurture craft businesses. We believe craft skills and knowledge enrich and uplift us as individuals, and, in doing so, will change our world for the better.

We promote life-long learning in craft, working closely with our networks to secure the future of craft in the classroom and support learning nationwide.

Book your space for our Come & Try sessions:

Come & Try: Surface Values with Kim Chin - Tuesday 25 November 2025

Create your own attuned visual language through found objects and collagraph printing.

Come & Try: Quilting and Patchwork for Social Justice - Tuesday 13 January 2026

Explore the cultural history of quilting and patchwork as a tool for empowerment, resistance and self-expression.

Come & Try: Working with Wax with Lola Lely - Tuesday 10 February 2026

Create a bouquet of wax linen flowers using beeswax and wax linen offcuts.

Come & Try: Introduction to Coiled Basket Weaving with Tabara N’Diaye 

Create your own attuned visual language through found objects and collagraph printing

Come & Try: Nature’s Palette: Dye, Paint, Twist, Create - Tuesday 12 May 2026

Explore natural dyeing, painting and rope-making using ancient skills and contemporary creativity.

Come & Try: Working with Metal with Jacky Oliver - Tuesday 7 July 2026

Learn from jeweller-turned-sculptor Jacky Oliver, working with metal to explore forms and ideas.