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 are now live.

Each twilight offers a stand-alone evening of creativity, peer conversations and refreshments, and is 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 will take an inclusive approach and are suitable for teachers, Teaching Assistants, support staff and admin staff working in state 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, 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.

What's on offer?

  • Come & Try: Make with Textiles and Embroidery - Thursday 16 January 2025

    Date and Time: Thursday 16 January 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

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

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with textile artist Woo Jin Joo. Responding to a mix of new and found materials, you’ll have a chance to ‘make first’ while also learning embroidery skills.

    Woo Jin’s work explores personal myth-making and storytelling. By mixing new and found materials, Woo Jin communicates this imaginary worldview, through her tactile language. Develop your own language of making and create a piece to take home. Take part for your own enrichment, while also learning how to use your new-found skills to support classroom learning.

    Details of activity
    Through the session you will learn a variety of textile techniques including embroidery and appliqué and develop your practical making skills, leaving with some textile pieces that you’ve made yourself.

    During the session you’ll have a chance to apply Crafts Council’s Make First pedagogy: dive straight into making and use materials to develop and test your ideas. The workshop will also explore ideas around sustainable craft and creative upcycling and you’ll take away some great ideas about how to translate these techniques into other classroom learnings.

    Book Now

  • Come & Try: Make a Collage with Mixed-Media - Wednesday 12 February 2025

    Date and Time: Wednesday 12 February 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

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

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with collage artist Liaqat Rasul. You’ll work with a mix of old papers, recycled materials and plastics, using a variety of meditative and responsive approaches.

    Liaqat works with paper for its intrinsic and functional qualities, creating collages that combine ephemera, mark making, and stitching. Work spontaneously with Liaqat and develop your own approaches to collage that you can use to support classroom learning.

    Detail of activity
    In this session you’ll learn a variety of responsive and quick-thinking exercises that will get you pleating, scrunching, wrapping, and layering materials. You’ll develop your practical making skills, building and embellishing your collage with a range of techniques with a focus on creating a landscape collage to take home with you.

    During the session you’ll have a chance to apply Crafts Council’s Make First Pedagogy: dive straight into making and learn how makers respond to materials and their properties to create new works. The workshop will explore ideas around sustainable craft, making use of recycled materials in a way that is easily replicated in the classroom.

    Book Now

  • Come & Try: Make with Remnants and Found Objects - Tuesday 25 March 2025

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

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

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with material designer and artist Ella Bulley. Responding to a mix of found materials and objects, you’ll have a chance to ‘make first’ while learning directly from Ella.

    Ella will share her practice as a material designer and artist who creates material explorations that straddle collectable design and visual art. Learn how to use found objects and remnants as materials to make something new. Take part for your own enrichment, while also learning how to use your new-found skills to support classroom learning.

    Details of activity
    Through the exploration of found objects including fragments of ceramic, trinkets and gems, shells and other natural materials, you will create a 3D object which reflects your own story and creative vision. 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 use assemblage techniques to create your object, playing with shape, form and decoration.

    Participants are encouraged to bring along some of your own small objects, keepsakes, and fragments to incorporate into and personalise your creation.

    Book Now

  • Come & Try: Make New Forms with Metal - Wednesday 21 May 2025

    Date and Time: Wednesday 21 May 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

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

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    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.

    Book Now

  • Come & Try: Make with Clay - Thursday 3 July 2025

    Date and Time: Thursday 3 July 2025, 5pm - 7pm.

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

    Suitable for: All school staff.

    Description of session

    Come and join us in the Crafts Council Gallery for a fun and relaxed evening with ceramic specialist Duncan Hooson. Duncan is known for his wheel-thrown ceramics and producing work in schools and the public realm through co-design and creation projects. He is an advocate of cross-arts collaboration and craft in education. He is the co-founder and director of Clayground Collective and teaches on the BA Ceramic Design course at Central Saint Martins.

    Get messy with clay and create a piece of work to take home with you. Take part for your own enrichment, while also learning how to use your new-found skills to support classroom learning.

    Details of activity
    We will explore clay using accessible techniques – pinch, coil, slab - which can be combined to create a range of objects and shapes. In addition to making these works, you’ll be encouraged to respond to the materials with a range of decorating techniques to mark the surface of your work.

    We will use economical materials to explore a variety of outcomes that can be replicated in school, whether or not you have access to a kiln. We will look at how to recycle clay and look at projects where the learning is explorative, collaborative and ambitious!

    Book Now

Watch the video:

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.

Book Now

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: Make a Collage with Mixed-Media - Wednesday 12 February 2024

Create a mixed-media collage with artist Liaqat Rasul

Come & Try: Make with Textiles and Embroidery - Thursday 16 January 2025

Explore and respond to materials with textile and embroidery artist Woo Jin Joo

Come & Try: Make with Remnants and Found Objects - Tuesday 25 March 2025

Use fragments, remnants and found objects to create something new with material designer Ella Bulley

Come & Try: Make New Forms with Metal - Wednesday 21 May 2025

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

Come & Try: Make with Clay - Thursday 3 July 2025

This hands-on session will demonstrate the potential of clay with or without Kiln firing