Craft circle investigate craft groups in Leeds

Craft Circle has been researching the concept of community and how craft and craft activities has an impact on communities. The first course of action we decided to take was to obtain a description of community. This was because in a group discussion, none of us could come up with a completely satisfactory explanation. So we typed the word community into the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The definition it gave was: ‘A community usually refers to a sociological group in a large place or collections of plant or animal organisms sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of adhesion.’
We also discovered that the word comes from the Latin ‘communis’ which means common, public, shared by all or many.
From this point we decided to research Community centres in Leeds, as these seemed an obvious central meeting point for members of the community. We obtained a list of addresses for each centre in Leeds, many of which hold craft based activities for either children or the elderly.
For example, Ebor gardens commnity centre holds a knitting club twice a month for over 60s in the surrounding area. From this we researched knitting clubs in Leeds. The best one which we found was a group called the ‘Knitterati’, which is aimed at the trend of the moment for groups of adults to meet up, drink coffee and knit. It is held in the Starbucks in Borders on Briggate, and the group meets every first Tuesday and third Wednesday of the month.
One of the other groups we found is the ‘Knitting and Crochet guild’ which is a nation wide organisation. The Leeds and Bradford branch is held on the second Friday of every month, starting at 7.30pm on Headingley lane in Leeds. The group holds tutourials bringing in artists and experts to speak to the group.
Also in Leeds is the ‘Craft Mafia’, a group of females working in the area who use craft materials to produce art and jewellery. This is led by Michelle Duxbury- Townsley, who also runs ‘Pretty crafty things’ in Leeds Met Student Union, a trade fair giving a place for ‘indie designers and renegrade crafters’, a place to showcase and sell their work.

Written by Emma Proctor.