The Making Collective is a Lincoln based project that was established to help you to reclaim your ‘me time’ through the use of mindful crafting as a form of practical meditation.
Our kits have been carefully designed to help reduce stress and anxiety by using repetitive movements to foster a feeling of enhanced well being through mindful mark making.. Something that has been proven to support those people with a ‘busy brain’ who struggle to switch off and relax.
What’s in the Kit?
Every ‘Crafting Calm’ kit includes:
- 20cm wooden embroidery hoop
- Heavy weight unbleached calico fabric
- 3 embroidery threads in harmonious colours
- A good sized embroidery needle
- Information about the project
- Links to our calming Spotify playlists (curated by neurodivergent creatives)
- Visual inspiration to help you to get stitching
Who are The Making Collective?
‘The Making Collective’ was established by Gemma, a creative educator in partnership with daughter Ruby. After 2 decades working in across secondary, college, university and home education settings, patterns started to form and a common thread was clear. The use of creative activity as a calming, regulatory tool has been an undeniable constant throughout the last 20 years, and also echoes the coping strategies that Gemma herself used when at school (a frequent visitor to the Art department at break times to escape the social nonsense.)
The project is supported by like-minded neurodivergent creatives, therapists, and corporate well being advocates who are all on a mission to help more people find balance and a bit more ‘calm in the chaos’ through the mindful process of working with tactile materials in an analogue, simple repetitive way.
“In today’s busy, digital world, going back to simplistic crafting techniques helps to create calm, provide focus, boost self-esteem and turn the volume down on the nonsense.”
The ‘Crafting Calm’ kits have been developed to encourage a free approach to embroidery based on Sashiko, the Japanese art of decorative mending.
The easy-to-follow stitch instructions in the box encourage mindful mark making with thread – A craft that is more about the calming effect of the process rather than a prescribed outcome. The kits are perfectly portable which makes them ideal to pop into your bag for a more chilled half hour break time at work helping you to mend your ‘me time’ one stitch at a time.
Supporting Community Calm
The first hand experience of juggling the challenge of maintaining good mental health with a ‘neurospicy’ brain is the driving force behind our work. The Making Collective is dedicated to supporting better well being for all and helping to establish a positive and accessible approach to looking after our mental health.
ALL of our kits are supplied on a ‘buy one – give one’ basis. By purchasing one of our kits you are not only investing in your own mental wellbeing but also enabling us to provide a kit for a neurodiverse student in the UK.
Every purchase helps us to support schools, colleges and universities with a practical and accessible alternative that helps students to find balance, establish positive habits and find calm in the form of mindful analogue crafting.
Thank you for choosing to support our work at ‘The Making Collective,’ If you would like more details on the project, want to request a bulk set of kits for your staff team, want to help us further by stocking our kits in your retail space or support through corporate sponsorship, contact us for more details: themakingcollective@gmail.com
Themakingcollective.org 