Help Me Get My DIY On In The Bay

August 23, 2012 11:33 AM

I just moved back to the Bay Area and am trying to get my DIY on again. Please recommend resources and spaces for ceramics, knitting, and sewing lessons/classes/circles in the East Bay or SF.

At this point East Bay is slightly preferable but I'm happy to take BART or drive to get to the right places and/or people. Thank you!

posted by foxy_hedgehog to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 answers total)

Tech Shop is a great place to get DIY stuff done (although popular equipment can be overbooked).
Sudo Room is another spot.
posted by special-k at 11:41 AM on August 23, 2012

Stone Mountain and Daughter fabric store on Shattuck in Berkeley hosts classes and has a bulletin board full of other resources.

I haven't been there, but Article Pract in north Oakland seems to havea lot of knitting classes.

The Pottery Studio in Berkeley near the freeway has a lot of ceramics classes.

The Crucible also does ceramics, and is tightly networked with a LARGE variety of artists, so might be fun to get into for the networking possibilities.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:42 AM on August 23, 2012

I can only speak to knitting, but I think Article Pract in Oakland is pretty great. It looks like they have a bunch of classes, though I only ever went shopping and lingering there. They also seem to have a sort of open hands on help thing every Tuesday and Friday from 4-6. Enjoy!
posted by chatongriffes at 11:42 AM on August 23, 2012

A Verb For Keeping Warm, right where Berkeley/Oakland/Emeryville all come together, has all sorts of classes for various fabric crafts.

Article Pract is awesome, but spendy. The knitters I know also like k2tog on Solano in Albany. And it's not in the East Bay, but ImagiKnit in the Castro has a *huge* selection of yarn.

For ceramics, I'd second the Crucible.
posted by asterix at 12:42 PM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've taught at Article Pract, and am friendly with the people at A Verb For Keeping Warm -- the AVFWKers have been doing some great seeing stuff lately, too, with their Seam Allowance group (to encourage people to make their own clothes). I know if I was living in CA I would probably be hanging out at AVFKW much more often than is a good idea for my wallet!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 1:18 PM on August 23, 2012

A couple of Skillshare Maker and Craft classes run in SF, though I've never been to any.
posted by everydayanewday at 1:54 PM on August 23, 2012

There's Rock Paper Scissors in Oakland.
posted by bradbane at 2:31 PM on August 23, 2012

This was over a decade ago, but my aunt used to take all sorts of classes at The Sewing Workshop in SF. We took one class together on furniture painting which was super fun.
posted by radioamy at 7:06 PM on August 23, 2012

Cal has pretty cheap ceramics classes that include generous open hours on the wheels.
posted by one_bean at 10:43 PM on August 23, 2012