Craft room experiment half way point

[Ratha Grimes]

I believe November 1 will be the halfway point of the craft room experiment (sponsorship by 3ric) since IIRC we began renting it in August. The room costs $300/month when utilities are included, and the experiment was to see if the room could be paying for itself by the end of a 6 month trial.

I've enjoyed using the room and there are some interesting workshop ideas in the works (sweater coats, fuzzy hats). However, it's unclear if we can grow donations enough to cover the costs in the next 3 months. We can certainly try. I'm interested in feedback about how we could do this. We've had an average of 2-3 visitors each week, which at a $5 donation per visit makes $40-70 per month

The fallback plan for the craft room is my house, since most of the equipment belongs to me. In September I moved into a small house at 300 S Orcas St, about a mile from the lab in Georgetown. The walk-out basement has a semi-finished room that was previously used as a bedroom. Here is a proposed layout sketch: http://www.ratha.com/misc/Ratha's%20house%20craft%20room.pdf. The room is smaller than Unit 2 in the HBL building, so only 2 of the 3 tables seem to fit. Also, it has lower ceilings (only 6' 1") and better lighting would have to be added. However, the room is free (I'm already renting it) and I would still be glad to host sewing evenings or projects if there is interest. 3ric's 2 machines would likely move back into the blue room, or possibly get set up as small sewing station in the RE lab.

If that is what happens, it would definitely change the sense of a public sewing space affiliated with HBL. Maybe this change would be an opportunity to shift the craft night institution back toward a greater variety of projects such as making cheese and beverages, knotting/macrame, photography, etc. In that case, I might also favor evolving the name of it to something like "workshop night".

I don't want to treat this as a foregone conclusion since we are only halfway through the trial period, but I thought it might help to clarify possible outcomes. If you have opinions about the future of craft night and the craft space, speak your piece!

-Ratha