Soul Craft Festival

The inaugural Soul Craft Festival will bring together experienced and novice crafters from around the world for a packed weekend of events, celebrating craft as an antidote to our busy lives, in Melbourne on 9 – 10 June 2018.

The inaugural festival will be held over two full days in the historic Meat Market in North Melbourne, with an extensive program of workshops, masterclasses, panel talks, demonstrations, exhibitions, 'craft dating' and vibrant marketplace.

Soul Craft Festival, Founder and Creative Director, Felicia Semple says: "We're on a mission to reframe how we think about craft and promote the connection between making things with our hands and our wellbeing.

"Soul Craft celebrates the many ways craft can enrich our lives and connect us to ourselves and our community. The festival creates a space where we can come together and meet others in the craft community in real life, rather than online and spend time immersed in making."

The unique festival gathers crafters, artists, thinkers, innovators, and slow fashion advocates to discuss the benefits of making as a daily practice and features 24 talks from more than 20 guest speakers on a wide range of craft-related topics, including craft as meditation and wellbeing, mental health, slow fashion, sustainable sourcing, farming in Australia, craftivism – change through making, and craft in community.

The program features 12 demonstrations of textile-based hand crafts, including machine knitting, natural dyeing, hand-quilting, screen printing, refashioning your clothing, weaving, spinning, and watercolour painting, as well as a full program of 24 masterclasses (selling fast).

International and national guest speakers and teachers include Andrea Mowry, Jen Beeman, Melissa Wastney, Natalie Miller, Elizabeth Barnett, Kate Ulman, Tal Fitzpatrick, Jane Milburn, Beck Jobson and Tom Dennis.

Soul Craft is presented by the creators of The Craft Sessions – the popular annual craft retreat and blog of the same name. Over the last five years The Craft Sessions retreats have sold out in minutes, demonstrating the strong appetite among crafters to meet other people who share their passion for hand-making.

The festival venue has a rich connection to craft and features a Waste Policy where participants are asked to bring their own bags, coffee cups and drink bottles, and a Giving Back Policy where a percentage of profit is given to projects that improve women's wellbeing through craft.

Tickets are selling fast with some masterclasses already sold out and participants registering from all over Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the US.

To see the festival program and buy tickets, visit www.soulcraftfestival.com/2018program-detail and for the masterclass program, go to www.soulcraftfestival.com/2018masterclasses.

Soul Craft Festival

Saturday, 9 June & Sunday, 10 June 2018

9am – 5pm

The Meat Market, 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne VIC

$65 - 200

https://www.soulcraftfestival.com