When in Manila and your hands are itching to do something creative, why don’t you try enrolling in some craft workshops to squeeze out some of that creative juices?
In Manila, crafting and hand-made projects are slowly making a comeback in the local artist scene as craft artists started holding craft workshops for everyone. These workshops, ingeniously coined as “crafternoons” by the artists, are usually held during weekend afternoons. During crafternoons, wanna-be Martha Stewarts come out of their zombie-like routines to interact with like-minded fellows. Most crafternoons are conducted by Alessa Lanot a designer, art teacher, and an entrepreneur. My friend Tippy and I recently attended the Rubber-Cut Stamping Crafternoon with Alessa and Mansy last September 15. By the way, Mansy Abesamis, of the washi tape-selling website HeyKessy, aims to be a social art therapist and a do-it-yourself guru.
The lovely teachers, Alessa (left) and Mansy (right).
The workshop fee of Php 1,500 covers the materials needed for the rubber cut stamps and the sumptuous meal from Pipino, a local restaurant that serves vegetarian food. Aside from being a crafternoon, the workshop was likewise a garden party as the crafters were gathered around a looooong table set-up near a garden. There was another surprise during the crafternoon as Johnoy Danao serenaded us (while madly going at the rubbers to finish our very first stamps) with his awesome guitar skills and smooth-as-silk voice. For almost a minute, I really thought the music came from a playing CD (since no one uses the boom box anymore, har har). That’s how good, no, make that great, this guy is!
That’s the guy! That’s the awesome singing guy!
Oh the colors! Oh the colors!
What ‘s in store for us in the afternoon. *big grin*
The lovely ladies gathered ’round the loooooong table.
Mansy caught in the act!
We were given boxes which contained our materials (or weapons of mass creativity muhaha) for the workshop. These contained cutting tools, rubbers, cutter, paper, pencil, and ruler. During the workshop, Mansy and Alessa taught us how to get started with the pattern-making and cutting. Pattern-making was really difficult and cutting was also an experience! After these, we were given permission to stamp away!
A bunch of very busy ladies!
Since we were absolutely famished by the time we finished one itsy-bitsy stamp with our delicate hands having been nicked and scratched, we were finally fed.
What was on our plates (from Pipino Restaurant, Vegatarian Food by Pino):
Mushroom Salpicao to tease us our taste buds.
The Wicked Walnut Salad. It was indeed wicked because of the candied walnuts.
Ah, the Low-Fat & Cheese-less Vegan Lasagna. It’s so good, you wouldn’t think it was vegan food!
Finally, the Mini Green Tea Cupcakes. I really loved the nuttiness of this one.
What’s the joy in carving out those patterns if we’re not going to stamp it on everything that is flat and steady? And so the stamping fun begins (insert evil laugh here, puh-leez)….now!
It was a rainy afternoon, hence, the illustration.
Presenting, the ladies of the first batch of Rubber Cut Stamp Crafternoon:
The content smiles of the participants and their teachers, Alessa and Mansy.
When in Manila and you feel the need to jumpstart your creativity, these crafternoons are your possible solutions. Aside from giving you control over what to make, there is nothing more therapeutic than seeing the finished product, no matter how lopsided or absurd-looking it is!
Did the rubber cut stamps entice you to dip your hands into the messy but fun world of crafting? Did you wish you can be as creative as the lovely ladies who attended the first batch of the Rubber Cut Crafternoon? Fret not, my Martha Stewart-wannabe reader, for Alessa will be conducting another Rubber Cut Crafternoon in November, just in time for the holiday season! This will be the perfect DIY project for those hand-picked and well-thought Christmas gifts. For further details on this crafternoon (and other possible crafternoons you might also enjoy), you can visit Alessa’s website.
Alessa Lanot
https://www.lifeafterbreakfast.com/
Mansy Abesamis
https://mansillianasunday.com/ and https://heykessy.com/
Photos by Tippy of GooglyGooeys and write-up by Aina Rosales
Rubber Cut Stamping Crafternoon: An Afternoon Weekend of Nicked Fingers and Crafting Fun
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