Today, long since Worcester’s mechanics were inventing machines to create mass production of items, there is a new demand for handmade objects and for the experience of making and the Worcester Center for Crafts along with other maker spaces in Worcester are opening the world of hand-craft to the 21st century creative.
100+ Classes in Glass, Ceramics, Metalsmithing and Photography
Want to learn to blow glass? Make beads for a unique necklace? Have a hankering for making your own ceramic ware or creating jewelry and metal implements? The Worcester Center for Crafts at 25 Sagamore Road offers over 100 different classes and workshops in the areas of glass, ceramics, metalsmithing, and photography that are open to the public. Family Craft Days engage the whole family in creating with clay, metal or glass. And the Gallery Store represents over 500 American artists and their work.
A Communal Makers Space
Technocopia, a communal makers space located in the Printers Building (44 Portland Street in downtown Worcester) offers common work space, rental bays and a variety of tools for creatives to work with including a complete woodshop, classroom and computer lab, 3-D printer station, sewing station, digital fabrication and more. And every Thursday night, Technocopia is open to the public for its Open Hacks and Crafts event.
Industrial Makers Space and Business Incubator
Located in an industrial building at 233 Stafford Street, the Worcshop (pronounced workshop) is the region’s most comprehensive Industrial Makers Space and business incubator and specializes in such applications as welding, plasma cutting, sandblasting, ventilated painting, blacksmithing, casting and various other processes that require lots of heat and pressure. They are leading the charge to revitalize Worcester as an entrepreneurial center for New England.
Together, the Worcester Center for Crafts, Technocopia and the Worcshop make it easy for the curious to experience the world of craft, of making, of inventing, of dreaming, of creating new handmade things that make life creative and exciting.
Article written by Honee Hess, executive director at the Worcester Center for Crafts.
