8 Low-Stakes Craft Classes and Workshops in Portland
Image: Courtesy Zoe Ching/Mud Room
Trying out a new craft can feel like starting a new career. There’s the equipment to buy, YouTube videos and TikToks to watch, Pinterest boards to assemble, books to collect and never read. Before you know it, you’re in a parasocial relationship with a Brazilian influencer, telling anyone who will listen about your new métier, and crying to your therapist about the weight of your hyperfixation. And that’s all before you even tuft your first welcome mat. Of course, there is another way.
Craft workshops have existed for decades. It's no coincidence that they’ve grown in popularity as we race toward living inside our phones. In Portland, the scene is booming. We’re greedy for clumsy trinkets and knickknacks. If you truly are looking to launch a second career as a silversmith or cobbler, surely there are at least three places in town to apprentice for either vocation. Instead of sending you back to school, the course catalog below has lower stakes in mind. These are the electives designed to simply show you what’s out there. Each class or workshop is a one-time deal. No prerequisites. You learn something new, and you take home something you made. Afterward, expect to feel more human than you have in months.
Chandlery Intention Candle Making
Candle Creation Bar, $40–52
Journal, chat, draft a note about what your 9–16 ounce soy candle might help you achieve. Then sample and blend scents, maybe charge your candle with dried flowers and/or crystals, and leave smelling great.
1 hour | various times, Wed–Sun | 724 NE 22nd Ave
See also: Mister OK’s Essentials, Glow Gifts
Image: Courtesy Hawnuh Lee/Cookshop
Gastronomy Pasta Classes
Cookshop, $48–90
Turn dust into cavatelli! Leta Merrill’s pasta classes are a standout on Cookshop’s full calendar of themed courses. Shape, cook, and eat noodles at night over a glass of wine or during the day with the family (ages 4+).
1.5–2 hours | every other Sat | 2625 SE 26th Ave
See also: Vivienne Culinary Books
General Artisanry 3-Hour Classes
Wildcraft Studio School, $125–170
Dip your toe into an excitingly niche new hobby. Learn felting or kintsugi, how to braid rag rugs, or how to make stained glass mobiles or weavings inspired by women of the Bauhaus movement.
3 hours | schedule varies | 1439 NW Marshall St, some courses off-site
See also: DIY Bar
metalsmithing Make Your Own Ring!
Daffodill Studios, $220
Lost-wax casting is an ancient jewelry-making method. It may still be the best way to start. Wielding sharp tools and open flames, shape and carve your own classic band or signet from wax, which will then be cast in sterling silver or bronze. Ages 18+.
4 hours | monthly | 3322 NE Wasco St
See also: Ninety Twenty Studios
Needlework Intro to Sewing
Sincere Studios, $95
Bring your own fabric and (working) machine to this first-timer’s class or show up empty-handed. Either way, leave with a “super cool and usable” tote you stitched yourself.
3.5 hours | 2–3 afternoons per week | 2134 N Flint Ave
See also: Modern Domestic
perfumery Essentials of Perfume
Artemisia Collage with Nature, $55
Like music, scents derive their drama from balancing top, middle, and base notes. This workshop teaches the basic 16 essences and sends you home with a small batch (6 mL) of your own composition.
1 hour | 5pm Fri (w/exceptions) | 110 SE 28th Ave
See also: Maak Lab
Image: Courtesy Zoe Ching/Mud Room
Pottery “Try It” Wheel-Throwing Class
The Mud Room, $85
Twirl wet mud! Never done it? Maybe aim for an ashtray, or plate, or, uh, abstract sculpture. This “try it” workshop is more about the process. You make...something, then the staff finishes, glazes, and fires it. Six weeks later, pick up your whatchamacallit. Ages 16+ or 13+ with guardian.
2 hours | 6–8pm Fri & Sat | 1831 N Killingsworth Ave, ste D; 2011 SE 10th Ave
See also: Morning Ceramics Studio, Radius Clay Studio, Elemental Studios
Image: Courtesy Outlet
printmaking Riso Basics Workshop
Outlet, $125
The art world’s favorite defunct technology: think Xerox meets screen printer. No computers, no toxic etching chemicals, no painstaking woodblock carving. Make zines, protest posters, and art prints, and swap editions with classmates.
3 hours | every other Sat | 2500 NE Sandy Blvd, Ste E
See also: Independent Publishing Resource Center, Riso Studio Arts PDX
