Lifting The Craft Bar At Museum Of Craft & Folk Art

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Fabric flowers will blossom and plushy robots will belly up to the Craft Bar at Museum of Craft & Folk Art Thursday, June 3.

Yep, it’s that time of the month again -- time to get your craft on. Every first Thursday for the last six, MOCFA SF has hosted a Craft Bar, along with Etsy Labs, and the event appears to be gathering steam among the Bay’s many manic DIY-ers. The event, which began life as a humble Stitch-and-Bitch gathering of around 30, assembled 250 the last time around. “That was our biggest Craft Bar yet,” says MOCFA store associate buyer Amelia Strader, who co-organizes the event with the store’s manager and head buyer Kpoene Kofi-Bruce. “They keep getting bigger each time because word keeps spreading.”

The June 3 Craft Bar will serve up three fun, funky little projects: appliqued jewelry-making, with materials donated by Britex Fabrics, and, in celebration of the new Giant Robot pop-up store at MOCFA, the crafting of a soft and squishy robot. Crafters who prefer to roll a bit more free-form are encouraged to bring a project and hang out in the still-bitching Stitch-and-Bitch area -- or to start a new piece, with some free knitting and crocheting instruction. “It’s great that people can come together who are interested in learning new skill,” enthuses Strader. “It’s a make-and-take event. You can learn skill and make it and take it away with you.”

Expect the Craft Bar to spill onto Yerba Buena Lane outside the museum, where makers will get to craft alfresco, listen to live music, get appetizers from the neighboring Amber India, and throw down a Trumer Pils (purchased at a bar craftily fashioned from beer boxes). MOCFA SF’s current exhibition, “We They, We They,” highlighting the work of Bay Area folk-art-inspired artist Clare Rojas, will also be open.

Crafters unable to make it this time can check a related fabric jewelry-making lesson online: Strader will be doing the Etsy Virtual Lab the same day, June 3, at 1 p.m. Consider it all a part of the museum’s effort to embrace a new wave of crafters that has swelling -- crochet needles and tool kits proudly in hand and turning out for events like Maker Faire. “We want to reach out a new generation,” Strader says. 

Craft Bar is Thursday, June 3, 6-8 p.m., at Museum of Craft & Folk Art, 51 Yerba Buena Lane, SF. $5 includes admission to the gallery and crafting supplies. 415-227-4888, mocfa.org

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