How to Make a Make-and-Take

So, here’s why there haven’t been many posts this week: I’ve been prepping for a big crafty event that happens on Sunday. Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft has moved to a splendid new building downtown, and they’re having a block party to celebrate. (Read Susan’s excellent post about it for more details.)

A bunch of us from the Church of Craft will be there with a make-and-take booth. I thought it might be fun to offer a craft project that recycles one of the waste products of a big festival like this: 16-oz. plastic water bottles. I did a little tutorial a while back on converting these bottles into bracelets.

So I’ve been devising some public-friendly ways to approach the project. And as I did, I came to realize that, after several years of organizing things like this, I’ve figured out a few ground rules for designing a good make-and-take experience. Thought I’d share, in case they’re helpful to anyone else.

Design for space. Some public craft set-ups are smaller — as in, one table will hold all your supplies and your crafters. With limited space, it’s helpful to stick to a smaller-scale craft, like a jewelry project, so your crafters don’t get buried in supplies. If you have a lot of space to work with, you can go for the big stuff, like quilting.

Design for time. What kind of event will your make-and-take be part of? Are you part of a craft fair, where ideally people will spend more time shopping than crafting? Then it’s a good idea to offer a project that makes up quickly. Or, if your table is part of, say, a gallery show, and you want people to linger in the space, then it might be wise to offer a bit more of a complex project, that takes longer to make.

Design for traffic. If your make-and-take will be at a very busy event, then you’ll want to accommodate as many people as you can. A shorter craft project will allow you to rotate more people through your craft table. There’s nothing more frustrating than having people waiting in line to get to your make-and-take, but the table is filled with people who aren’t leaving. When I’m designing a make-and-take, I like to make several versions of the project, and time myself on each one to get an average time-per-crafter.

Design for people-resources. If you’re the only person staffing your make-and-take, then it makes sense to offer a fairly self-explanatory project, so you don’t get overwhelmed trying to teach several people at once. If you have other people staffing with you, then you can offer up a project that requires a little more instruction.

Design for trash. Perhaps most importantly, work out ahead of time how you’re going to dispose of tiny scraps and other craft-messes. As each crafter leaves, you need to be able to clean the table up fast for the next person. Will you need to wipe the table down? Collect anything for recycling? Will any of the scraps be sharp or potentially staining? It’s also nice to have a place for your crafters to dispose of their own trash, if they want to. I like to tape paper lunch bags all around the rim of the table, so folks can sweep their messes into them.

. . . Think good make-and-take thoughts for us tomorrow! I’ll be back Monday with a report.