It's a Craft Swap World. We Just Live In It

Or, the activity of making decorative objects with your hands (Day 82)

A little bit of everything at the Griffin Free Public Library Craft Swap.

Every crafting aficionado that stopped by my library over the weekend - and there were a lot of them - appeared to have one thing in common; someplace in their homes, they have a vast, unruly stash of craft material, an enormous network of what I imagine are plastic bins overflowing with felt and stampers and construction paper and yarn.

They all spoke in hushed tones of their great warehouses of crafting items, gathered from family, over the years, at yard sales, because of their kids, the list goes on and on.

It’s like opposite world Marie Kondo.

The library set up all our tables in the front room for the event, which was advertised as a Craft Swap. The rules were simple; there were none. Bring some crafts. Leave some crafts. Do both. We didn’t care. The crafters started showing up the day before with bags to drop off ahead of time. When we opened the doors at 10am, the tables were already full.

There was some mumbling about cleaning out basements and making sure that you didn’t leave with more than you brought, but nobody followed that rule. In some cases, people would walk in with a box of - something - and that box would walk right out again with somebody new before it even got unpacked.

Even my wife and daughter got into the act, with Little Bean taking home a cat needlepoint and some beads and some stamps and… well… you know.

Ursula Le Guin said that the “creative adult is the child that survived.” Kurt Vonnegut said that to “practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.”

And make no mistake, if being joyful is any indication, there were plenty of artists in our library over the weekend. The library will do this again, of course, maybe even quarterly. Our next Craft Swap is April 13. Many, many crafters who came to our first one warned us that they would bring twice the drop offs next time. I suspect we’re going to need more tables.

Until then, tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 10-6, we’ll leave the remainders on the table. We’re cutting off drop offs, but if you want to come by and have a look at what’s left, please do! Take what you want. The, go home and create something you artist you!

I would be remise if I didn’t mention that I wasn’t altogether certain a Craft Swap would be successful except my staff and Jess Traynor in particular kept telling me that crafters were insane and would show up in droves. They were right, they did. This is why I have the best library staff in the universe.