How To Start a Hobby Circle
Last year I had an idea, a half formed, baby idea, to start a hobby circle. What is a hobby circle? It’s something I made up to be in the company of women and set aside some time to create. The boiler plate is that it’s kinda like a book club, but for making things.
When I birthed the idea I was torn between inviting woman together, to individually work on the project that they were already working on or to plan a craft for us to make together and I quickly discovered that the later would be significantly more successful. We are busy woman, most of us have children and a career, most without time and energy to cultivate their own project. It is much more likely that someone will show up to make something preplanned for them, rather than gathering their own supplies.
I have been the planner and the organizer of this group, which definitely takes its own energy and time, but the rewards that I have gotten in return are exponential!
Invite people in. If you want to start this circle, gather the emails of a few friends and start a thread. I shared a story on instagram and invited anyone to send me their contact info. A few people I had never met in real life wanted to be part of the group, so I’ve made new friends!
Plan the activity. Once I gathered the emails I sent out a brief survey, just to gauge what days/times work best, as well as what hobbies or projects everyone was interested in. I got some direction, but I found it’s easiest to just make the decisions - pick a day, time and activity and invite people to create if they are available and interested.
Share your experience. When I oped the invitation to all of my instagram followers to join us a couple hours a month to make things, I had about ten people who were interested and added them to an email thread. Four came out to our first beautiful meeting. I shared that experience and more people wanted to join our group, we are up to about 15 women on the thread and maybe half will come to any given activity.
TIPS
Keep the first meeting simple. I hosted our first meeting. We made vision boards. It was the perfect first project. It allowed us to talk about our goals, projects we were working on and get to know one another. We were helping each other flip through the magazines for the perfect image, it was a beautiful scene.
Keep the momentum going. This is the hard part. As the organizer I have out the pressure on myself to get the next one on the calendar. The women that have joined us have had such a lovely time that they are excited to come again, so having the next one on the calendar helps keep the momentum going.
I would love for you to share if you decide to start a hobby circle. Comment here or DM on instagram.