We have all been making personal decisions about how we approach the post lockdown world. Besides following government guidelines, each of us must choose which places we visit and how we spend our time in places where there will be strangers meeting.
When we reopened at the beginning of July, we had already fitted paper towel machines, automatic sanitizer dispensers and pushed our benches further apart. The tea trolley is on furlough and everyone is wearing aprons they bring along.
A massive amount of people had bought classes that were meant to happen in between March and July, and so Ana, the multi-talented doer of everything here, created a coloured spreadsheet and a new calendar – and we invited people back.
We have been so thrilled by the enthusiasm of people who were happy to join us again. Some people have completed courses that were so rudely interrupted, including our one year and two year upholstery courses and our longer woodwork workshops. They were extremely pleased to find they hadn’t forgotten everything during lockdown.One of the things they hadn’t forgotten was how healing it is to connect to craft – to hold something in your hands that was made by your hands. The relationship between object and maker is very special.
I hadn’t realised how much I missed the sounds of the centre; the group tapping of magnetic hammers on upholstery tacks, the singing of sharp smoothing planes and a new experience of muffled laughter from behind our face shields and masks.
We extended our term into the middle of August, instead of closing in early July for the Summer Break. One by one, the chairs were completed and wooden projects went home with their proud owners.
Now, the centre will quieten again during these hottest days of August, and we will resharpen the chisels, order the timber and begin to prepare for opening again in September.
It’s good to be back.
Alison
