Sharing our love
of
art, education, creativity,
quality, equity
and
community
We are so proud to have helped host the first Cumbia Night at our workspace.
DJ, Luis Garcia (@lui5_gc )organized this awesome family friendly event open to the community and provided refreshments, lessons and outdoor dancing in downtown Tacoma.
Thank you to everyone who brought so much joy to that space by sharing culture, laughter and skill.
We are looking forward to the next date. Stay tuned.
Craft Buffet!
In lieu of prime rib and Swedish meatballs, we provided the graduates of the Russell Family Foundation Janes Fellowship program with a smorgasbord of crafty inspo and materials.
The ideas were piping hot and filled out plates with cardboard box robots, Dino filled boats and some of the tastiest scrap wood cities we’ve experienced.
Oo la la.
*Chefs kiss*
Thanks for hanging out!!
We are so inspired!
After exhausting our pre prepared parts for our Art car on the Ave activity, we thought we’d have to shut down early.
Instead, using our silly random components and the brains of creative kiddos, we threw together some quick and dirty art cars with items on hand.
Y’all are awesome.
That. Was. Awesome.
We are so stinking thankful to of been included in the reemergence of Art on the Ave! Thank you Heather @6thavetacoma and @passiocreative, Angel @tapcocu and the kind folks @_catffeinated_ for hosting us!
“It doesn’t have to go fast, but it better look good” was the phrase of the day.
We designed our “Art car on the Ave” activity specifically for this event and it was so rad!! We had so many participants in the first 2 1/2 hours that we ran out of our little premade car bodies!
We didn’t stop though. Using our scrap wood bin, cocktail straws, the creative genius of a 4 year old and other random items we bring along, we were able to create working wheels and axles and kept the party going.
Check this out!!
Made by Oliver Doriss (@olivia_phaze @babyheadcups ), this mini putt course offers four unique paths to the putter!
Engineered to rotate the Tacoma Dome to in imagined Andy Warhol design, traverse the sky to the glass museum via crane, roll across the Murray Morgan bridge or shoot across the narrows.
We appreciate you setting this up this work of art at our Craftaroake night! It was great inspiration for our marble mini putt activity.
Karoake, snacks, craft activity and a Tacoma cityscape mini putt course for the win!
Craftaroake!!
While folks sang their hearts out with Luis @lui5_gc , we played on @olivia_phaze custom Rube Goldberg mini putt and build our own mini sized marble mini putt courses!
Thanks to everyone that showed up to play. Can’t express enough how much we love seeing young and old alike engaging in these spaces.
Let us know if you would like to experience the next CRAFT NIGHT!
Thank you @tacomalibrary for including us in your summer programs!
We brought our “scrap wood boats” activity to the Fern Hill branch and had a great time working with the folks that participated!
So many silly and creative projects were made. It was a really nice way to spend a blazing hot afternoon.
Wow! Huge turnout for CRAFT NIGHT!! What a way to spend the solstice.
We tried out a new activity we are calling “Art Car drag race”. You don’t have to have a fast car, but it better be extravagantly extra in design. After the build, the cars were raced on our new track!
We saw a ton of experimentation with materials, weight distribution, and so much glitter in action.
Thank you to everyone for showing up and participating. You are awesome.
We will be presenting this activity at Art on the Ave (@6thavetacoma)on July 16th in the Catffienated (@_catffeinated_) parking lot, come check us out!
This lovely family owns and operates Loak Toung Thai Restaurant on Center St.
After attending our Craftaroake event, they offered to cater our next activity.
Loak Toung Thai (@loaktoungthai )did not disappoint!
Thank you for feeding everyone your delicious food, crafting with us, introducing your family AND helping with the cleanup!
You are appreciated.
Schools out! Almost...
Thank you @Summitolympushighschool for asking us to host your end of year staff appreciation pizza party!
The idea to choose each other randomly and create an appreciation award was an activity we couldn't pass up on helping with. It was SO fun watching you all interact as a team and craft silly and meaningful awards/trophies/sculptures for each other. The award presentation ceremony was super sweet.
Thank you for showing up for the youth this year. We really appreciate you all.
Meet the Random Craft Generator!
Super impressed by all the creativity that happened at the Tacoma Night Market Sunday Drag Brunch! (@tacomanightmarket). Big thanks to the folks at @fosswaterwayseaport for being such great hosts.
We engineered this activity to be a fun way to spark your imagination.
Each capsule in the generator has one "random" word in inside. You needed at least two capsules with two random words in order to create a project; think: butterfly/spare tire or banana/meditate..Everyone had the option to put a word back if they didn't know the definition or just plain didn't like it.
Watching y'all work was awesome. Young to older, you all engaged and did the activity perfectly. I had a great time. Hope you did too.
Check out these photos.
Scrap wood city!
Thanks to everyone that crafted with us @tacomanightmarket Sunday drag brunch!
You were so fun to create with!
We love seeing all the creative ways you use the materials we bring. Material exploration is part of our core and y’all really made us proud.
Check out the pictures!!
They said it couldn’t be done.
Some said it SHOULDN’T be done.
We did it anyways.
Craftaroake happened and as far as we know, the world is still spinning on its axis as it was before. It’s probably even better because of it!
Mixing crafting and karaoke was not something we ever intended. But after the suggestion from friends, we sought to make it happen.
We are lucky to know great people who know great people and we’re connected with Luis from LHdM (la hora del mezcal) who hosts a multilingual karaoke. We are thankful that he saw the potential and was willing to partner with us for craftaroake.
The craft activity was mostly self directed with inspiration provided by our new idea generator- an old wizard gumball machine that is currently programmed to spit out capsules with random words.
You all did so good! Creatively constructing art from word combinations like; mashed potato/train, cat hair/imagine, and people/dispenser…
It went so good. Adults and young folks alike participated and had a good time. Check out the photos.
Thank you to everyone that attended to sing, craft, both or just snack and observe. Also thank you to all that were able to donate. Y’all are very special to us.
Keep an eye out for future events. We are always testing ideas that we can offer the public and are thinking craftaroake is something everyone should experience.
@fosswaterwayseaport invited us to bring our not-a-box activity to help them celebrate Earth Day on the last third Thursday!
Enjoy the photos of some of the creative projects that were produced!
Attendees had a great time building dioramas, learning about the critters in the touch tanks and participating in the seed planting activity provided by the museum.
Thanks to Courtney Underwood (@clu253) for bringing her 2nd graders and their families to hang out and big thanks to Leah @myboatlife for the invaluable help setting up and facilitating!
We were super nervous about bringing our newest activity, POV Me to the @tacomanightmarket. Even after an awesome test night, we just weren’t sure folks would enjoy it.
I think we were wrong to worry. We observed folks of all ages and all skill levels having a blast. We heard things like, “I haven’t painted since my childhood” and, “THIS WAS SO COOL”, and “I just want to stay here all day!”
Thanks for proving us wrong, @Tacoma. Y’all are so stinking creative and this event was awesome.
Thanks also to all the participants, the rad staff @fosswaterwayseaport, the great vendors, everyone who donated, everyone with kind words and encouragement, and the little fella who gave us the best high five we’ve had in years.
Scrap wood city brought out creativity in ways we didn’t even imagine!
Turns out, if you give folks the time, space, snacks, scrap wood parts and a bunch of doodads, they’ll take it to the next level.
Check out these awesome sculptures created at our craft night.
We will introduce this activity at the May @tacomanightmarket!
Thanks for helping us test this new activity!
One of the components of Toolbox Laboratories is the opportunity to assist community members in bringing a creative idea to life.
When @quietwyat approached us to help build out his truck for a trip, we were on it.
After a planning meeting and coffees, we planned our first build day. After a few tool safety and use explanations, @quietwyat and @adriene.dxiii knocked out templating the truck bed, cutting the plywood to shape and finishing. Stay tuned for updates.
What do you want to make??
We made this toy bot from the March Makers Kit found @urbansquirrel253 We missed the contest deadline but saw all the really cool and creative submissions. Good job everyone!
We just grabbed the April makers kit and are super excited to get creative with some friends and see what is concocted from the gadgets and gizmos that come in the package.
If you haven’t been to Urban Squirrel, you must. They have a great shop on @antiquerowtacoma with a unique collection of crafty creative handmade items, antiques, and a ton of whoozits and whatsitz to browse through.
We’re excited to be a part of an Earth Day event @fosswaterwayseaport on the 3rd Thursday this month!
There will be two hands on activities on offer; we will be bringing our not a box project and the museum will be hosting a special gardening activity!
Bring your friends, family or just yourself, and get creative with us on 4/21
Did you know that there’s a skatepark under the 11th st bridge? @11thstdiy
It has been designed, engineered, constructed and funded by the local skateboarding community.
Each bag of concrete was mixed by hand, cinder blocks stacked by volunteer labor, steel painstakingly tied by headlights and troweled by novices who are now pros.
We are lucky to be located within walking distance. Over the past two years we’ve come to call the organizers and utilizers of the park friends, neighbors, co workers, and partners in various capacities. We have been able to recognize the benefit of having the park in our community using an otherwise abandoned space.
Today, they’re having a fundraiser in the hopes of raising money to finish and maintain the park.
We encourage everyone to come visit the park when you can, give if you’re able or just come down to the show and enjoy.