Lane County is beautiful any time of the year, but it does get dark and rainy in the wintertime. When it does, it’s tempting to stay inside. However, there are many businesses in the Eugene-Springfield area to help you get out, be creative, learn a skill, and maybe even beat the seasonal blues. These organizations can assist you to buy less while making your own Christmas presents, meet new people, or even go on a date — whether it’s someone you just met on the apps or a long-term relationship, looking for new experiences.
The Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts (MECCA), a nonprofit educational and materials donation and resale center located at 555 High Street in downtown Eugene, is a great place to start. Executive Director Heather Campbell says MECCA’s winter events calendar this year is all about homemade things and building community, featuring classes such as candle dipping, making fairy gourds, and book binding.
“We’re also leaning into DIY holidays,” she says, with an initiative called “thrift-mas,” or an “anti-consumer” approach to making things. “Don’t buy things new,” Campbell says. “Create circular economies” by opting to “purchase things reused or from small local businesses, and then also come make things just for the joy of making it.”
When the weather has you feeling down, there are “therapeutic and healing benefits to the arts — I see it every day because I’m in the field,” Campbell says. “There is a very real value to somebody’s health and wellness by being creative, making and working with their hands, and getting off their phone to learn a new hobby.” For a full schedule of MECCA’s workshops, classes, and events, go to Materials-Exchange.org.
Speaking of new hobbies, Flowers by Taby & Gift Baskets, owned by Tabitha Phifer and located at 1307 Lincoln Street in Eugene, presents a unique opportunity this winter: classes in kokedama, a Japanese-style houseplant treatment where a ball of soil covered in moss is formed around trimmed roots.
The whole package is then bound with twine — or in classes taught at Taby, differently colored yarn, “to give it a little more character,” Phifer says. Then “we put it in a bowl of rocks,” for a gift or to add some greenery in your home, and bathe it once a week. “It’s like a sponge. It soaks up the water,” she says. For more information about kokedama, and everything Flowers by Taby has to offer, go to FlowersbyTaby.com.
All of Eugene-Springfield’s DIY creative establishments pride themselves on their inclusivity, but trying a new craft or art form, like kokedama, may still seem intimidating for newcomers. Wildling Collaborative Arts, located at 250 Taylor Street in Eugene, accepts beginners “where they’re at,” according to Wildling co-owner Jayme Vineyard, “so they feel comfortable starting a new creative venture.”
At Wildling, Vineyard says, “we offer a variety of disciplines,” such as stained glass, basket weaving, painting, collage, block printing, printmaking, and sculpture, taught in one-day classes, workshops, private lessons, weekend classes, and ongoing classes. Ceramic wheel-throwing date nights are particularly popular.
One notable opportunity at Wildling is shibori, a traditional Japanese tie-dye technique. “Shibori is super fun,” Vineyard says. “It’s about dyeing fabric in patterns,” and then folding, tying, or sewing different prints together. For information about Wildling’s shibori classes and a full schedule of winter events, go to WildlingCollaborativeArts.com.
In downtown Springfield, Made By You, located at 715 Main Street, is a walk-in art studio with paint-your-own-pottery and wheel-throwing classes, as well as fiber arts, acrylic painting instruction, printing, stoneware, and more.
“We have a lot of couples that come in here,” says Bee Buster, Made By You’s creative director. “We also do a Valentine’s Day thing. Sometimes we’ll do, like, themed couple nights.” Paint and sips are also popular, she says, as are “Meet and Make” nights, where people interested in exploring creative avenues can sign up and mingle outside a bar. For more information, go to MadeByYou.studio.
Other businesses in the Eugene area that host classes and events like these include Paint with Alejandro, Potters Quarters, and Board and Brush.
Wilding’s Vineyard and Made By You’s Buster both point to the importance of “third spaces” — not work, not home, revolving around something besides drinking alcohol — where people meet, interact, and try new things. All these businesses fit that bill.
“Our members feel like this is their haven of creativity,” Vineyard says, “where people can come and meet up with other like-minded folks, a safe creative outlet to be expressive and find friends.” It’s a great place, she adds, to get out of the house and get out of your routine, no matter how stormy and cold it gets outside.
