Pre Loved Craft donations at Made in Ashford
Pre Loved Craft at Made in Ashford in like a scrap store. It relies on the generosity of our local community to generate some much needed funds which we put back into creativity in the community. We hope this circular economy helps make Ashford an even better place to live.
How it works - wonderful people give us their unwanted art & craft supplies. Our volunteer team then sort through the donations which are mostly put out in our pay as you feel craft store at the back of Made in Ashford. Some items are used at our creative clubs/free craft sessions, some items we donate to local schools/other groups in need and a few items go on our Ebay for change shop.
In our Pre-Loved Craft store, craft hunters can browse and give us a donation for the items they want and what they feel is a fair price affordable to them. This approach we hope helps creativity to be financially accessible to those who cannot always afford it. Others sometimes pay it forward with their donation which helps those who can’t afford as much. We simply ask that people do not buy from us to resell.
This generates us a little pot of money each month which we can then spend on doing fun creative things here in Ashford, giving back to our community. We are a not for profit organisation and as a small business that really loves our town and tries to have a positive impact here. This is a list of some of the things we have been able to do, based on this system of local generosity:
✂Free family craft each month at our monthly food & creative market.
✂Financial support in starting to develop Ashford Artists Club - an open community for local artists of all levels.
✂Top up of funds for the Pop Up Gallery.
✂Having a presence at events like Pride Ashford - buying materials & working on decorations/community arts.
✂Being part of events like Woman Up Ashford - buying materials, paying for team, paying for a website etc.
✂Supporting other local events with additional free creative activity such as Carnival of the Baubles, Ashford 180, Ashford Food & Drink, Charity Sewing Bee & many more.
✂Donating back to other charitable events across the borough in the form of raffle prizes and more.
✂Keeping the Craftship (our community studio space) open & helping towards the staff costs as well as the materials for some of the sessions held there.
✂Supporting the move of Made in Ashford.
✂And lots more community arts!
We love our pre-loved craft store, ethos and outcomes. This fund is also topped up by any profits the shop makes which we can put back into creative Ashford too.
