Take the Leap! 5 Tips for Trying a New Craft

Are you curious about trying a new craft? Perhaps you’re a quilter who wants to give watercolor painting a try, or maybe you’re a photographer who wants to try your hand at embroidery. Or perhaps you’re a total craft newbie and haven’t attempted anything artistic since summer camp when you were a kid.

Tips for Trying a New Craft

These tips are designed to help guarantee success when trying a new craft!

It’s a great adventure to try something new no matter your goals.

If you’re ready to dive into something new, read on for my best advice for trying a new craft. These useful pointers can help ensure success on what promises to be a fun and exciting journey, regardless of what type of craft you’re trying! 

1. Do your research.

Before taking on any new hobby or craft, it’s good to do a little bit of research. This doesn’t have to feel like homework — if anything, let it be a fun fact-finding mission. 

For example, say that you want to take up knitting. A little research can tell you about the kinds of materials you need to get started and what sorts of projects you can expect to create as a beginner.

You can do this research online, or might want to visiting your local yarn shop. You can also use this time to research potential courses, either online or in person, where you can learn more about your chosen craft. 

2. Start with basic materials.

It can be easy to go overboard with supplies for a new craft, but avoid the temptation to buy every supply in the world. It’s smart to start with minimal and fairly basic tools.

There are a few reasons for this. For one, you don’t yet know if this craft is suited for you. Second, as you begin to develop skills in the craft, you may find that you have specific preferences for your supplies.

For instance, if you want to take up acrylic painting, instead of buying a 72-color set of paint tubes, stick with the primary colors and learn how to mix your own colors of paint. After all, you can always upgrade later.

3. Master simple techniques first.

Starting with watercolor

If there’s one thing that can help you stick with a craft, it’s mastering some of the basic techniques. This might be key pen strokes for visual arts, or some basic knit and purl stitches for knitting, so on and so forth.

For one thing, mastering the basics enables you to start creating right away. For another thing, it can help you set a strong foundation to build upon.

Don’t gloss over learning these basics, because if you don’t set a good foundation, you can get frustrated when more complicated techniques don’t come easily later on. 

4. Make friends! 

A little accountability can go a long when when it comes to picking up and sticking with a new craft.

Joining a local group or organizing a craft night with friends can provide you with the time and space to explore your craft in friendly company. Plus, if more accomplished crafters attend, you might pick up some ideas or pointers — and seeing their prowess can inspire you to increase yours.

5. Give it time.

Cake decorating

Don’t expect to be good at your new craft right away. If your first cake decorating project looks more like a cake wreck than culinary art, don’t despair. Even the most skilled crafters had to learn by trial and error, and it’s a guarantee that they weren’t creating masterpieces right from the beginning!

As the say, practice makes perfect. If you focus on loving the process rather than just the results, you’ll be building a hobby that can stick with you and provide joy for life.

So, are you ready to take the leap?

We’d like to help! With our Startup Library series, you can learn all the basics of a new craft — from choosing supplies to essential techniques — and then combine it with all your other creative pursuits.

Share tips, start a discussion or ask one of our experts or other students a question.

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