The best craft workshops in Singapore

It’s always fun adding little personal touches to your room – especially when your decor comes in the form of something handmade. With the lampshade-making workshops by zero-waste furniture store Naturalis Historia, you’ve got the perfect opportunity to get hands-on, while creating something one-of-a-kind for your home.

You’ll first get to choose your preferred lamp style – from drum, to empire, and standing – before selecting from an extensive array of fabrics. Think prints featuring florals, wildlife, and batik, as well as textures like denim. And if none of the available options catch your eye, feel free to bring your own fabric. Just make sure to enquire about the recommended dimensions for the best results. 

Sign up here.

Try out cyanotype printing, the oldest printmaking method, at Project Blue. The process involves applying light-sensitive chemicals to paper, compressing objects to form your desired patterns on top, then exposing them to ultraviolet light or sunlight. Areas exposed to UV light will turn blue. All excess chemicals are then washed away to reveal the final print. Create your own greeting cards, prints and tote bags.

For more information, visit their website here.

Transform unwanted glass waste into beautiful vessels for flowers or decorative pieces for your home. The workshops are conducted by Dying Trades, a craft studio dedicated to upcycling, repurposing and reusing discarded materials in hopes to attain zero wastage. Find uniquely crafted brushes and brooms weaved out of coconut husks and bamboo fibres, as well as hand-knotted bags created from salvaged pine tree branches.

New sessions have yet to be announced at time of writing. Follow them on Instagram for updates regarding their upcoming workshops.

At Type8ar, try your hand at typing your very own note, or if you’re looking for something more in-depth, opt for their workshop to learn the basic workings and history behind the classic machine and bring home a personal typewritten memorabilia at $48 per participant. The typewriters are also available for rent on-site with complimentary beverage and unlimited supply to papers, card stock, stationeries and whatnot. So if you have something to say, why not try typing it out on a click-clack machine for a change? 

Find out more about their workshops here.

Tea is an everyday beverage, but did you know that there are many levels to tea appreciation? At Tea Chapter, dive into the history and philosophy of the art of tea. This workshop is for everyone, whether you are a tea fanatic, a history junkie, or just a curious one. Choose from two packages – From Dusk Till Dawn and Shades Of Tea – with the latter featuring a wider selection of tea and snacks. Both packages are designed to provide a personal introduction to the origins of Chinese tea, its distinctive characteristics, ways of appreciation, and more. 

Inspire serious Instagram envy with the hand-tied bouquets and perfect floral arrangements of head florist Aude Giraud at Ask a French Flowers. Trained in Paris and Singapore, Aude has worked for private clients and corporate ones like Chanel. Like pieces of art, her arrangements take inspiration from the beauty of wild nature and classic still life paintings so you can expect effortless but beautiful bouquets that are both rustic and poetic. 

Ever wanted to own a garden but lack the space? Now you can with The Plant Story’s miniature garden workshop. Put together a collage of the beauty of mother nature into a glass bowl with a professional and learn how to recreate a compact version of nature’s ecosystem. Choose from Rainforest Garden, Desert Garden, Air Garden and Water Garden. Or if you’re looking to engage in the activity with a partner, you can choose to go with the larger Deluxe Garden or Premium Garden.

Pick up a new skill at Crafune, where you’ll be able to learn how to work with leather to create a bunch of things – pouches, wallets, cardholders, watch straps, money clips, and even bags! The workshop uses top grade vegetable tanned leather for their workshops, so quality is guaranteed. It’s a perfect solo activity or date idea for two. 

Find beauty in imperfection at Gold & Behold, a new studio in Hillview Terrace that offers modern kintsugi workshops. Kintsugi, a Japanese art, is all about embracing the cracks – typically, artists put broken pottery pieces together to highlight, rather than hide, the seams with lacquer mixed with powdered gold.  

Learn how to bind a bunch of papers together at the cosy flagship store of Bynd Artisan, located at Holland Village. There are two types of bookbinding workshops – coptic binding for the classics, and Japanese binding for something different. Select from a wide array of book cloth colours to customise your very own book covers, or take it one step further to deboss your initials at the Japanese bookbinding workshop. All materials and tools are provided, so just show up and start binding!

Free up some four hours to attend Tuft Club's rug-making workshop ($195). At Singapore's first tufting art studio, you get to play and paint with yarn to create fluffy works of art.

At $535+ per person, the eight-lesson curriculum for novice includes lessons in centering, throwing, trimming and glazing, yielding six to 10 fired pieces to bring home. So, mould your next coffee mug or ramen bowl and see it materialise from start to finish. We promise you, you’ll never see vessels the same way again.

If you’re looking for some woodworking fun without the heavy lifting, start small at Muyu’s Ikigai woodworking workshop. Within the 3 hour session, indulge in slow made jewellery using woodworking hand tools and locally sourced materials. You’ll also be able to learn about the conservation of trees, the different types of wood grains for different types of jewellery, the usage of woodworking hand tools, and more.  

Can’t seem to find a scent you resonate with in stores? Take things into your own hands at a candle making workshop. At To Be Calm’s session, you’ll be able to choose from over 60 scents to find one just for you. On top of the fragrance buffet, get educated on fragrance groups, wax types and learn how scents and fragrances can evoke our memories.

You don’t need to be a chef to customise your own knife. As intimidating as it sounds, bladesmithing is a skill that anyone with an interest in crafting and forging metals can pick up. Forge a knife to slice sashimi at home, or maybe one to use for some heavy duty slicing and dicing at your next cook-off. Or if you’re looking to deal with something less sharp, try out the tsuiki cup workshop made by the tsuiki method where vessels are carved by hammering sheets of metal. 

Did you know that paper need not necessarily come from chopped trees? Sustainability is made fun at Prints n Matters where you’ll be able to learn how to upcycle materials to make your very own sheets of paper from paper pulp in just three simple steps. There is no limit to how many you can make, so go wild.

Printing daze

Ditch the boring mainstream printing methods and dive into Risograph printing at Knuckles and Notch, a publishing and printing studio. This technique relies on the Risograph machine to produce multi-layered prints that have a beautiful handcrafted quality to them. Knuckles and Notch runs a workshop for beginners ($80), where you can play with different materials, shapes and colours to produce up to five works uniquely designed by you. Risograph printing embraces experimentation and imperfections, so go as crazy and zany as you like. 

Bound for leather

Way before the dawn of YouTube tutorials, Xie Hui was already looking up books and magazines to DIY his own leather accessories and eventually opened his own leathercraft studio in 2008. Xie and his team of five regularly impart leathercraft knowledge to budding makers in their workshops (from $79), where you make and bring home products that range from coin pouches to watch straps and pet collars – no prior experience needed as they’ll guide you from cutting to finishing. That said, leathercraft is not for the time-starved. Depending on the complexity of the item you’re making, a session can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. 

Work on wood

If you're someone who likes to get a little physical, woodworking might just be the craft for you. Lifting, shifting and sawing wood blocks takes some muscle, and gets your creative juices flowing too. At The Common Bench woodworking workshop for adults, you'll learn about the properties of wood, design and plan for your wood piece, before diving into the meat of it. Try out sawing techniques and all the way to finishing methods. Of course, you get to bring your creation home for display at the end of it. 

Crazy for terrazzo

Terrazzo is the in thing right now, and you'll get to bring a bit of it home with you through Chokmah's terrazzo workshops. Learn how to work with Jesmonite, a water-based composite – you'll be mixing your own colours, casting and sanding it to perfection. Depending on the workshop you choose, you'll be bringing home anything from pill-shaped trays, to holders and even mini succulent pots. Chokmah was conceived by Joyce Orallo, an interior design graduate from LASALLE College of the Arts, who was looking for an eco-friendly alternative to resin – so you can be sure that your artistic pursuits aren't doing harm to the environment too. 

Bottoms up 

Launched in October 2018, Brass Lion Distillery is Singapore's first full-fledged micro-distillery specialising in producing high quality craft spirits. The Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin is the brand's flagship product – so you know you're in good hands at its gin school. Get acquainted with botanicals from the distillery's herb garden, concoct your own recipe, and distill your own gin. Within 3 hours, you'll be walking away with your very own personalised bottle of gin. Classes cost $220 per pax, and includes a welcome drink. Sign up here.

Soldering for silver

With over a decade’s experience and a passion for soldering jewellery in their blood, Fat Anvil owners Rachel Tang and Mei Foo joined hands in 2015 to share their love for the craft. Weekly silversmithing workshops are held in their intimate studio to cater to beginners and the more experienced – it’s a 2.5-hour schooling on the basics, and the goal’s to be able to eventually create whatever jewellery you dream up, be it rings, necklaces or bangles. If the weekly workshops aren’t enough for you, delve into the thick of silversmithing technicalities with the full workshop experience. After mastering the techniques of melting, soldering, piercing and filing, you’ll get to take home your creations. Sign up here.

Squeaky clean

Wash your hands of the little ones – or gather the Brady Bunch – for a soap making workshop that’ll have you pressing bars of the stuff from moulds, easy. Classes take place four times a day and start at $49 a person for an hour-long workshop, with soap recipes customised for both normal and sensitive skin. Choose a plain or herbed base plus a colour and scent, then select up to seven moulds in fun designs – popular ones include hearts, bears and roses. If you’re up for more, the intermediate workshop teaches soap layering and more complex techniques, plus 30 bars of soap for you to take home. Ingredients are vegan and at least 85 percent organic, too – that means minimal nasties, and no parabens or animal-based ingredients.