This year was the 6th time I visited the Hobby-X Jhb and it was by far the best experience I’ve had.
I pre-booked 4 workshops for me and my 9 year old and scheduled them all for yesterday (Thursday the 1st of March). We were literally booked from 10:30 for our 1st class with our last ending at 18:00.
The Workshops
Tarn Plug Rug
1st up was the Tarn Plug Rug at the Tarn Yarn stall. We each received a bag filled with enough tarn to make our rug as well as a pattern sheet. It was an enjoyable and very relaxing experience. We completed about 1/8th of our rug in the allotted time for the workshop. And now it is something that we work on together in the evenings after dinner. Living in a house with all slate floors I can see us making many more of these.
Glass & Metal Pendant & Earrings
2nd was the Glass & Metal Pendant workshop at Heart of Glass. What an awesome experience and so much fun to make your own pendants. We each made a 14mm & 25mm glass pendant with the picture of our choice.
Our 3rd class was Glass & Metal earrings, also at Heart of Glass. We had a choice between 10mm, 12mm or 14mm earrings as well as stud or drop earrings. Little madam chose drop earrings and I made studs, both in 10mm. We each ended up with 2 sets matching our pendants, and then 3 other random sets. I also got us some supplies to make more at home. I might start wearing more jewellery now.
Bird Tray & House Keyring Hook
The 4th and last workshop I booked for the day was decorating a Tray at Melinda Kuns. The picture of this tray on the workshop listing is what drew me to book this class. Melinda gave us a choice of designs to use but I chose to make mine just like the example. We felt right at home at Melinda’s workshop. I was impressed at how patient she was when little miss messed up or didn’t quite get how to do something. Our trays turned out great and has already been put to good use.
We enjoyed my class with Melinda so much that I ended up booking a beginners mosaic class for myself for this afternoon. I’ve never done mosaic before, but with Melinda’s help & guidance I think my project turned out beautifully. Its not quite done as I only had time to finish laying down my tiles at the workshop. But Melinda explained exactly how I need to apply the grout and I am confident that it will be easy enough to finish tomorrow morning. Doing a workshop with Melinda was like crafting with your best friend that know exactly what she’s doing.
Taking A Break and Browsing the Exhibits
After our 2nd class we had a 45 minute break in which we browsed some of the exhibits and went looking for something to drink.
Wearing our new jewellery we went browsing again during our two hour break between workshop 3 & 4. We found the most amazing stencils and also got some fabric paint. We will be using these for some exciting projects over the next few months.
At the PNA stand we got sun catchers and fridge magnets which the kids painted with the glass paint that came with.
The model train exhibition was an out of this world experience for my little one. She was amazed by the little trains moving and the awesome miniature world before her.
For me seeing how the ladies from the Wits Lace Guild makes the prettiest lace by hand was definitely a highlight.
Other exhibits that also drew my attention was Just Love Stitch & Craft House. Just Love Stitch has the most amazing kits for cross stitching on wooden blanks and Craft House sells kits for just about every imaginable craft.
Observations about the show itself
In 2017 most of the stalls seemed to sell the same or very similar items and for me it was a total waste of R80 for the entrance fee. That made me very reluctant to fork out the R100 entrance fee this year. In hindsight (even though I do feel the 25% year on year increase in ticket price is exhorbant) I do feel I got much more worth for my money than last year.
If you are doing workshops over multiple days you only have to pay the entrance fee once and can visit the organisers office for complimentary tickets for the other days.
One thing that was really off putting about the whole show was the loud noise from the cars at the car exhibition starting up and revving. It really distracted from whatever you were busy with and was particularly disruptive during our workshops. I get that cars are a hobby too (hubby is a classic Merc fanatic) but it is definitely one that is best practiced outside in a well ventilated area where the gasses & noise are not forced onto unsuspecting visitors.
A really big disappointment was that NOT ONE of the beverage kiosks had straws available. Yet they ONLY sold cold drinks in tins. This is something that I really would encourage the organisers to take their vendors to book about.
Overall I still feel that this was one of the best Hobby-X Jhb events I’ve attended.
Will you be visiting the Hobby-X Jhb this year? Or have you visited already? How did you experience it?
