Rock Paper Scissor Collective’s Community Art Workshop Series
Oakland Public Library
Oakland
Feb. 11, 2024
Super Bowl Sunday in the basement of the downtown Oakland library, and I am doing something that I never like doing anytime, anywhere: Math.
Granted, it wasn’t a lot of math. But I still carry emotional scars from a beginner sewing class with my sister years ago, finding myself perplexed and disappointed at how much math was involved in creating a deceptively complicated bathrobe. You measure with a ruler, calculate the lengths and widths of different pieces of fabric, measure once, calculate again, measure twice, and, just to be safe, re-check everything. didn’t sign up for all this math, I’d say to myself huffily, feeling too concussed at the end of the day to attempt adding a front pocket. From then on, I took things to the professional tailor.
But, in an attempt to avoid sports and rowdy crowds, I was game to spend a few hours at Rock Paper Scissors Collective’s free monthly upcycling workshop, supported by the friendly vibes of the volunteers and two dozen participants chosing to spend game day in quiet mode, carefully working on their crafting projects. If it weren’t for the math and friendly banter, it might have felt absolutely meditative.
One local showed me several quilt and crochet projects she’d been working on, including a series of delicately ruffled circles of fabric sewn together, a pastiche of color and joy.
“These free workshops are wonderful for my mental health and for building community,” she said. Lynette, sorting through bags of scrap fabrics, wanted to embellish a vest she thrifted recently.
I decided to tackle a project that I could complete in a few hours. Caitlin, a very patient assistant, suggested I try making a simple drawstring pouch.
“It’s an easy project,” she said. Famous last words?
As I eyeballed and cut close-enough rectangles of fabric, Lionel worked on gluing puzzle pieces to a vintage print in the shape of a heart.
“This [kind of artwork] has been an obsession,” he said. He told me that he’d been in Oakland for 54 out of his 62 years, and that he’d visited 37 states in the country. “On purpose,” he added.
Caitlin showed me how to work one of the sewing machines while a father and his two young kids concentrated on fixing the loose threads spooling out of theirs. Though the young boy fixing the machine looked to be about ten years old, he seemed much more zen about it all than me. I decided to follow their lead and relax a little. The sewing didn’t seem so complicated after all.
As stragglers left the room with finished products, I admired my floral drawstring pouch. Sure, there were loose threads bunched up on one edge and a couple of holes that needed mending. But I was pleased and pleasantly surprised with the (mostly) finished product.
“This is so much more fun than football,” said Caitlin. I nodded in agreement, and thanked her for her help. With them, I’d forgotten for a few hours that it was Super Bowl Sunday.
