The day begins with an early morning forage in the forest for mushrooms and bracken. Next, when enough fungi have been collected, comes a session of boiling, mashing and patting, and the addition of colourful leaves and flowers until the mixture is ready to place in a mould.
The final result, some hours later, will be a colourful and individual sheet of mushroom paper – along with a beneficial sense of wellbeing, calm and peace.
“People tell me the whole process is quite meditative and mindful,” says Fergus Drennan, who teaches hugely popular mushroom-paper-making classes at Coleman’s Hatch village hall in East Sussex. Nearby Ashdown Forest is, he says, a “paradise of fungal opportunities”.
His regular sessions are just one of a booming number of unusual and quirky arts and crafts workshops capturing people’s imaginations across Britain and fuelling record participation.
From the Japanese art of Kintsugi to macramé masterclasses and lingerie sewing, classes across the country have doubled in the past year to more than 7,500. And it’s the eco-conscious younger set driving demand, says Sam Richards, UK director of Eventbrite, the website where users post details of their workshops.
Twentysomethings want hobbies stressing their “individuality and creativity”, she said. “So it’s all about the satisfaction of making something that’s uniquely you.”
For Drennan, a self-declared forager, mushroom paper-making started as a bit of fun. The classes then evolved on a whim, but gathered momentum from the surge in demand for more unusual types of arts and crafts.
“It’s the most wonderful, bonkers, craziest use of mushrooms,” says Drennan, who has even created a 150-page book made entirely of fungi.
At £70 a time his lessons are not cheap, but they fill up almost as soon as they get announced – and it’s not just the locals, either. Drennan says people travel from all over the country to take part in his sessions. Next month he’s taking the class on the road with a workshop at the Heckfield Place hotel in Hampshire.
The growth of craft classes is also about finding “therapeutic respite” from the stresses of a competitive digital and work culture, says Richard Cope of Mintel, “and a way to sidestep untrustworthy, unethical and unsustainable manufacturing”.
It is a sentiment that resonates with Michelle, who teaches a lingerie-making class at her studio in Islington, London. “Buying lingerie on the high street can be really frustrating for many women because they struggle to find a good fit,” she says.
In her classes students choose their own materials and designs to create the perfect pair of knickers. It’s not a cheaper option than high street retailers, because the workshops use high-end fabrics such as laces and silks, but “it’s an incredibly satisfying and creative way to use your mind”.
Students are normally stunned by the hard work and detailed stitching that goes into a simple pair of pants. “And making a bra to your own size is even more complex,” she says.
A few streets away, in a back room of the Islington Townhouse pub, Zack Mclaughlin, 36, is setting up an altogether different type of workshop. It’s sort of “ethical taxidermy” he jokes, pointing to wire-based sculptures depicting humming birds, owls, hares and butterflies.
“They’re what I’m inspired by, so that’s what I make and teach,” he says.
An illustrator by training, Mclaughlin never really thought of himself as having any skills worthy of passing on. But a one-off workshop five years ago (that sold out) spiralled into regular monthly and then weekly classes – and it’s been a big boost to his income.
Next week alone he’s running three classes – typically with 18 to 30 people signed up, all paying £25 each (£75 for the butterfly class, which has more involved processes, he says).
“Everyone’s got different skill levels, and they come in with different ideas of what they want to make. Normally they go away very happy – but it’s a social thing too. You meet new people and have a few drinks while you’re making stuff,” he says.
In Bristol, 27-year-old Farah Merali has turned the social side of craft classes into a brand new business, by opening a cafe themed entirely around them.
The idea, she says, is that the cafe –called Farahway – will become a hub for ethical craft workshops, offering everything from how to make a baby’s turban to tutorials on creating reusable face cloths, all with coffee and cake on the side at the same time.
“For my generation especially, a lot of it is about picking up a practical new skill and hanging out with likeminded people,” she says.
“Also, it’s just nice to make something.”
