Stress relief is a much-needed commodity as we toil through the middle of the semester and approach the final third. As such, Drew Fiber Arts and Drew Bookworms collaborated on an arts and crafts activity: bookmark-making. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the two clubs invited the Drew community to HS-4 for crafts, food and a reprieve from the stresses of school.
“One of the main goals was to get everybody together so we can all have a good time. We’re kind of in the middle of the semester, midterms are happening or coming up, and so we want people to be able to come here and have a chill time, you know, sit down, eat, have a sense of community,” said Fiber Arts treasurer Eva Woolard (‘26).
Even as a relatively new club—only being founded last year—Drew Fiber Arts has already made their presence and mission “to help develop fiber arts skills, inspire engagement in the eco-conscious slow-fashion movement, and give back to [their] community” well known on campus through approachable, no-experience-required workshops and events, as well as collaborations with other clubs and organizations.
This particular partnership with Drew Bookworms centered around bookmark-making. Students were presented with a variety of paper cutters, ribbons, pens, paints, stickers and more with which to turn colored strips of cardstock into personalized bookmarks. While crafting––or engaging in other more fiber-arts-centered activities such as crochet and knitting––students chatted and shared food and craft ideas while listening to lo-fi tunes.
“It’s not that you revert back to being a child, but you’re tapping into that childhood joy of being really young and doing arts and crafts and that kind of stuff,” Woolard said, regarding the importance of events like these and of continuing to do arts and crafts. She highlighted how it’s important to get back in touch with your inner-child, especially as a coping strategy for such a stressful time of year.
Woolard also highlighted how from a club leader perspective, this event was a success.“We have people sitting in the back just knitting and crocheting, you can come up to the front and do arts and crafts, so it’s supposed to be a fun, chill kind of time. That’s our goal, that’s what we envision.”
To make sure you catch Fiber Arts’ next crafting event, follow Drew Fiber Arts’ activities at @drewfaad on Instagram. To check out what’s new with Drew Bookworms, follow them at @thedrewubookworms.
Chloe Gocher is a junior majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing and minoring in Spanish.
