Crafting a community
- Geraldine Hauptmann-Smith
- Dec 12, 2025
- 3 min read
What started as a few friends coming over one evening to craft in her dining room ended with an article in the Guardian and a new community.
“It was something I thought I personally needed, it does come from a place of recovery in terms of mental health, […] I had been recovering from burnout for eight months, I got my ADHD diagnosis.”
“In May time, which was about the end of the eight months, I thought to myself, you know, I really need to get back to seeing my friends and being creative.”
Gabriella Pacitti started girls craft club in her dining room. It started with her friends around her dining room table and her jewellery making material and they sat and crafted, and they were able to talk from the heart.
“We let our guard down and it was just a really feel-good night. I think we all need to get back in touch with something that felt good to do and was low pressure.”
That small evening led to an idea, if my friends had a good time and I had a good time, why can’t our friends’ friends come along and why don’t we make this a thing?
“I’m sure there’s more girls like me who would love to have that space to connect and that’s how girls craft club was born.”
Creativity has been Gabriella’s passion for a long time; she studied Foundation Art and Design at Edinburgh College of Art and then studied art history in Edinburgh University. During her time at Edinburgh University, she started an Etsy business making jewellery and then worked in some jewellery shops to gain experience. Though her passion for art has stuck with her, Gabriella never directly joined the art world.
“I find it very clique-y and a little bit elitist? So, I kind of made my own path of being creative.”
“I really like helping people, so the girls craft club just felt like the right mix between being creative and finding a way to help others as well as being something that I needed at the time as well.”
The girls craft club reached the attention of the Guardian, who wrote an article about the club. Gabriella said that she does not think it helped gain more girls but instead brought people who had businesses and craft supplies that wanted to contribute to the club instead.
New girls come to each event in hopes of meeting new people and forming their own type of community.
“A couple of girls I met a couple months ago when they just moved, there was one girl who moved here two days before, so really really fresh and you know and I see them hangout now, its great and they form their little groups.”
“We message each other out with the group and that’s kind of the whole point. It’s a good starting point at the very least for girls to find other like-minded girls.”
“I do feel like these days and perhaps personally speaking I’m thirty, so I feel like also the older I get the more difficult or the more reluctant I can be to get out my house so I hope that the craft club can create an atmosphere where you're stepping into a space where everyone wants the same things.”
“It’s a really good place to start to meet other girls.”
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