“I hope that my passion for textiles and crafting is contagious and that people will learn a new craft and skill that they hopefully will carry with them for a long time.”
Mara teaches Sashiko and quilt making and has been teaching adults for two years. She says “I love that adults usually find in crafts a solace and some mindful time for themselves. At the same time, crafting can be very solitary, so I like bringing people together and forming communities that bond over a love for handmade things.”
Mara was inspired by her grandmother, who used to sew clothes for the family. She always admired her for that and started sewing regularly after her daughter was born 14 years ago, to make her pretty things, and to repurpose clothes she had outgrown.
In a previous life, Mara Campbell ran a subtitling company, but these days she prefers to communicate through crafts. Since relocating from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Reading and opening Reading Sewing Bee, she’s dedicated herself to the world of textiles and community crafting. She’s been specialising in sashiko for about two years, sharing the history and technique of this functional and decorative art form through workshops at her own studio and beyond.
Mara is a firm believer that crafting is better when done together, and she loves nothing more than helping someone find their flow with needle and thread.
