Craft Supply Swap
Connecting our community of artists, crafters, and makers with unused supplies.
I organized an arts and craft supply swap for my community. It is clear the event is a keeper, so I’m planning a spring swap. This is what I learned from the first one and why I think it is worth organizing as a gift to my community.
What is the Craft Supply Swap? Swappers bring unused arts and craft supplies in good condition before the swap. There is early access for swappers to shop the materials on Swap Day. Then it is open to all. All items are free; there is no money exchanged. You do not need to bring supplies to participate. Leftover items are stored for the next swap, donated, or recycled.
Jump to:
Just do it for planning materials
How it went for anecdotes and numbers
Planning observations for some things that went well or could be improved
What are you holding onto?
About a year ago, the concept of a craft supply swap came up in a conversation with my mom, who is a librarian and former fashion design student. She quickly emailed me a couple links to existing swaps.1 That email lingered in my inbox while I went on a creative spree.
In the last year, I have explored oil paints, acrylic paints, and watercolor.2 I have used canvas, cardboard, and tiny animal figurines as my surface. I adorn ornaments with tiny glass beads originally from an elaborate fish puppet project I made with my mother at least 20 years ago. I add sparkle with a stash of glitter from the same time period.3 I keep ribbons from packaging and pick up odds and ends from the thrift store that “could be something.”
For as much as I keep, I pass over a lot more. I have purchased cheap supplies to try a new material and been unsatisfied. I did not know enough to use the supplies and purchased lower quality because I wanted to experiment rather than invest upfront in an unknown. Though I donated items that did not fit my current muse to my local thrift store, I held onto some supplies in good condition that I hoped to connect with a more targeted audience. My space is small-ish, so I need to I need to regularly make decisions about what to keep or purge.4
I was ready to set free my “not for me” supplies and welcome materials that will help me bring an idea to life. At the same time, the 2024 election crept closer and the deluge of election advertising in Montana continued (confirmed by the recycling I emptied yesterday). I wanted to do something for my community that we could look forward to together. So, I came back to the swap idea.
Call for community
I made an assumption about the need for a craft supply swap in my community: there are enough unused supplies and people willing to participate to make it a meaningful event. But underneath that assumption is a theme: there is enough. There is enough time and energy to make the event happen, that people would share their stashes, and that creativity is boundless. Abundance has been present from beginning.
The same week I finally looked at the links my mom sent me last fall, a friend shared that the Bozeman Community Library was holding a swap on Sunday. I made the drive to Bozeman and brought a small paint set I have never used. I met the organizer and she sent me an email the next day with a great deal of information on how she organized it. (Thanks, Liz!)
Rather than hope or wish for an organization in my own community to be as enthusiastic about this event as me, I decided to organize it myself. I had the time, energy, and the little money it would take to make a craft supply swap happen, so I did. Organizing an event like this draws on my strengths and skills, and I enjoy it. It felt great to have the mix of planning and development with the tangible pieces like making posters and distributing them.
Just do it
I started casually by asking to use my local library’s meeting room as a venue. When I did not get a response, I reached out to other event spaces in town. While I waited to hear from potential venues, I kept planning. The event came together in two days. In the weeks leading up to the swap, I made and distributed posters, placed ads, and prepared signs for the event. The week and day of the event had the most hands-on support from me, which happened to coincide with getting a concussion for the first time. 🤕
My community is rural and large (3.5 hours between far-reaches of the county). I included satellite drop-off sites so folks would only need to make one trip to town to participate in the swap. These sites were used and the swappers appreciated them.
This swap was organized in the spirit of sharing freely, so I captured most of what it took to make it happen. Start here to see how I put the swap together:
Swap Planning Kit that reflects the lead-up to this first swap.
I added more info on the specific help I need to make another swap happen, since swappers enjoyed the event and offered to help with the next one: Support the Swap.
For details on the swap from a participant perspective, check out the event description and suggestions on what to bring.
Please be in touch if you would like any of the planning materials or want to chat: craftsupplyswap@gmail.com.
How it went
I received overwhelmingly positive feedback and gratitude for organizing this event. Swappers thought it was a great idea (I didn’t come up with it, just looked at many examples and took what made sense to me). There were many sweet moments, here are some of my favorites:
swappers asking for scissors so they could take only what they needed and leave a usable amount for someone else
swappers offering each other finds from their treasure piles
kids excited about trying a new material and finding diamonds (sequins) in the piles
kids making amazing color choices ⚡️
supplies from mothers and grandmothers who had passed and that folks were holding onto until they found the right place to share them
three generations attending together. This family recently moved from far away and a crafter was unable to bring their supplies in the move. They were able to recreate some of what they left behind with swap materials. 💖
last minute help from friends and new friends that I really needed because of my concussion
a couple of dogs got some cute, handmade Christmas bandanas made with leftover fabric from people who happened upon the swap
a volunteer drove 40 minutes from a neighboring county to help as well as swap - thank you so much!!
“I’m not an artist” - I heard this a lot and have said a version of it myself. Many folks seemed to have a hard time applying this label or identity to themselves. But it is not stopping us from participating and making our things!
the Gardiner satellite drop-offs got an overflowing amount of donations almost immediately 🙌
Numbers
Note: I did not feel well for most of the on-site drop-offs and the swap itself because of the concussion, so I expect the swap day numbers to be more conservative that what they might have been if I had not been dealing with that. This is the best I could do!
Drop-offs and Swap Day
Total of 41 people signed in at drop-offs (plus people in Gardiner that did not sign in):
3 at Clyde Park (two tubs!) (2 returned during open to swappers time)
? at Gardiner (three tubs!) (0 returned during open to swappers time?)
On-site drop-offs in Livingston:
9 - Wednesday (3 returned during open to swappers time)
7 - Thursday (4 returned during open to swappers time)
10 - Friday (4 returned during open to swappers time)
12 - Swap Day (6 returned during open to swappers time)
The first hour on Swap Day was open to swappers (people who dropped off supplies). During this time, I asked folks to mark their name on the sign-in sheet so I would know if they returned during the swap hours. I did not track the swappers who returned during the open to public time. 🤕
Swap Day Schedule
11am-12pm - day of drop-off
12pm-1pm - open to swappers
1pm-4pm - open to all
Feedback
I put out three jars out with votes for feedback. I definitely missed asking people to give feedback. 🤕
12 names and $72 - I would like to volunteer for the next one! 🙋 (some people put names in, some people put money in, some people did both)
37 - I would like to participate in this event again 👏
0 - This is not for me 👎
Attendance
I think the best way to look at overall swap attendance is total drop-offs + the feedback jars:
41 drop-offs +
12 volunteers +
37 votes to hold it again =
90ish people participated??
But who knows.
I wanted to keep track of the hours people used the swap, so here is a very rough look at attendance. These are probably the most inaccurate (lowest) numbers I have 🤕🤕🤕:
12-1pm - 19 swappers (this is more accurate than the rest)
1-2pm - 15 including 6 kids
2-3pm - 9 including 1 kid
3-4pm - 6 people including 2 people back for a second round
Outcomes
I did not define outcomes for this event. My personal why for doing this was:
to demonstrate abundance: ✅
share my own excess materials with a more targeted audience: ✅
get access to materials to make things and save money: 😭😹5
make art supplies accessible to the community: ✅
support less waste in art making and crafting: ✅
I do not think it is worth looking at rates of participation with this inaccurate data, but I would like to next time. I would expect people to have higher rates of full participation (drop-off AND take things home) at future swaps, but not sure this baseline data is useful for that. I think the swap makes supplies more accessible to people who might not have supplies to share at the start.
Planning observations
Overall, the swap went really well. Finding a venue was the most difficult aspect of the swap: I needed a decent amount of space, time, and at no or minimal cost. And possibly event insurance.
Venue
The swap would have been much more difficult to attempt if the Livingston Center for Art and Culture had not picked up the phone and offered their basement workshop space. The venue is a community art gallery that also hosts workshops. I think it added some credibility to the event. They had event insurance, tables, built-in advertising, and a complementary mission. I adjusted the hours of the swap to match their gallery hours. Their director, staff, and active board participated in the event.
I was very fortunate to have a venue that was flexible enough to allow me to set up the supplies during on-site drop-offs and then leave everything until the next day they were open to pack up. I did not anticipate needing this extra time based on the Bozeman swap insights. Because of the volume, desire for this event, and the rural nature of our community with the swap located “in town,” the additional space and time was very helpful. To the point that I think there would be significantly more planning and effort needed to make it work without this option.
Ground floor or an ADA accessible space is ideal to make it open to all. I am very grateful to have used the basement workshop space at this venue; I do not know if I could have pulled off the swap myself without the center saying “yes” to this use of the space. And now I have help for future swaps!
Initially, the venue thought they would be able to distribute all of the leftover materials from the swap through their programming and network. However, once materials began to arrive, they realized the volume and types of materials would not fit their distribution. This led to the venue turning some folks away or rejecting supplies before they reached me in the swap space, and I was unable to resolve that at the time. 🤕 Hopefully the folks who had this experience will try swapping again. I wish I could speak to them directly and apologize for the experience, but I do not know who they are. I asked the venue if there was anything they would not accept when I made initial contact and made plans for the material they would not accept — but I think using the swapper’s suggested materials list from the website and asking partners to “opt-in” to specific materials might be more successful (and was not available for the venue when I initially approached them).
Anecdotally, I heard folks renewed their memberships for the venue, browsed the holiday exhibition in the gallery, and bought art during the swap. I also had a donation jar for thanking the gracious and accommodating venue that I shared with people who wanted to support the venue.
Timing
Swap day followed after our community holiday art walk. I think this was good timing for the event but it was a busy week for the venue.
I intentionally planned the swap during the “off-season” in my community: November, possibly January/February, and April. This gives people access to materials during the quiet, dark season.
The Bozeman library swap planner noted swappers often dropped supplies off late on Swap Day drop-off hours, then hang around for a little to return at the open of the open to swappers time. I saw some of this.
For my community, I think week of drop-offs, satellite sites, and a Saturday event worked well. 10/10 will do this again.
There is enough
There is enough support and interest in holding another swap that we — and not just I — will do it again! The theme of abundance has continued; though I did not anticipate needing to store the volume of leftovers that remained, a volunteer from the swap offered to store them in their garage. So that’s where they are until the next swap… in April! And then again in November.
I am working with a bigger event space that is more accessible and also hosts art-related events. We will try to set up an area for people to connect and take a break from swapping, then head back for another round.
I was able to make the first swap happen because of my availability, the venue, and many moments of support during the swap itself. The next swaps will happen because of the support that has come out of the first swap. Thanks, everyone!
Stay in touch with the swap
Sign up for the extremely gentle email newsletter on the Craft Supply Swap website.
Craft supply swaps seem to be commonly held at libraries. Do a quick search on Facebook events and find one near you. A standout example, not at a library: the Five in One Social Club Craft Supply Swap in Memphis, Tennessee.
Thank you, Sheri Jarvis. You are an exceptional teacher, facilitator, and friend. If you are looking for someone to teach a class, she will come to you and she is working on a wonderful new space in scenic Virginia City, Montana.
Do you know there are different gauges of glitter? Of course there are. And do you know most glitter in the US is made in New Jersey (gift link)? You’re welcome. ✨
Art can be expensive and even wasteful, in my experience. (Thank you to the wild-hearted, nine-year-old artist who awakened my mind to the single-use nature of using masking tape on watercolor paper.) This year, I dedicated a “six-month drawer” that would help me limit my stash by time and space. It is working, but I long to get these treasures in the hands of someone else who sees their potential beyond the landfill.
We have a wonderful local thrift store in my community, Community Closet, with a small section for arts and crafts materials. I eventually learned about the great supplies and prices at my local university bookstore, which operates as a non-profit. We also have Wheelhouse in nearby Bozeman, a community art studio that offers day passes and access to all of their supplies — a great option for experimentation without the investment.
My online purchases were hit or miss, which diminished the deals and felt wasteful. Jerry’s, Cheap Joe’s, Micheal’s. Dick Blick. Where are the gals? JoAnne? Please share your recommendations! Here is another plug for Beam Paints, an indigenous, woman-owned business that makes my favorite watercolors.
lol - Because of how I was feeling on Swap Day with the very recent concussion, the only supplies I got from the swap were markers and little notecards to support the organization of the swap itself. 🤪 Now that I’m feeling better and have some specific needs, I wish I could go through the materials. Alas, they are being stored until the next swap!