RED ROBINS COME HOME TO THE NEST

Since our early days as a grassroots organisation, The Nest Craft Stall has been integral to our fundraising activities. Using our reclaimed resources, volunteers made items to sell at pop-up stalls in local shopping centres Today our organising committee, the Red Robins, continue the tradition.

For the first time, from 3-6 July this year, we welcomed the craft stall home and hosted it in our own space, in the Gladys Mary Studio.

The response from customers and volunteers was overwhelmingly positive The range of items showcased the fantastic skills of women in our community, and provided a living demonstration of how craft skills are being kept alive Having these handcrafted items displayed with our Heritage Collection as a backdrop and raw materials next door, brought a lovely sense of connection, continuity and how things come full circle

People who'd previously attended our stalls in shopping centres stressed how much nicer it was to see the items in this more compatible, homely context

The stall attracted new customers to The Nest and they made the most of the experience by browsing in the Haberdashery or visiting the café or brewery next door

In shopping centres, the public only had the opportunity to connect with the two volunteers rostered to run the stall. With The Nest Haberdashery next door, craft stall visitors could also wander in and connect with our Haberdashery volunteers to see where the resources for the craft stall came from.

There was so much talking amongst customers, the whole place was really buzzing for 3 days.

Being hosted at home also meant that the Red Robins were more supported and included with many of our regular Haberdashery volunteers dropping by and appreciating their work.

Overall, the stall brought the whole community a lot of connection, pride and encouragement and better still it raised funds for the Exchange Project, our free mentoring program.