From pottery, pyrography and macramé, to carving, crocheting and even a Chris Hemsworth lampshade, Making It Australia is currently hitting Aussie screens on 10 and 10 Play.
The program showcases the connoisseurs of craft – exceptional people who possess the knack for creating something totally resourceful and mind-blowing out of a few pieces of string and a bandsaw.
After every episode, Chattr will be speaking to the Maker who was eliminated the night before. Today we spoke to Party Planning Mum, Stephanie.
What made you apply for Making It?
“The commercial was really talking to me – everything that they said on the commercials, they were talking about me. I was in shock, and I turned around and I said to my husband, ‘Oh my gosh!’ and he said, ‘you’re going to apply right?’. I said, ‘Yeah, they’re talking about me!’. The next morning I explained it to my daughter and she pushed me, said ‘mum you have to apply. You have to do this, you’ve got it, you can do this’ and my daughter made a video of me. She uploaded everything because I don’t know how to use technology, and it went from there!”
Tell us about your time on Making It?
“It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever gone through. It was just high all the time. I went on it not thinking about what it would be like, I had no expectations. I didn’t think I’d make friends, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it so much being away from my family. But it was such an amazing experience. Not only did I make some new friends, I was crafting all day, there was nothing else to do but craft. How can you not like that? It was just so much fun learning new tools and trying new things. And we were always around happy people, because happy people do crafts. It was just amazing.”
On the show you spoke about taking the time to do something for yourself, how important is that?
“Being a mom, you’re busy and constantly tending to your kids – my kids were doing six days a week of karate after school. So getting dinner on the table, cleaning the house, having homework. I’ve got elderly parents, I had my grandfather in the nursing home that was visiting everyday as well. On top of everything, how do you have time to play and create? There is no time. The only time I had to create and do things is when they needed a costume or they needed something.
“Now it’s like, ‘oh my gosh, this is my time’. I can fit myself in and do things for myself and enjoy things, and you’ve got to sometimes put yourself up there and do things for yourself. You feel guilty doing stuff that you enjoy sometimes when you’ve got so much on, but things feel alive when you actually take time out. And you should never feel guilty.”
What would you say to people who don’t believe they’re crafty enough to try this sort of thing?
“That it’s so not true! Oh my goodness, I have friends that are really close. And they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so talented and I can’t believe you can do that’, and I say ‘hey, you could do that as well’. I think they don’t have the confidence to start something.
“It doesn’t take much to start crafting, you need to start with an idea and then run with it. Then when you see the outcome, that will give you encouragement to take on another project and another one. That’s how you learn, that’s how you grow, that’s how you enjoy it. Most of all, you need to enjoy it.”
What’s next for you?
“I hope it’s not over for me, I’m on such a high still. I love food, food is my top priority before crafting, so I would love to do something with food maybe. Maybe something like MasterChef – I could work on the show or be a contestant or would do something like that. I would love to do something like that.”
