Do you love crafts? Are you into painting, drawing, modelling, making jewellery, papercrafts or one of umpteen other possible craft hobbies? Then you will know how important it is to find a retailer you can rely on to stock all the dozens of items you may need in the course of your crafty projects. If you live in West Yorkshire and shop in Leeds on a regular basis, then a craft shop that is worth checking out is Craftwise.
Craftwise is located on Merrion Way in Leeds 2, quite close to the Merrion Centre and on the way up to the university. It’s a relatively small shop considering how much stock is packed in there, and often quite busy. You might have to squeeze in a bit when you’re going to stock up on your craft supplies! But then square footage is expensive when you’re renting premises in a desirable commercial location. Every foot counts! In appearance it’s a little shabby but in a way that’s a recommendation: that’s what happens to a busy little shop with a lot of footfall. Only empty shops show no wear and tear!
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I would not say that Craftwise is exactly cheap when it comes to a lot of items, e.g there are cheaper places to buy polymer clay and jewelry beads (especially online). But on the other hand their range of stock is actually pretty amazing when you consider the small space they cram it into. And there’s a wonderful convenience about being able to stop off in one shop and be pretty sure that they’ll have every damn crafty thing on your shopping list. I mean, if I want a particular shade of Fimo or Sculpey polymer clay, then quite often I will want it right now. I don’t want to have to source the cheapest possible place for it online, pay for it and then wait a week for it to arrive! (Check out the photo above for an example of the amazing things that can be done with polymer clay.) At Craftwise the range of polymer clays, as well as many other items, is pretty damn extensive: I can be fairly sure that they’ll have what I want, I can plonk my money down at the till and I have my Fimo shade of choice right there and then in my shopping bag. You just can’t beat that kind of convenience, and I think we’re a long way off the death of bricks and mortar retailing yet.
The staff seem to have a rapid turnover (or maybe that’s just my perception). But they’ve always been very nice and helpful including with any product questions I’ve had. I’m getting into making greetings cards lately, and it’s nice to know that Craftwise have a great paper and card selection (with an awesome colour range). Lately I’ve been putting jewelry making on hold as I’m finding getting craft insurance that covers overseas sales an issue. But back when I was more into it, I loved Craftwise’s selection of beads and jewellery findings. Again, they’re probably not the cheapest place to source this particular product range: but they have some unusual and great beads. Also different bead brands and types of findings (e.g. rolled gold, nickel, sterling silver) are at different price points (as you might expect). So if money is tight then you can still find some affordable bits and pieces to feed your jewellery making habit.
Craftwise isn’t just about the beads and art materials: their product range is very wide, including tools, glues, paints, model-making kits etc. etc. In fact more items than I could mention! If there’ a craft supply or tool that you’re looking for, then you can probably find it here. (As long as you can actually FIND IT – the place is a tiny bit cluttered! Just ask the staff for advice if not - they’ll help you out. Go check it out!)
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