tf?!: craftwork rebirth..a second chance series by amber dawn pt.2

In the kitchen, while a man bakes bread, two people sit at the central table fine tuning a flyer for an upcoming event.

On the second floor in a room full of yarn and looms, someone looks up from their

crocheting to say hello as you pass through. Past a tarped area that’s used for splatter painting, a woman is transplanting tomato sprouts into buckets for the container garden on the deck. Down the hall in the jaw dropping sewing lab, someone demonstrates how to piece together an intricate quilt.

There’s one more flight of stairs to the third floor. To the right, through a room full of

supplies and hand tools, there’s a huge crafting room where a woman paints and tapes a

collage of found materials on the wall. Backtracking out and deeper into the seemingly endless building, you come to a main room where a band is setting up to practice as the lights outside in Gazebo Park come on for the evening, illuminating a view from above the trees. All the while, two men in the cozy library off the main room discuss the finer points of wild mushroom identification on a livestream.

This is Craftwork Studios. It’s a nonprofit that’s very much in its Second Chance era.

Since new director Daniel Foshee took over in January 2025, CWS has become a place of

people saying, “Yes, that’s a good idea. Let’s make it happen.”

The vibe here is completely different than it was in the last iteration of CWS. There’s a

sense of building: Community, small business, and pride in what we can do as individuals and together. Though classes in Italian cooking, group painting, quilting, foraging and gardening are mostly taught by individual members, CWS feels very much like a group effort.

On the first Friday of every month, CWS members hold an open house. They stack the

building with as many people showing off what they do as possible. They’re a small core group of makers and small business owners trying to get more people involved.

CWS also tries to pack the house during major Johnstown events that happen right outside in the park, like Johnstown Pride on 6/21/25. They’re going to keep throwing indoor

events through the central park construction, don’t worry. The next big thing they’re hosting is a poetry slam on 7/2/25, followed the next month by a garden harvest themed party and open house the second weekend in August.

I might be a little biased. Craftwork Studios has become my homebase, my way-too-reasonably-priced brick and mortar downtown. I’m honestly proud to be a part of this place’s rebirth. Working alongside Mr. foshee has given me the chance to use the education I’m still paying off, and the ability to grow veggies...and community...in this strange little city.