80 Recreational courses in Heywood

See how plastic bottle tops are remelted into beautiful objects!

From holding the hook to your first granny square, learn all the essentials with crochet expert Debbie Tomkies. With small classes the pace is relaxed and there's plenty of time for individual support. We have lots of fun, too!

Learn Life Drawing for Beginners Workshop Saturday 29th June- 10:45-14:30 - Friends Meeting House, Manchester Welcome to our upcoming life drawing workshop for beginners. This is an opportunity for beginner artists to come together and learn new techniques and skills in capturing the human form from a live model. Because we believe that life drawing is an essential skill for all artists, whether you're interested in figurative work, portraiture, or any other type of art that involves the human body. During this workshop you will have the chance to practice drawing the human body in a variety of poses and perspective using different techniques. Our experienced instructors will guide you through the process, providing helpful tips on anatomy, proportion and composition and individual feedback to help you overcome any challenges you may face, so you can learn to draw the human figure more confidently and competently. We will be working with a professional life model who will hold a series of poses throughout the workshop. These poses will range from short gesture poses to longer, more sustained poses, giving you plenty of opportunities to practice capturing the human form in different positions and angles. All you need to bring is your creativity and enthusiasm to improve your drawing skills, and we will provide all the drawing materials required for this course. Please note that this is a nude drawing workshop, and attendees are to be 18 years or older. We ask that attendees under 18 years of age be accompanied by a responsible adult. This is to ensure that all participants feel comfortable and safe during the workshop. In addition, refreshments including tea, coffee and food can be purchased at the bar, however you are also welcome to bring your own lunch if you wish. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us. We look forward to seeing you at the workshop and can't wait to see the amazing drawings you'll create.

Make the most beautiful wedding stationery or personalise gifts with this decorative and elegant modern calligraphy style. 

Learn all the knitting essentials! Holding the needles, choosing yarns, understanding knitting terminology, casting on (& off!), knit purl & more on this 3-week course with Knit Now's expert knitter & author Debbie Tomkies. Make 3 fun projects to take home along with professional handouts & patterns.

Learn how to upcycle furniture with Hannah from Tread Softly Furniture.

During this fully tutored life drawing course, you will discover how returning to the essential principles of drawing can help even the more experienced artist to express their ideas and observations more eloquently. Guided by our tutor, you will be encouraged to explore line, movement, and proportion, using simple techniques and exercises that are designed to enhance your the skills, knowledge, and confidence in creating responsive figure drawings. Suitable for even more experienced artists who would like to develop their skills and explore drawing further. This improvers course in life drawing is for those of an intermediate level, and will unite the skills of observation, expression and understanding in one coherent approach. Beginning with the key principles of observation, this course will give you a strong understanding of proportion and tonal value so that you can make well-observed, proportionally accurate drawings. This fully guided course will teach you to observe and understand the influence of anatomical masses such as the skeletal-muscular systems by drawing your attention to key themes and ideas such as: Exploring the Proportions of the Human Body Understanding Movement and Weight DistributionSeeing shape Seeing Variations in Tone Knowledge required: Improvers/beginners level: This course is suitable for beginners or those with experience in drawing who would like to develop their skills and explore life drawing further What we will provide: Table easels Paper & Drawing board A range of drawing pencils, charcoal sharpener and eraser Instructional Handbook By the end of this course, you will be able to confidently produce personal, focused and responsive figure drawings.

Watercolour for Beginners – Saturday 8th June – 10:30-13:30- Friends Meeting House Manchester During this course, you will discover how a deeper understanding of painting techniques can equip you with the practical methods and skills to help you with any future paintings you want to attempt. Suitable for people of all levels of experience; from those who are new to watercolour painting, to more experienced artist, this foundational course in watercolour painting, unites primary techniques so that you can expand your creativity in one coherent approach. This fully guided course covers topics such as: · Seeing shape: Translating three-dimensional objects into simple shapes before painting. · Mark Making: Exploring different types of marks and developing good brush control. · Understanding Basic Techniques: Learning fundamental techniques such as creating washes, wet-on-wet, wet -on-dry, glazing, lifting, and blending. · Colour Mixing: Learning how to mix colours to create a wide range of hues and values. · Composition: Exploring the principals of composition and design to create visually interesting drawings. · Subject Matter Exploration: Experimenting with different subjects such as still life and flowers. General Info: ⏳ Duration: 3 Hours 📍 Location : Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester , M2 5NS 👤 Age required: 16+ with a valid ID ♿ Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible What We Will Provide: · Watercolour Paper & Drawing board · Drawing pencils, eraser, and sharpener · A range of watercolour paints . Tuition from our resident watercolour artist .Instructional handbook

‘Both of these wines are [Grape X] from [Country Y] – so why is this one twice the price?’ It’s a question that we’re often asked, so for summer 2024, we’re putting on a trio of tastings to show what happens when you fork out some extra money. Each week, we’ll try four pairs of popular styles of wine, one bottle of we’ve bought for under £10, while the other has cost at least twice as much. And we’ll be trying each pair ‘blind’ – you’ll know what the wines are, but not which is in Glass 1 and which in Glass 2… We’ll have a chat about what it is in each case that makes one of the wines more expensive, then we’ll see which you prefer before revealing which is which. Do you have expensive tastes, or are you more at home with the cheap and cheerful? It’s a great opportunity to find out – and to taste some lovely wines!  The line-up for each week will be: Week 1 WHITES: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Italian Pinot Grigio REDS: Australian Shiraz, Red Bordeaux Week 2 WHITES: Loire Sauvignon Blanc, South African Chenin Blanc REDS: Rioja, New Zealand Pinot Noir Week 3 WHITES: White Burgundy, German Dry Riesling REDS: Red Rhône, Argentine Malbec Each week’s tasting will include 8 wines, and there’ll be some tasty cheese as accompaniment. The cost for each tasting is £37.50, but if you book for all three sessions, the price will be just £100, saving £12.50.

World Malbec Day is April 17th, although for some reason it’s actually called Malbec World Day. Meanwhile, May 6th is International Sauvignon Blanc Day. So how about a very special event between the two to celebrate these very special grapes? It’s a great opportunity to see how the “Old World” originals such as Sancerre and Cahors stack up against their “New World” counterparts such as New Zealand Sauvignon and Argentine Malbec. But it’s also a chance to see the success that winemakers are having with the two grapes in other parts of the world. Expect to see a range of styles too – in previous years, we’ve kicked off the day with a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc, and finished with a fortified Malbec, for example. And we’ll have a dig through our cellars to see if we can find some rare older examples of both grapes We’ll taste 12 wines on the day (yes 6 of each!) with a break in the middle for a tasty two-course lunch. This is usually one of our most popular tastings, so do book soon to avoid disappointment