VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Pink Rock Co-Op hosts weaving workshop with a sweet twist
Boone Kilpatrick: Welcome to the Pink Rock Co-Op, one of Syracuse’s many collaborative art spaces, and tonight they’re hosting another unique event: Weaving and Waffles.
Tatianna Monet: You’re gonna take one side and pull it through in one direction…
Kilpatrick: That’s Tatianna Monet, the organizer of the workshop, and these are her students all of them complete beginners.
Monet: It’s really good to see so many people here and having fun and meeting new people and chatting.
Kilpatrick: Participants munched waffles as they worked. Monet, who is a twine artist by trade, exclusively teaches beginners, because they have more fun and make more friends, and for Monet that’s what it’s really about.
Monet: It’s so important to get off our phones, it’s so important to do something with your hands.
Kilpatrick: Building connection through art, it’s exactly what the Pink Rock was founded for 19 months ago by Amanda Rodgers, she told me what she hoped for participants to get out of the workshop.
Amanda Rodgers: Exploring what they can do, what their own creativity is, having conversation with new people, and I think it’s a wonderful event she’s planned for the night.
Monet: That looks great!
Kilpatrick: For Monet, it’s not about weaving, or waffles, it’s about doing something she loves, and eating good food with a group of new friends.
Monet: Again not on their phones, like, IRL, being real. It’s refreshing, it’s really nice. I’m glad I was able to make this happen.
Kilpatrick: In downtown Syracuse, Boone Kilpatrick, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — On Wednesday, the Pink Rock Culture Cooperative hosted a weaving workshop. But it wasn’t your average weaving lesson. “Weaving and Waffles” brought together 18 complete beginners to the Pink Rock to learn, chat and of course, eat waffles.
The event was the brainchild of macrame artist Tatianna Monet. Her workshops are almost always tailored to beginners.
“Weaving is super easy, it really is just in-out in-out,” Monet said. “Honestly I think if you can count you can learn to weave.”
Monet likes teaching beginners because they tend to have more fun and make more friends. The event isn’t really about weaving or waffles, it’s about community. It’s what Pink Rock was founded for 19 months ago.
Amanda Rodgers founded the Pink Rock as a space for people to build community through art, which is what she said she hoped attendees would get from the night.
“Exploring what they can do, what their own creativity is, having conversation with new people, and I think it’s a wonderful event she’s planned for the night,” Rodgers said.
According to a 2024 Harvard University study, nearly a quarter of American adults feel lonely or isolated. Most respondents reported feeling isolated from their community and family.
In a time when technology is increasingly encroaching on American’s day to day lives, and people live an ever more digital life, human connection and manual creation both seem to have diminished roles in human life.
“It’s so important to get off our phones, it’s so important to do something with your hands,” Monet said.
Monet puts her heart and soul into each of these events. Between her art career, a new baby and teaching she has a lot to juggle.
“I have an 8-month old at home, so I’m really just getting back into the swing of things,” Monet said, “It’s a lot, and I do mean a lot, of work putting on events like this.”
But still, seeing people make new connections through the medium she loves, makes it worth it in the end.
“It’s really refreshing. I’m honestly so happy I was able to put on this event,” Monet said.
Monet plans an event a month typically, but with summer coming up, there will be an increase in demand. With Monet getting her studio back up to full steam, she’s sure to be back to Pink Rock.