Fear is Never Boring

Come find out what kind of crafty stuff we have laying around the shop. Downstairs we have so much fun stuff: paper, fabric, sequins, feathers, belt buckles, pins, bendy, sparkly, fuzzy things. We thought we ought to have a workshop. We will be there to help you complete a project of your choosing. We’ll be there with some suggestions, or maybe even a challenge. Make a costume or a mosaic or a cool thing with whatever we have, at the moment, downstairs. It’ll be fun. There’s room for a lot of people, but you must pre-register. Leave with skills: Girls love guys with skills — and vice versa.
Sign up by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com.

Basic welding — always full, often overbooked. Always fun, messy, and dirty. Sometimes scary, hurty, and cold — or hot — depending on the season. I suspect this class will be a perfect spring class, the kind where you go directly outside to drink beer and brag about your new skills, wearing your face dirt proudly because the night is so nice you can’t go back inside. This is our most popular class and is always full, with a waiting list, so sign up ASAP by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com. After you pre-register, you must pre-pay.

Balloon Animals!!! If you want to learn the basics of sculpting with inflatable latex, or want to develop basic twisting and pinching skills, this is the class for you! If you want to impress those 3-to-10 year olds who’ve been dissin’ you lately, or you who want to appear disarmingly charming to the sexy single-parent who lives next door, you want to earn extra cash at birthday parties, or want to add to your nascent clowning resume, you should definitely drop by. Leave with your own hand pump (yes, hand pump). Hand pumps and balloons will be provided. This is sure to become Madagascar Institute’s most sought after new class, so sign up ASAP by emailing classesd@madagascarinstitute.com

Same class different month. Any one of our frighteningly talented and attractive artstars can teach this class. Come take a chance and see who it will be this time. Learn the basics: safety, how to weld, the difference is between the various welders, why you won’t electrocute yourself, welding fashion, and depending on the teacher, the welder’s mask flip. That would even impress the Flashdance chick. This is our most popular class and is always full, with a waiting list, so sign up ASAP by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com. After you pre-register, you must pre-pay.

Hackett has been slaving over this thing — making his own bolts, turning rebar into jewelry, and more. Learn how to use this miraculous tool yourself; why should Hackett have all the fun? The lathe is set up for metal work but can we switch it out for wood to. Learn how to set it up and what you can do with it. If you come to the free What’s That Do? workshop, you’ll get a preview, but you can’t use this beauty without a class. This class will fill up *very fast,* so sign up ASAP by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com. After you pre-register, you must pre-pay.

Hey what’s that tool? And what’s that do? How’s that work? This is a free workshop in *what we have.* This is not so much a "how-to" but a "what’s that thing do?" Hackett will take you around the shop and show you the lathe, the cold saw, the chop saw, the bench grinder, the mill, and tell you the difference between the TIG, the MIG, and the ARC welders. Again, this is more a show-an-tell rather than a hands-on class. There won’t be time to try everything, but Hackett will show you what we have and how it works. It’s up to you to make something out of this stuff in the future. This class is free but you must pre-register by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com

You asked for it, here it is: sewing. We have tons of fabric and several machines. And after our big-ass fabric ceiling project for the Scope festival, we’re pretty much all proficient at sewing (except me), but none as professional as SarahMac. If you are wanting to learn new sewing techniques then visit wunderlabel.co.uk/hang-tags/standard. She’s a crackerjack, that Sarahmac. Learn how the machine works, some things to making sewing easier, basic troubleshooting, etc. You will leave with a very basic knowledge — enough to finish a simple project yourself. Sign up by emailing classes@madagascarinstitute.com. After you pre-register, you must pre-pay.