Whether you’re picking up a new hobby or simply looking for a different way to spend your weekend, these workshops let you leave with both a new skill and something you made yourself.
Sometimes you just want to make something with your hands instead of answering another email, and Manila has more places for that than people give it credit for. These five hands-on workshops cover pretty different ground, from hammering your own silver jewelry to building a pair of sandals from raw leather. Book a session at any of these five and you’ll walk out with something you made yourself, plus a decent reason to skip your usual weekend routine.
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Studio 925
Classes at Studio 925 turn metalsmithing into something approachable rather than intimidating. Janina Arias and Patricia Peralta opened the Bel-Air, Makati studio in 2015. Here, classes take total beginners through silversmithing and goldsmithing at their own pace. Couples can also flock to their DIY wedding rings workshop.
The Art of Yarn
Judith Basco started teaching herself weaving and running online sessions for strangers during the pandemic, and that scrappy origin still shows in how unpretentious the Kapitolyo studio feels today. Here, you can learn weaving at every skill level, along with knitting and crocheting classes.
Workshops By Tal
Workshops by Tal sends you home with actual shoes, made by you. Based in Marikina, the country’s historic shoemaking district, the studio teaches students to cut, shape, and assemble leather sandals, slides, and platforms from scratch. Some students come back enough times that Tal now runs a shoepreneurship track for anyone who wants to turn the hobby into a small business rather than a one-off souvenir.
Amat-Amat
Amat Amat skips the yarn-and-needles route most Manila knitting spots take and hands you a machine instead. Students walk out having made their own garments, learning a technique that almost nobody else in the city currently teaches. It’s a niche pick, but that’s exactly the appeal for anyone who’s already tried hand-knitting and wants a new challenge.
Mold
This Makati “makerspace” treats design like a discipline anyone can access. Mold rotates workshops, and its programming shifts from cardboard-building sessions for kids to maker series that push paper and cardboard into sculptural territory. It functions like a design community you can drop into whenever the next session catches your eye.
Frequently Asked Questions
Manila offers workshops in jewelry making, weaving, knitting, crocheting, leather shoemaking, machine knitting, and design fabrication. Studios like Studio 925, The Art of Yarn, Workshops by Tal, Amat Amat, and Mold each focus on different creative skills.
Yes. Studio 925, The Art of Yarn, and Workshops by Tal all welcome beginners, while Amat Amat and Mold also offer sessions designed for people who want to try a new craft for the first time.
Depending on the studio, you can create silver jewelry, woven textiles, knitted garments, leather sandals, or fabrication projects. Each workshop lets participants take home something they made themselves.
Studio 925 teaches silversmithing and goldsmithing, The Art of Yarn focuses on weaving, knitting, and crocheting, while Workshops by Tal introduces traditional leather shoemaking techniques in Marikina.
Yes. Workshops by Tal teaches participants how to make leather footwear, while Amat Amat focuses on machine knitting to create garments. Studio 925 also offers jewelry-making classes.
