The Crafter's Box is a monthly maker subscription box:
As a member of The Crafter's Box, we'll send a lovingly kitted box of tools and materials to your doorstep on a monthly basis. Each month we feature a new expert maker and that maker has built for us a unique, grown-up, on-trend project that reflects their artistic style. In addition to the monthly box, our featured maker has created an educational, digital workshop to teach their crafting medium and to offer their tips and tricks.
The best part of this model is the ability to revisit workshops in the future to create again and again. Happy making!
This review is of the Crafter’s Box subscription at $65.00 for a month-to-month subscription with free shipping.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About The Crafter's Box
The Subscription Box: The Crafter's Box
The Cost: $65.00 per month + free U.S. shipping (save with longer subscriptions)
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first box!
CODE: GETCREATIVE
The Products: A shipped kit of curated tools and materials + a new digital workshop by the featured maker of the month
Ships to: The U.S. for free and internationally for varying rates
Good to Know: The featured project for the month is announced on the 1st and subscribers have until the 8th to pause, skip, or swap that month. Projects are designed to be for ages 18+.
The Crafter's Box 'Eastern Geometric Drawing & Painting' Review
The Crafter's Box is an artisan craft subscription box that features a different, unique craft each month that is designed with the crafty adult in mind. The boxes are thoughtfully curated with high-end materials so that your finished products are modern and luxe. There's also an accompanying video workshop led by the featured artist that introduces you to the craft and provides you with detailed instructions to complete the project.
Let's take a look inside March's box -- the craft this month is Eastern Geometric Drawing & Painting!
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We received two info cards this month detailing information on what's included in the box, as well as a short bio on the featured maker this month, Zahra Ammar. Known for her paper quilling art, Zahra started exploring Islamic Geometric Art as a diversion from her main practice. For this workshop, Zahra shares what she's learned about creating highly complex geometric designs.
Now, onto the items!
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Compass with Mechanical Pencil and Graphite
This brings me back to high school days in geometry class. I haven't used a compass in so long but I'm excited to create some art with this tool. There's no brand marking, but as usual for Crafter's Box, the compass felt very high-quality and sturdy. It also comes in a nifty little case.
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Kemper Tools Fluid Writer Pen - Retail Value $14.85
I've never seen or heard of this tool before but it's for outlining and drawing smooth lines. You fill the ink well with diluted paint and then you use the pen just like a paintbrush.
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Watercolor Paint Palette
We received this 10-well watercolor paint palette loaded with three pre-dried watercolors in Intense Green, Phthalo Blue, and Prussian Blue. I liked that the paint was already prepped, so you can open up the box and start painting right away. These paints were heavily pigmented and easily activated with a few drops of water.
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Mica watercolor in Olympic Gold - Retail Value $7.60
Working with mica is new for me too. It's so neat that the color is so opaque and it looks just as shimmery gold on the paper and it does in the pan.
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Watercolor Paper
We received two pieces of 9x12” 140lb cold-pressed watercolor paper, as well as two sheets of draft paper for constructing our designs and tracing paper for transferring our designs.
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Royal Aqualon Round Brush, Size 6 - Estimated Value $5.79
Royal Aqualon Round Brush, Size 1- Retail Value $4.49
These round brushes in two sizes held watercolor really well and were very easy to use. They're also pretty with their clear handles and tapered ends.
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Uni-Ball Broad Point Gel Impact Pen in Gold - Retail Value $3.25
Pentel GraphGear 500 Mechanical Drafting Pencil, Size .3mm - Retail Value $7.09
Dixon Ticonderoga HB #2 Pencil - Estimated Value $0.20
The rest of our supplies included a gold pen for outlining, a drafting pencil for constructing the straight lines in our designs, and a soft HB #2 pencil for tracing. We also received a 12-in. metal ruler and masking tape strips.
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In addition to the tools and materials in this kit, our workshop also includes a digital workshop valued at $25.00 (this is the video access only price), as well as a step-by-step booklet and a live Q&A with the featured maker.
Now, let's get to drawing!
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Tbh, I was a bit nervous about this workshop. It looked really complicated and math is not my strong suit but it was surprisingly enjoyable. The instruction booklet, in addition to the video tutorial this month, really helped to guide you through the process but if I focused too much on all the points, it would have gotten too confusing. I think with a lot of these crafts, you just have to go with the flow and not overthink it. It was so cool to see the pattern emerge from all the arcs and lines we made. I followed the instructions to set my compass to 2 inches but you can start with a smaller circle if you want a more intricate design. This eight-fold pattern is called "The Breath of the Compassionate".
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After tracing our pattern onto the tracing paper, you place the graphite side down onto the watercolor paper and rub with a spoon to transfer the pattern. This workshop was more open-ended than other Crafter's Box tutorials and Zahra left it up to you to tesselate your pattern however you want. It was easy to move the tracing paper around to create the tessellation pattern. Once I laid down the pattern I wanted, I used the gold pen and ruler to go over the pencil lines.
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Next, we got to color in our pattern with the watercolors. Zahra chose these jewel-like blues and emerald green that really complemented the gold mica paint and the eastern geometric pattern. While I swatched the colors on the draft paper, they showed up a lot more intensely on the watercolor paper. If I could do it over, I would probably have used more water to create a more transparent wash of color, especially for the two blues. They look really similar with a heavy hand but I think you'd be able to see that they're different if they weren't so opaque. 
Here is my finished piece using "The Breath of the Compassionate" eight-fold pattern. This workshop also includes instructions for another pattern: the geometric rosette, which looks more complicated but I'm more confident that I could do it now after finishing this first one. I'm fairly happy with the end result but I more enjoyed the process of making this craft. All the steps from drafting to tracing to painting were so different from each other but all fun and rewarding to do. You barely use any of the paint provided, so you definitely have enough of all the colors leftover to make countless more. You just need to buy more watercolor paper.
Verdict: This month's workshop looked daunting to me at first but it ended up being one of my favorite. The Crafter's Box is great for introducing you to a brand new craft in an accessible way, that you can now revisit over and over again. Zahra was a passionate teacher who really walked us through the process of creating a beautiful Eastern Geometric pattern. It was fun to construct a pattern using a compass and ruler and then create a tesselation pattern with tracing paper. And if that weren't enough, we even got to paint with gorgeous watercolors.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, but you can purchase past workshops as a single box for $75.00 in the Crafter's Box marketplace. You can see which workshop you'll receive before you sign up.
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first box!
CODE: GETCREATIVE
Value Breakdown: I think most of the value of The Crafter's Box comes from the experience of learning a new craft but even in terms of the materials, I calculated a value of $68.27 for the items that I could find a price for and the video tutorial. That doesn't include the compass, watercolor palette with pre-dried paints, watercolor, draft and tracing papers, ruler, and masking tape strips. So, overall, I would say that you're getting a really good value with this box.
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