Celebrity
Tom Daley, Michaela Coel & More Celebs With Seriously Major Crafting Skills
Get inspired for your next DIY project.
Although you may once have associated knitting, crocheting, and needlework with your grandmother and her friends, news flash: they’re cool again. And one celeb who’s really showing us how it’s done is British diver Tom Daley, who runs his own craft Instagram account (@madewithlovebytomdaley) and recently hand knitted a Union Jack crochet cosy for his Olympic gold medal.
Speaking in a video posted to @madewithlovebytomdaley, the diver credited his love for crocheting as one thing that kept him sane during training for Tokyo. The caption read: “Thank you to all my fellow stitchers. Learning to knit and crochet has helped me so much through these Olympics and we won GOLD yesterday.”
Elsewhere on @madewithlovebytomdaley, his 207,000 followers can see his handmade jumpers, cute little booties, and even a pet accessory or two. And best of all? Daley is raffling off some of his creations in aid of charity. Talk about wholesome.
But Daley isn’t the only celebrity who enjoys a bit of DIY. Oh no. Loose Women presenter Stacey Solomon, for example, often shares homemade creations with her four million followers. And her best mate Mrs Hinch is pretty handy with a glue gun, too.
And the crafting craze is huge in Hollywood, too, with Pierce Brosnan having a penchant for painting and Dame Judi Dench enjoying a bit of needlework to keep herself busy on set.
If you’re in the mood to knit, paint, sew, or glue, let these celebs inspire your next crafting project.
Stacey Solomon
Loose Women presenter Stacy Solomon is a *big* crafter with a special talent for repurposing households into something new and exciting. In Solomon’s house, candle holders become bird feeders, oven racks become makeup shelves, and picture frames becomes dinner tray. In other words, the upcycling possibilities really are endless.
Mrs Hinch
Another queen of cleaning and organising, Mrs Hinch doesn’t shy away a bit of crafting either. A lot of the decor around the Hinch home is handmade, including this rustic heart decoration, which she “made from sticks and stuck to the wall using command strips”. Mrs Hinch also has a highlighted story titled Make & Mend on her Insta which details all of her DIY projects.
Pierce Brosnan
When he’s not engaging in high-speed car chases or singing “When All Is Said And Done” on a Greek island, Pierce Brosnan has another hobby: painting. He began painting at 16 and rediscovered the craft again in 1987 when his first wife Cassandra Harris was battling cancer. The gallery on his website shows his extensive collection over the past four decades. He revealed to People magazine in January 2021 that he always sets up a studio wherever he is filming. “Art saved my life,” he recounted.
Earlier in the year, the Los Angeles-based art gallery Seasons exhibited some of of Brosnan’s paintings known as Earplugs. In 2018, his portrait of Bob Dylan sold for $1.4 million at the 25th amFAR Cannes charity gala. Talk about a multi-hyphenate.
Judi Dench
When the camera stops rolling on set, the Oscar-winning Judi Dench loves to create art through needlework. Never one to take life too seriously, Dench uses her talents to create pillows embroidered with NSFW messages and gifts them to her co-stars.
“She makes these like needlework embroideries on set in the tedium of filming, but they are all: ‘You Are A C***’,” Dench’s Pride and Prejudice co-star Matthew McFadyen once told Premier magazine. “And she is doing this beautifully, intricate, ornate [work)]. You kind of see the work materialising as the shoot goes on. Like: ‘You Are a F***ing S***.’”
Most recently, she gifted her Artemis Fowl co-star Josh Gad an embroidered pillow with the phrase “Back off 2 inches” on it, poking fun at his overly affectionate manner on set.
Griff
Griff’s creativity isn’t just limited to her music – she makes her own clothes, too. Speaking to Vogue in 2019, the singer songwriter revealed that she styled and created all the clothes for her “Didn’t Break It Enough” video. “It’s fun to make stuff and I find that you make more unique looking things that you won’t find on the high street,” she said. “I admit, I was cocky thinking I could style this shoot. I was looking around shops and felt uninspired so I thought I’d make my own clothes. My best friend and I bought a bunch of fabrics, started sewing and luckily enough, everyone seemed to like what we made.”
As well as the looks in “Didn’t Break It Enough”, Griff also made the blue dress seen in her “Good Stuff” video and and the outfit she rocked at the 2021 BRIT awards.
Serena Williams
As well as being one of the world’s greatest tennis players, Serena Williams is also a fan of pottery. Discovering her love for the art form in February 2019, she shared her passion with fans on Instagram. Williams hasn’t posted any pics of her creations since, but you just know they’d be as flawless as her backhand.
Anthony Hopkins
Not content with two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, and a knighthood to his name, Anthony Hopkins also dabbles in painting from time to time. The Silence of the Lambs actor was first introduced to painting at around the age of six by a neighbourhood friend. Citing artistic influences like Oskar Kokoschka and Francis Picabia, Hopkins told ARTnews that he adopts a highly improvisational approach to the craft. He said, “I’m hyperactive. Sometimes I’ll start on three paintings at once. I try to change the style of paintings, but there’s no style to it. I experiment with oils and acrylics and ink and just mix it altogether. Painting is something I really enjoy, like playing the piano. I have a lot of fun with it. I just paint for the sheer enjoyment of it.”
Michaela Coel
Following a “last-minute invite” to the premiere of Black Panther, Michaela Coel made her dress for the event with two skirts from her auntie who runs a stall from a mall in Accra, Ghana. As the actor explained on Twitter, she cut one of the skirts into a top and sewed them together to make the stunning dress. “Resourceful b*tch,” Coel concluded. Damn right. Coel’s creativity must run in the family, as her mum has made the majority of her red carpet dresses in the past – including the one she wore to the BAFTAs in 2016.
Nick Offerman
Much like his Parks and Rec counterpart Ron Swanson, Nick Offerman is a keen work worker. Long before landing the iconic role, Offerman was already honing his skills in carpentry and woodwork, figuring that it might make for a viable career should TV not work out. Offerman has been vocal about his passion for woodworking: you can even take a tour of his wood shop or get your burning woodworking questions answered by the sitcom star. His most interesting customer request? A wooden canoe, commissioned by talkshow host David Letterman.
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