Barcelona’s reputation stands strong as the historic home to many artists who have been launched to international fame. Specifically Gaudí, Picasso and Joan Miró are a few among the many artists who have left us with rich artistic legacies and are known by many. Fostering creativity is an element that still distinguishes this city and is seen in a variety of ways. One its most notable expressions is the network of shops, artisans and artists’ collectives that are part of the handmade, craft and DIY movement. Representing this trend is the endless array of small stores of this kind scattered around the city. The pleasure found in a unique objects, made by hand draw upon deep wells of creativity found in Barcelona. The creative crowd here manages to make a splash both online and in brick-and-mortar shops that you are welcome to visit. For example, in the neighbourhood of Gràcia, Verdemandarina (Carrer de Sant Cristòvol), an adorable shop filled with ceramics and kitchen supplies, or IFIL (Carrer de Torrent de l’Olla, 161), a charming wool store ready with craft supplies or already-made knit goods. This big boom of handmade goods has made it no surprise that the first edition of the Handmade Festival will be happening in Barcelona this spring. During the 25^th, 26^th and 27^th of April 2014, at Palacio 2 of the Fira Barcelona convention centre, the most talented creatives are set to give workshops, masterclasses, chats and demonstrations to festival attendees. This new event will be focused on a few areas in particular of the DIY and handmade sectors: thread (patchwork, crochet, stockings, modern haberdashery, fabrics, etc.), paper (scrapbooking, decopatching, binding, etc), cooking (creative pastries, yogurts, cocktails, sushi, beer brewing, etc) and Brico&Design&Garden (urban gardening, furniture creation and restoration, soap-making, etc). The Handmade Festival is all set to be a wide variety for DIY-ers of all skill levels, not to mention a wonderful opportunity to buy handmade crafts! The Handmade Festival plans to invite a foreign country each year to get to know its local crafts more intimitely in the spirit of DIY. For the festival’s inaugural year, the invitee is the country of France. Are you a crafter or work on DIY projects at home? Tell us about it!