The Crafty Squirrel Japan Tours

15/07/2024

19/12/2023

It’s no secret that we LOVE Japan! 🥰🇯🇵 We have been running craft tours there since 2017 and are delighted to announce that our new Tokyo Craft Tour is now open for bookings. Spend 10 nights with us exploring all our favourite craft shops, flea markets, the biggest hobby fair in Tokyo + lots of workshops, special day trips and more. Plus a visit to the new Team Lab Museum! Get in touch for more details. 💙🐿️🇯🇵

25/06/2023

We are not long back from our fantastic crafty tour in Kyoto and are super excited to be heading back again in October! Due to a cancellation we have two spots available! Feel free to get in touch for further information if you are keen to join us. 💙🐿️🇯🇵

21/03/2023

So much crafty fun to be had on our recent Japanese themed retreat in our hometown of Ballarat. We spent three days learning all about temari balls, hitozemashi stitching and aizome/shibori dyeing mixed in with great company, yummy food and shopping! We are now looking forward to our next getaway in May in Kyoto followed by our Hobart retreat in September and another Kyoto tour in October. There are spots for Hobart and the October tour to Kyoto available so feel free to get in touch if you would like to join us. 💙🐿️🌸

13/01/2023

Very excited to announce that the details for our new crafty Kyoto tour in May are now available. Please get in touch if you would like us to email you more information. 💙🐿️🇯🇵

28/08/2022

Today we hosted a wonderful temari ball workshop and celebration of all things Japan in beautiful Ballarat! Thanks to Leanne from Kimono House who came along to share her knowledge with us. We spent the day crafting, dressing up, enjoying tea & sweets tasting plus lots and lots of delicious food meant for a fun filled day with lovely like minds. Stay tuned for more workshops, retreats and craft tours of Japan in 2023! ❤️🐿🇯🇵

24/05/2022

And that’s a wrap! Thank you to everyone who came along and joined in the crafty fun in Ballarat over the last few days. We had such a great time together and enjoyed learning some new craft techniques, yummy food and good company. ❤️🌸🐿🇯🇵

24/05/2022

It’s heads down this morning on the last day of our retreat with a wonderful printing on plywood workshop with the very clever Can’t wait to see the end artworks! 🌸🐿🇯🇵

23/05/2022

Day 2 of the Crafty Squirrel Japanese Retreat blessed us with beautiful Autumn weather and a day of sashiko/boro stitching goodness followed by a fun spot of shopping and treasure hunting! What’s not to love ❤️🐿🇯🇵

22/05/2022

We are off to a fabulous start on our craft retreat in Ballarat today with a delicious lunch followed by a fun Japanese bookbinding workshop with Michelle from 🐿🇯🇵

06/05/2022

FOR decades, Morgan Wills travelled to Japan to explore and purchase unique stock for her shop, The Crafty Squirrel. Six years ago, she decided to not only bring these craft goodies back to Ballarat, but take a group of her clients on trips straight to the source for a tactile taste of the creative....

27/03/2022

Cute kokeshi shelfie at the Crafty Squirrel!
Did you know we have 3 spots left at the next Japanese themed Crafty Squirrel Retreat here in Ballarat from 22 to 24 May.
We’d love for you to join us! More information available under ‘Workshops’ in our online shop. 💙🐿🇯🇵

21/03/2022

01/03/2022

What a way to end our Crafty Squirrel Japanese Retreat! We had such a great day with the very talented creating our very own unique artworks by printing on plywood with Nicola’s beautiful Japanese themed pattern designs. It was amazing to see how they all turned out in the end. Yummy Japanese food for lunch and then we bid each other a fond farewell and gave a big round of applause for such a wonderful few days together. It’s been so long since any of us have done something so crafty and fun and we are all looking forward to the next time we can catch up and have some more crafty fun together! Stay tuned for more crafty retreats and one day workshops from 💕🐿🌸🇯🇵

28/02/2022

Time to share some photos from day 2 of our Japanese themed craft retreat! What a fantastic day we had yesterday and you can see from the beautiful smiling faces that everyone was having a really good time!! We started off the day with a sashiko/boro style bag making workshop using lots of gorgeous vintage and new fabrics collected by us in Japan and then spent the afternoon on a fun shopping tour around Ballarat followed by a stunning sunset and dinner overlooking the lake. More photos to come! ❤️🐿🧵🇯🇵

27/02/2022

What a fabulous first day of our Japanese themed Crafty Squirrel Retreat in Ballarat! We had a delicious lunch followed by a very busy afternoon learning Japanese book binding (we made 4 different books) and before we new it we were enjoying welcome drinks and off to enjoy a yummy set at a local Japanese restaurant before returning to a wonderful sit and stitch evening with lots of inspiring show & tell. ❤️🐿🇯🇵

20/02/2022

We may not be able to fossick at the wonderful flea markets in Japan at the moment but it was our lucky day today when we found this giant box of vintage kokeshi! We didn’t buy them all but what we did buy will be available for sale at the Crafty Squirrel next week. 👏🏻❤️🇯🇵

31/12/2021

Sayonara 2021 👋🏻

30/12/2021

One of our favourite places to visit in Kyoto is Misuyabari the hidden needle shop. Who’s been there before? ❤️🐿🇯🇵

28/12/2021

Dreaming of fossicking for treasure at flea markets in Japan. One of our all time favourite things to do.

❤️🐿🇯🇵

08/11/2021