Crafting Community with RecCreate’s Liz Chick: From Solo Dye Projects to a Thriving Creative Studio
In this episode of the Crafty Mariana Podcast, Mariana sits down with Liz Chick, founder of RecCreate Collective in New York City, a creative hospitality studio known for its club-style events, intentional facilitation, and community-first approach. What began as Liz experimenting with natural dyes in a tiny apartment became a beautiful, one-of-a-kind studio space and a growing team hosting 15–20 events a month.
Liz shares the real story behind finding and securing the studio, building early momentum with collage mornings, and evolving into RecCreate’s signature “club” format that blends guided structure with open creative play. We dig into experience design elements like opening ceremonies, meditations, conversation prompts, and end-of-night mini galleries that help strangers feel safe, seen, and connected. Liz also opens up about bootstrapping, seasonality, collaborations, team building, and balancing accessibility with profitability through scholarships, community events, and creative pricing models.
Whether you’re dreaming of a studio, hosting workshops already, or exploring how to scale without losing soul, you’ll love Liz’s honesty, practicality, and heart.
What We Cover in This Episode
✎ Liz’s origin story: from natural dye experiments to landing a dream studio space ✎ The first “collage morning” and how it evolved into RecCreate’s club format ✎ Experience design: opening ceremony, meditation, prompts, inspiration, and gallery share ✎ Scaling with intention: from one-off collabs to repeatable internal programming ✎ Building a small-but-mighty team and the systems that make 15–20 events/month possible ✎ Operations realities: inventory, storage, organization, and studio upkeep ✎ Growth without ads: TikTok to Instagram pipeline, niche NYC “things to do” features, and word of mouth ✎ Private vs public events and how corporate work sustains accessibility ✎ Seasonality truths and using slower months for camps, R&D, and refinement ✎ Numbers mindset: pricing, margins, and why knowing your costs changes everything ✎ Accessibility ecosystem: volunteers, community nights, sponsorships, and scholarships ✎ The future: a “RecCreate ecosystem,” Substack projects, office hours, and finishing what you start
Connect with Liz
✎ RecCreate Collective Site✎ @reccreate_collective (Instagram) ✎ Substack: Muse-ing (creative digest) ✎ Creator resources: Craft Employed posts and office hours with Liz
Resources for Your Workshop Business
📌 Free Guide: How to Start Your Own Workshop Business 📌 Free Spreadsheet: Figure Out Your Numbers!
Stay Connected with Mariana
🌎 Website: craftymariana.com 📷 Instagram: @craftymariana 🎨 Facebook Community: Crafting Workshops Community 📩 Exclusive content, resources, and deals: craftymariana.com/newsletter
Let’s Make This Interactive!
Have questions or topics you want covered in future episodes? DM me on Instagram or email
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Ireland