On Saturday June 4th we hosted Glasgow Tool Library’s Fun Day at our second Civic Street Open Day. We had a glorious day of sunshine for a tool sale in the Civic Street Yard, a series of power tool workshops in the venue and sewing workshops in our project space. We also hosted Bike For Good’s ‘Cycle Saturdays’ on the street – with a smoothie bike, Dr Bike maintenance drop-in, e-cargo bike test runs and led bike rides.

About The Glasgow Tool Library:

“The Glasgow Tool Library (GTL) works just like a normal library, but instead of sharing books, we share tools. Established in 2017, the tool library is a community-led social enterprise and collective that promotes sharing, collaboration, and learning as forms of resistance, empowerment and resilience.

By creating a communal resource and community-run library we aim to challenge unsustainable relationships between use and ownership, promoting a more collaborative economy and society.”

Amelia Bywater led the ‘Introduction to Power Tools’ workshops which ran all day with three sessions focused individually on drills, saws and sanding. In these friendly and encouraging workshops Amelia assisted attendees with building their confidence in using power tools. This sought to encourage creative assessment of a DIY problem by knowing the scope of the tools and accessories available at the tool library.

GTL’s volunteer Margaret Mitchel, led an introduction to the basics of a sewing machine through ‘sewing your own tool roll’. The participants made some lovely colourful tool rolls for tools like chisels with the materials provided.

Out in the yard there was a tool sale from GTL, with stalls from various people selling their own tools from home. Many bargains were picked up while attendees enjoyed the sunshine!

And as part of the open day we had a public consultation stand where people could offer their feedback on the Civic Street redesign project – we got some amazing answers and ideas on what the area could become such as an adventure play park, a café or food stall, a farmers market on the weekend and an area for community growing and gardening.

Check out the images below to see what was going on at the June 4th Civic Street Open Day.