Recap from Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Circus Rickeys & Mask Making

Last month we held two special cocktails+craft workshops for our favorite event of the year - the Smithsonian Folklife Festival! We were hosted by the Folklife Marketplace and we were so excited to share our love for crafting and cocktails with Festival guests.

We developed the workshop Circus Rickeys & Mask Making after doing research and looking for inspiration online, in books and from a recent trip to New Orleans. We were racking our brains for a unique craft that tied in the theme of the circus, and then ding! We realized mask making would be perfect.

We love love love the mardi gras masks in New Orleans and have a few we’ve collected from Venice. We thought it would be fun to teach our guests how to create their own, unique mask that they could wear to an event, masquerade party, or use for home decor.

Masks have been around since the beginning of human civilization and we were surprised to find out that most cultures have some version of mask-making and use them in rituals and ceremonies even today.

In our workshop, we helped each person design their own mask and then create it out of a variety of materials, our favorite being the Art Deco Foil, which is like MAGIC.

We also created a custom cocktail for the workshop, inspired by the classic Rickey, which was actually created right here in Washington DC. To create the cocktail, we drew on circus inspiration and themes, and added ingredients to make sure it was true to its name--the Circus Rickey.

If you would like to get updates on our future workshops or be the first to learn how to host your own cocktails+craft workshop, sign up for our email list! Contact us if you would like us to create a custom workshop or private event just for you.