Welcome to the OurHands journal

This website will soon become your number one destination for all information regarding our kits and techniques. We started OurHands wanting to not only create a distinctive line of kits but also to foster a community of crafters who also share the same values as us. More than a storefront, we hope our website will become a discussion space with additional content and answers to any questions you might have. 

But first, let us introduce ourselves.

Meet the Team

• Scott is a Londoner. He is obsessed with DIY, addicted to spin classes and spent a year living in China.
• Justine is French and loves all things art-related. She is a vegetarian, wears band shirts almost exclusively, and can’t ride a bike. 
• Douban, while he may go home with Scott every evening, is the company mascot! He just turned two and is into napping and licking people's shins.

Our Story

Scott started his first company in 2012, making and selling food and drink kits from his Mum’s living room. As the brand’s popularity grew, Scott relocated to London, rented a warehouse, and began assembling a team of expert kit makers to match the demand.

Meanwhile, in France, Justine was growing tired of her retail job and small-city life. She gave herself a few months to plan for a new start and jumped on the Eurostar with dreams of making a career out of her love for the arts. This was March 2020. Two weeks later, the government announced a nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid pandemic. Determined to stay in the UK, Justine searched the internet for a job that would allow her to remain in the country until the situation improved - and she found Scott’s company. Over two years, she went from assembly line work to product development and administration.

Scott and Justine managed the warehouse together until Scott made the difficult decision to sell the business in the summer of 2021.

As this chapter closed, another began. Scott and Justine realised they could use their experience to build another company, which would be more representative of their values.

After barely a month, OurHands was born.

So, what is OurHands?

The short answer would be that OurHands is a company that designs and sells crafting DIY kits.

The true answer is that OurHands is the sum of everything Scott and Justine care about and have learnt over the years.

Sustainability

We want to try and leave the world better than we found it. 

More than a product to be used and then discarded, our kits aim to provide you with reusable tools and techniques that you can apply to future projects.

With our Sashiko Repair Kit, for instance, we seek to offset the damage done to the planet by fast fashion by teaching you the Japanese art of visible mending - allowing you to express your style through clothes and save your favourite outfit from ending up in a landfill. 

We always pledge to do our part to help our planet. This is true of the brand and our personal lives. Justine has stopped eating meat, and Scott has a doctorate in renewable energy policy.

Mindfulness

The world is a stressful place to be in right now. Day to day, we are assaulted by adverts, news, trends, and a constant barrage of content. 

Whether you are at work and receiving ten urgent emails a minute or at home watching TV, a thousand different things are battling for your attention.

We want to provide you with a healthy, quiet break. When using our kits, you have to worry about apart from the action you are currently performing and how it will be part of a whole. 

Whether painting, stitching or preparing a relaxing bath with our Bath Brew Kit, we want this moment to belong to no one but you. Turn off your notifications and let your mind run free for a few minutes in a meditative act of creation. 

Artisanship

There is always something incredibly satisfying about doing things with our hands. As a child, we can simply paint with our fingers, play in the dirt, grab, explore, shape, invent… When we get older we tend to put barriers between us and the creative process. 

This comes from doubt. Through kits like our Watercolour Making Kit, we hope to remove this fear of imperfection by teaching you the processes and basic techniques behind the art form you enjoy.

Paradoxically, we want you to forget about goals and milestones and focus on the primordial fun that comes with creating. 

We have spent hours researching and testing to bring you the easiest and most satisfying ways to get results. Despite this, we wholeheartedly encourage you to tweak our instructions and make the kits your own until you go back to that childlike confidence in your ability.

What happens now?

We are currently working hard in our London studio to launch our first set of kits. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we’ve enjoyed designing them.

Please do not hesitate to contact us through our website or on social media to chat about kits, our values, or anything else you might want to discuss.

We look forward to building our community of mindful crafters!