Level Up Your Home Decor Game with Tuft and Taiyaki

Courtesy of Linnette Lopez Torres / Tuft and Taiyaki.

Linnette Lopez Torres says she always has two intentions when embarking on a new venture.

The first is to introduce something new to the Rhode Island scene, and the second is to make people happy. She already achieved both with the opening of Helado Taiyaki, a Japanese-Latin fusion ice cream shop in the West End of Providence (so much so that it earned a Best of Rhode Island award and cover in 2021), and now she’s doing it again with Tuft and Taiyaki.

The workshop was born out of a need to find a use for the Helado Taiyaki shop space during the winter, when colder temps often make people a little less inclined to seek out ice cream. She and co-runner of the workshop, Alanis Cosme, had just taken up tufting themselves at the end of 2022—all self-taught through YouTube tutorials, mind you—and it wasn’t long before they realized others might be interested in it as well.

“I was originally going to do a Paint and Taiyaki workshop, but we were like, ‘We already know how to tuft, so let’s try it and see how it goes,” says Lopez Torres. “It’s going really well. It was supposed to be just a winter thing, but now I think it will be more long-term.”

Tufting, in essence, is like sewing, with the main differences being the sewing machine is swapped out for a tufting gun, and yarn is used instead of thread. You simply use the gun to punch and loop the yarn through a standing canvas, and the yarn on the other side will reveal a tufted appearance like you would normally see on a shag rug. Hence, the current Tuft and Taiyaki workshop teaches participants to make their own rugs (though Lopez Torres says other products, like mirror covers or pillows, could potentially be introduced down the line).

And just because tufting is similar to sewing, doesn’t mean you have to have any prior sewing experience to do the workshop.

“It’s open to all skill levels, absolutely. The majority of people are first timers and they’ve done amazing,” Lopez Torres says. We’ve had older people, younger people [E/N: children twelve and older are welcome with parental consent and supervision], couples, friends — anyone can do it.”

Courtesy of Linnette Lopez Torres / Tuft and Taiyaki.

Once you’ve booked your desired date and time on tuftandtaiyaki.com, the team will email over different design ideas for you to choose from, though you are also welcome to let them know if you already have a design in mind. Note: it’s best to get their approval as they will know what can feasibly be completed within the three-hour workshop timeframe. At the workshop itself, they will be able to project your chosen design onto a canvas for you to trace out with a sharpie. Past designs have included everything from Corgi butts and TV characters to Uno reverse cards and smiling avocados.

When I showed up for my own session, I opted to freehand my design. As illustrated by the photo below, there’s clearly a reason why I pursued English and not Art in college. I highly encourage anyone who is likewise artistically deficient to plan out their design ahead of time.

Next up is picking out the yarn. The workshop offers a huge collection with varying shades for your picking pleasure. Lopez Torres, Cosme or another workshop leader will then show you how to properly feed the yarn through the tufting gun and then use it on the canvas. From there, you can practice as much as you like on the outer edges of the canvas (tracing straight and curved lines to allow you to adjust to the weight and feel of the gun) until you get comfortable enough with the process to work on your actual design.

Lopez Torres, Cosme, and other staff are on hand at all times to help in any way you may need, from pulling out more yarn so you don’t run out to looping it through the gun when you inevitably (in my case, at least) dislodge it to doling out advice on how to approach a more difficult section. They also will gladly hype you up throughout the entire process.

Some tips I picked up along the way?  Number one, pressure and consistency are key. You’ll want to bear down to ensure the yarn effectively weaves through the cloth, and letting up even in the slightest can derail progression. Also, keep your yarn lines tight so no gaps peak through the other side. And, thankfully, this is one craft that is very forgiving: if you think you’ve messed up, you can often reverse or correct it.

Lopes Torres says it takes most beginners about thirty to forty minutes to truly get the hang of tufting, but once you do, it’s smooth sailing and not something you’re likely to forget anytime soon. I personally can attest that once I got in the zone, it felt natural and even therapeutic. The three hours went by in a fun flash (all the more helped by the lively latin-style music that played throughout and set the tone), and by the end I was left feeling proud of my little flower rug despite its questionable start.

Once the tufting is finished, participants may choose to take their rug home as is (see both photos above) or, for an additional $20 fee, the team can hold on to your design and place a few finishing touches on it (see below). It will then be ready for pick up in a few days’ time.

Finally, and I may have buried the lead here, but the cherry on top of the experience comes in the form of one of Helado Taiyaki’s delicious fish-shaped cones filled with fruit, warm cheese and custard — a.k.a. Taiyaki — and finished off with a deliciously flavored soft serve swirl. You may think it’s too cold for an ice cream reward (honestly can’t relate) this time of year, but if you didn’t work up a bit of a sweat while tufting, you probably didn’t do it right.

The Tuft and Taiyaki workshops are offered Monday through Thursday from 4:30–7:30 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. for $80 a session. To learn more about Tuft and Taiyaki and book one of the workshops, visit tuftandtaiyaki.com.