BY KEELIN EVERLY-LANG for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 9/11/2026
Lumikha Space in Tacoma has creations by local artists for sale, but it’s not exactly a store. You might get handed a fresh cup of coffee, but it isn’t a coffee shop. You might learn a new artistic skill there, but it isn’t an art school.
“My favorite question from customers is ‘Where am I?’” owner Racquel Fox told Weekly Volcano.
The best way to describe Lumikha Space is as a craft café.
“Think coffee shop vibes, but with paintbrushes, beads, and clay instead of lattes. A craft café is a cozy, welcoming space where creativity and community come together. You can drop in for open craft time, join a workshop, or simply sit with friends and make something by hand,” Fox shares on her website.
The name itself comes from her half Filipina and half Mexican heritage, two cultures that she says “have deeply shaped how I see the world, especially when it comes to creativity, community, and finding beauty in the everyday.” Lumikha means “to create” in Filipino.
Visitors can choose from her Craft Menu, which features options like a paint flight (your choice of watercolor or acrylic paints served with an assortment of brushes and bottomless pages), a bead buffet (an all-you-can-design spread of beads, charms, strings, and hardware to create your own custom masterpiece), sewing, collage, mini-wheel pottery, origami, oil pastels, oven-baked clay, and more.
Guests can also browse art supplies and take-home kits, peruse art for sale by local artists, pick up a book from the book swap, talk through a tricky artistic project, or get some one-on-one sewing instruction.
Special community events also take place each month, including workshops and dedicated craft nights. The Art of Toast: Oil Painting with Tessa Tessin is just one example coming up on Sept. 12, which will include both a live toast creation and tasting experience and a lesson on how to immortalize your tasty treat on canvas.
A very popular event has also been the Collage and Connect night, which is a great one to choose for those looking to spend some time getting creative and maybe even make a new friend.
Collage is a great craft for making friends because it “almost forces people to talk to each other,” Fox said. She loves hearing about friendships that took root at her events and have blossomed out in the world.
One offering that has surprised Fox with its popularity has been the “Brown Bag” option for $12 an hour. As the name suggests, it is an invitation to bring your own craft to the space.
Talking to customers, Fox said people like this option for the connections they can build, the access to supplies they might not have at home, and the bonus of not having to clean up afterward. This is especially helpful for those who live in small spaces without a lot of room for crafting and hosting.
“It sounds so crazy, but art can be a very lonely thing. Most people do art by themselves in their bedroom on their kitchen table, or sitting on the floor like a little troll. (Trust me, it’s my favorite position) … but I really want more people to try out these art [forms] and doing it in a community setting makes it feel less stressful,” Fox said.
Lumikha Space visitors include a wide range of ages and levels of artistic skill, which is not surprising given the recent popularity of social crafting events, especially for young adults in Tacoma and beyond.
Looking back a bit, many people reconnected with a long-forgotten craft or art during the height of the pandemic or even tried something new. It was so much a thing that the Smithsonian reported on it back in 2020.
Now that everyone is back out in the world, craft nights have become a powerful way for people to connect with each other in a low-stakes environment and a way to enjoy a break from screens.
In September 2025, the Guardian wrote about this trend in the UK, especially focusing on Gen Z and the way hands-on, creative social activities have become an antidote to oversaturation of screens, social media, and the latest issue of AI.
Lumikha Space has also been popular with families that include children, and Fox said she works to make sure to adapt crafts so that kids and parents can work on the same activity together safely.
This last category has a special significance to Fox, whose challenges with being able to become a parent herself are part of what sparked the creation of the space.
While Lumikha is a lighthearted, welcoming, and joyful place, on a deeper level, it is also the physical manifestation of alchemizing pain and creating a life that supports well-being.
The savings that Fox invested in the shop were meant to support her and her husband’s adoption of a child after battles with throat cancer and an MS diagnosis made pregnancy medically unsafe for her.
After saving for years, this goal of adoption was also taken away after the system denied her application based on the ramifications of abuse she suffered that began when she was a child.
These are not details Fox usually shares, and when telling the story of how the shop came to be, she typically just mentions the burnout she was going through from a demanding career in construction management.
Lately, though, she said she’s been having some meaningful conversations with friends about mental health and the importance of being open about one’s own challenges or traumas in order to reduce the stigma for others with shared experiences.
The funds she had set aside for adoption are what Fox invested in creating Lumikha Space after her friend and owner of Conmigo encouraged her to take over an available shopfront next door, and the vision for Lumikha Space was born.
Owning the shop has given her the flexibility to actually listen to her body and adapt her work to the challenges that come up with having MS. At Lumikha, she encourages people to practice taking time to relax and to listen to themselves as well.
Accessibility is another important value for her and helps with building that community that has become so dear to her, so she tries to keep costs as low as she can and welcomes people of all skill levels.
So far, Fox shared that since opening Lumikha Space in May 2025, it “has been the most healing thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Since then, the shop has doubled in size and the community surrounding it has grown.
While people find their way to Lumikha Space for a multitude of reasons, connection and creativity are at the heart of everything Fox does there.
