The Story of Four Friends

Four of us came to the US from Turkey.

Nur and Kadir are brothers. Fatih is Nur's high school friend. And Akif is the one we met here in New Jersey more than 13 years ago—back when everything felt new, uncertain, and full of responsibility.

We did what most immigrants do: we worked, we adapted, we built our lives piece by piece. But underneath all of it, we were always searching for the same thing.

Service.

Not as a slogan. As a direction.
A way to live that feels clean inside.

Over the years, our roles became clear.

Nur is the designer and artist. He sees form, meaning, and experience. He cares about the feeling something leaves in a person—how it lands, what it unlocks.

Fatih is the people person. He knows how to hold a room. He reads energy quickly. He makes strangers feel safe. He brings warmth without forcing it.

Akif is the analytical one. He thinks in systems. He is the reason things run smoothly. Logistics, planning, details—he makes sure what we imagine can actually happen in real life.

Kadir is the scientist with a creative mind. He asks deeper questions. He cares about how things work, why they work, and how to make an experience feel real—not just pretty.

We're different personalities, but we share the same belief: humanity is still worth trusting. People are still worth serving. And small moments can change someone's life more than we think.

So we brought our passions together—not to "build a business," but to create something that contributes.

A place where people can slow down.
Use their hands.
Feel their own attention return.
Remember they're not just surviving—they're alive.

For us, this is service.

Helping people take one more step toward freedom—inside themselves—through simple, well-made moments that feel human again.

The People Behind the Experience

KraftStories works because of the people who hold it with care.

Chiara leads Hawaii with a kind of hospitality you can feel right away. She used to be a pastry chef before moving into craft instruction, and that same attention to detail shows up in how she hosts—calm, warm, and thoughtful.

Ozge is the person behind the scenes making sure guests feel supported. She's a superstar in customer service—fast, clear, kind, and reliable.

Ela and Christie guide private bookings. They're the ones who turn "we're thinking about it" into a clean plan. They help groups choose the right experience, set expectations, and make planning feel simple.

Kyell, Criscia, and Avegail are our technical team. They keep the systems stable so everything feels smooth—pages, forms, booking flows, the details nobody sees when they work well.

And then there are the hosts—Ava, Colby, Daphne, Iris, and Shahnoza—the ones who welcome people into the room, guide the experience step by step, and make guests feel safe enough to relax and enjoy.

This is what we mean by service. Not just running events—holding people well while they're in them.

(01 Founding Team)

Founding team.

Nur

Nur is the designer and artist. He sees form, meaning, and experience. He cares about the feeling something leaves in a person—how it lands, what it unlocks.

Nur

Co-founder

Kadir

Kadir is the scientist with a creative mind. He asks deeper questions. He cares about how things work, why they work, and how to make an experience feel real—not just pretty.

Kadir

Co-founder

Akif

Akif is the analytical one. He thinks in systems. He is the reason things run smoothly. Logistics, planning, details—he makes sure what you imagine can actually happen in real life.

Akif

Co-founder

Fatih

Fatih is the people person. He knows how to hold a room. He reads energy quickly. He makes strangers feel safe and brings warmth without forcing it.

Fatih

Co-founder

(02 Team)

Meet the team.

Chiara

Leads Hawaii with a kind of hospitality you can feel right away. Former pastry chef; that same attention to detail shows up in how she hosts—calm, warm, and thoughtful.

Chiara

Hawaii Lead

Ozge

The person behind the scenes making sure guests feel supported. A superstar in customer service—fast, clear, kind, and reliable.

Ozge

Customer Experience

Colby

Colby

Manager

Iris

Iris

Manager

Daphne

Daphne

Host

Ela

Guides private bookings. Turns "we're thinking about it" into a clean plan—helps groups choose the right experience and make planning feel simple.

Ela

Private Bookings

Christie

Guides private bookings with Ela. Helps groups set expectations and make planning feel simple.

Christie

Private Bookings

Kyell

Part of the technical team that keeps systems stable so everything feels smooth—pages, forms, booking flows.

Kyell

Software Engineer

Shahnoza

Host. Makes guests feel safe enough to relax and enjoy the experience.

Shahnoza

Host

Companies that trust us

117 companies trust us with their team experiences

A
Adobe Airbnb Allina Health Allstate Alphabet Amazon American Express Apple Asana Atlassian
B
Bank of America Best Buy Block Bloomberg Booking Holdings
C
Canva Capital One Chime Cigna CircleCI Cisco Citigroup Cloudflare Coinbase Comcast CVS Health
D
Dell Technologies Deloitte Discover Disney DocuSign DoorDash Dropbox
E
eBay Elevance Health Expedia Group Exxon Mobil
F
Fidelity Figma Flexport
G
Goldman Sachs Google
H
HP HubSpot Humana
I
IBM Instagram Intel Intuit
J
John Deere Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase
K
Kaiser Permanente Klarna
L
LG Liberty Mutual LinkedIn Lululemon Lyft
M
Marriott Mastercard Meta Microsoft Miro Moderna Morgan Stanley
N
NBCUniversal Netflix New York Times Nike Novartis NVIDIA
O
Okta Oracle
P
Palo Alto Networks Paramount Patagonia PayPal Petco Pfizer Pinterest Progressive PwC
Q
Qualcomm
R
Reddit Robinhood
S
Salesforce Samsung SAP Sephora ServiceNow Shopify Slack Snap Sony Spotify State Farm Stripe
T
Target TikTok Tinder Twilio
U
Uber Universal Music Group
V
VF Corporation Venmo Visa
W
Walmart Warner Bros. Discovery Wayfair Wells Fargo WhatsApp
X
X Xerox
Y
YouTube
Z
Zendesk Zoom

From our makers

Made by you

Made by Shawn R.
Wholesale glass tiles for crafts tu...

So excited to be able to share the mirror tiles at my next Mosaic lamp class. I’m sure my party goers will be excited to add them to their designs. Good quality and plenty of tiles!!! Thank you!

Shawn R.
Made by Jane F.
Custom rug tufting workshop in hono...

It’s a great experience but if they can fix the problem with getting into the gate would be a lot easier for me to find the door. Anyway, the teacher is professional and helps me a lot with the rug tufting. I do have a lot of fun, and the result is perfect.

Jane F.
Made by MENGXIN W.
Traditional turkish mosaic lamp wor...

We came here for my friend’s birthday and had such a lovely time. The atmosphere was warm and relaxing, the staff were all so friendly, and the whole experience was so much fun. We loved making our mosaic lamps, and they turned out even better than we expected. Such a unique way to celebrate—highly recommend!

MENGXIN W.
Made by Breann T.
Glass terrarium container with cork...

It's the perfect size and a great addition to my oddities shelf!

Breann T.
Made by Linda M.
Make turkish mosaic lamp financial ...

What a fun experience! We were intimidated at first but it was so easy and our instructor was so supportive and 10 minutes into the craft we were totally engaged. South Street Seaport location is set up perfectly for the many craft options they offer. We will definitely go back to make another item. A must do!

Linda M.
Made by Ronald G.
Block printing workshop in honolulu

I had a great time, learning to carve the lino. I have continued to create different stamps and print on shirts, bags and create prints. I noticed that the picture you've been using in the ad for this class of me (I recognize my watch and the bag I printed).

Ronald G.
Made by Kana I.
Christmas candy apples making

Fun experience for Christmas Christmas🎄

Kana I.
Made by Veronica B.
Turkish mosaic lamp workshop honolulu

Wonderful family experience! We had so much fun creating our lamps together, and now they're on our patio where we get to enjoy them every day. Every time we see them, we're reminded of the wonderful quality time we spent together making them. Chiara and Nur were amazing—they guided us step by step throughout the entire process, making it easy and enjoyable. We truly loved the whole experience and highly recommend it…

Veronica B.
Made by Alicia L.
Custom rug tufting workshop in hono...

Greatest experience i could ask for! Kylie was our host and was the sweetest most patient, and informative person! She was so helpful and encouraging we had lots of fun! Thank you for making this a memorable girls bonding night!

Alicia L.
Made by Megan R.
Custom rug tufting workshop in hono...

I had been interested in rug tufting and thought that this class would be a good opportunity to try it out. The instructor was nice and easy to follow. Both me and my partner were happy with our finished rugs. I would recommend this class to anyone that is interested or is crafty and wanted something fun to do with a friend!

Megan R.
Made by Andy Mok
Custom rug tufting san francisco

Fun tufting experience, would love to do it again now that I had some practice and learned from my mistakes.

Andy Mok

Questions about us

Got more questions? Send us your
enquiry below

KraftStories was founded by four friends who immigrated from Turkey: Nur (designer and artist), Fatih (people person and host), Akif (operations and logistics), and Kadir (creative scientist). They came together to build a place where people slow down, use their hands, and feel something real.
We have studios in New York City (Midtown and Financial District), San Francisco (SoMa and Financial District), San Jose, Honolulu Hawaii, and Irvine. We also offer virtual experiences that ship kits anywhere.
We have hosted 30,000+ guests across all our locations since we started.
We offer candle making, rug tufting, terrarium building, block printing, moss wall art, Turkish mosaic lamp making, Turkish coffee, and more. Experiences are available for team building, date nights, birthday parties, family outings, and private events.
Contact our private bookings team through the booking form. Ela and Christie will guide you through choosing the right experience, group size, timing, and any custom requests — making planning feel simple.