Unleash your inner artist! We begin with a hand dyed piece of linen, loosely woven cotton, or wool and start stitching. We’ll use a wide variety of threads, adding layers of other materials and embellishing with a vast array of stitches with no preconceived ideas, but with lots of support, cheering and hand holding if you want/need it. Composition, elements of design and lots of techniques are explored in this intensive, hands on 5-day class. This is a dive-into-the-deep-end workshop. I promise, you’ll have a blast
This is a 5-day virtual workshop via Zoom that meets every Saturday for 5 consecutive Saturdays. The demos are recorded and sent to each participant once they’ve been uploaded.
Workshop Length:Â 5 Saturdays
Itinerary
1st Class
The Basics: Some of the basic concepts regarding improvisational stitching, what does it mean, how do I begin, what about color? I will answer all those questions as well as help you pull threads, get those 1st few stitches down, work through fear, and I even have some work arounds if that inner critic shows up. We will discuss color and let the fabric “talk” to us, especially if working with a hand dyed, immersion dyed, ice dyed or painted linen or loosely woven cotton.
2nd Class
This class is all about composition and the elements of design. We begin exploring the ways in which we can change our background fabric through hand dyeing. If we have time we will begin hand dyeing t-shirting, cheesecloth and burlap. Whatever we are unable to cover we will cover in more detail in our 3rd class.
3rd Class
We explore layering, adding texture and lots of techniques to do so. We touch on composition and the elements of design a bit more and how they apply to our piece. Adding silk velvet, dupioni silk, wool roving, silk hankies and at least one large element to our pieces is the focus of Class 3. There is a lot to cover!
4th Class
Is it flowing together? What to do if it isn’t. Getting those disparate parts to play nicely with one another. Adding beading, stuffing a wool circle, adding other things like bark, objects, rings, found objects, etc. Each person’s piece will be discussed individually, with lots of cheering on. This class is the “Keep going!” class and how to do that.
5th Class
Is it finished? How do I know if it’s done? What to look for. What about finishing? Framing, floating or make it into something else. Lots of ideas and examples of how to finish your piece so that you come away with something you love.