September 6-8, 2011
Kat Allison & Cindy French
Lecture: Weaving for a New Age
Workshop: Day 1- Multi media weaving Day 2- Bead Weaving
Cindy: A traditionally trained Appalachian craftsman in almost any fiber technique you can name, although she has resisted learning to crochet, Cindy has been perfecting her craft since early childhood. She has logged more than 20 years teaching college mathematics and statistics and has almost as many years teaching traditional fiber classes that include quilting, weaving, appliqué, beadwork and other jewelry techniques. Since retiring from her job of teaching math, Cindy has become a popular teacher in retail shops and local museums. She has recently begun showing her amazing quilts and felted bags and vessels in local galleries. She co-wrote and self-published Copper Loom—A New Approach to an Ancient Craft, and her work was recently included in Beaded Jewelry—The Complete Guide by Susan Ray. Cindy is also a classical guitarist, as if all her other accomplishments weren’t enough, and sometimes, when Kat is very lucky, she gets to listen to Cindy play the hammer dulcimer.
Kat: A traditionally trained craftsman with a fiber focus, Kat has been sewing her whole life. She has taught fiber crafts everywhere her U.S Navy enlisted husband was stationed, and finally has been able to call Virginia her permanent home. She has taught a diverse collection of classes, mostly fiber based, for museums, galleries and retail shops all over Hampton Roads. She is very proud of her contributions to the Rawls Museum Arts Outreach program which provides intensive art classes taught by working artists to children from schools that lack funds for the arts. Her work has been shown in several galleries and museums, and she was honored to have served as curator for two shows on glass and functional fine craft. Her work has been shown in the Bead and Button Embellishment show, the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and the Pacific International Quilt Show. Kat co-wrote and published Copper Loom—a New Approach to an Ancient Craft with Cindy Yost French. Her work has been included in several publications including Wire in Design—Modern Wire Art & Mixed Media by Barbara A. McGuire; Beaded Jewelry—The Complete Guide by Susan Ray; Beadworks Magazine and The Best of Beadwork, both from Interweave Press.
Workshop:
During this workshop you will learn how to warp the loom for single needle & 2 needle weaving. Day 1 you can choose to do traditional weaving or a more experimental mixed media weaving including different fibers, paper, needle felting etc. Day 2 will be all bead weaving and you will learn how to do some alternatives to straight bead weaving. The beauty of weaving on their loom is that you only have 2 warp threads to be woven in when you remove the piece from the loom. Kat and Cindy will have a finished piece on a loom to show us how to remove it.
$100 + $95 supply fee. Total $195
October 4-6, 2011
Judith Larzelere
Lecture: Color, Color, Color
Workshop: Strip Piecing with Extreme Fabrics
Judith prefers to be called Jude. 25 years ago, she chose strip piecing and machine quilting as her method of working as a visual artist. She likes the balance of deliberate planning coupled with uncertainty about the exact look of the completed piece. Color interaction and color expressiveness are the two most enjoyable parts of the quilting process for her. She loves sharing this joy with others through making quilts. Jude conducts workshops around the country as well as Canada and has been published in numerous magazines & books. She has had quilts exhibited nationally as well as internationally and her work is held in permanent collections, most notably the American Craft Museum in New York.
Jude asks the question: Do you have a stash of beautiful, bold batiks or colorful hand dyed fabrics just piling up and you don’t know what to do with them? Then this workshop is for you! We will learn to make design prototypes before we cut. We will alter and rework our designs until they are perfectly suited to our fabrics. Then we will learn her strip piecing and quilt-as-you-go method to create a small wall hanging.
$100
Supply List
November 1, 2011- Lecture only
Scraps of Quilting Music
Lil’ Rev
Lil’ Rev, a/k/a Marc Revenson, is a Milwaukee based multi instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, story-teller, music historian, teacher & entertainer. He tours nationally giving workshops on the ukulele & harmonica. He will present a one-man show celebrating the quilting tradition in America. Just a few of the subjects that he touches on are: The AIDS quilt, quilters of the old west, the quilters of Gees Bend, quilts that are sent to Iraq as well as the story of a quilt from the Civil War.
January 3-5, 2012:
Shelley Brucar
Lecture: Explorations in Paint
Workshop: Explorations in Paint
For January we have our very own Shelley Brucar who started sewing at age 12 and never stopped. After home-ec class in junior high school, she started making all of her own clothes. Perhaps what she loved best was going to the fabric store, looking at all the colors and textures of the fabrics—and touching every bolt. Trained as a clinical social worker, Shelley is a self-taught fiber artist, picking up ideas, techniques and inspiration from various workshops and from other artists.
While pregnant with her first child, Shelley couldn’t find a crib quilt that she liked so decided to make her own. A few visits to quilt shops was all it took to get hooked. That was the beginning of traditional quilting for Shelley, 23 years ago. She quickly lost interest in following someone else’s pattern and began designing her own quilts, enjoying the greater freedom this allowed. In 2004, Shelley started Hand Made Memories, offering quilts for all occasions and specializing in custom photo and memory quilts. Within a year, her focus turned to art quilts. She now creates her own hand-dyed and screened fabric and uses painting, photo transfer, threads, and other surface design elements that the piece demands.
Shelley’s work has been juried into art shows nationally and internationally, and she has taught art quilting at local shops and guilds. She has been published in 1000 Artisan Textiles, 500 Art Quilts, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, SAQA Transformations 09: Reflections, and SAQA Portfolios 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Workshop:
Her workshop will allow us to experiment with different textile paints; opaque vs. transparent and also explore different methods of applying the paint: such as dry fabric vs wet fabric etc.
$90 + $50 supply fee. Total $140
February 7-9, 2012
Akemi Nakano Cohn
Lecture Katazome in Kimonos & “My Work”
Workshop: Katazome (stencil paper & rice paste resist)
Akemi studied traditional Japanese dyeing & printing techniques for 10 years under the master Haru Izumi in Yokohama, Japan. She has a BFA from Tama Art University in Tokyo and an MFA in fiber arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Michigan. She has taught at the School of the Art Institue of Chicago, the International Surface Design Conference, Haystack and others. Her work has been exhibited widely both Nationally and Internationally in group and solo exhibits. She has executed many commissions including ‘The Light Curtain of Forest at the Unitarian Church of Evanston. This will be in her presentation.
Workshop:
The workshop is to introduce rice paste resist of Katazome basics. The technique is typically applied on lovely kimonos and has been used for over 400 yrs.
The focus is to study traditional Japanese design through books & slides, then we will develop our own designs. We will cut our own stencils, make the rice paste and apply it through the special stencils onto fabric. We will also be doing some painting on fabric as well.
$90 + $18 supply fee. Total $108
March 6-8, 2012
Michele Sales
Lecture: Kakishibu-The Art of Japanese Persimmon Juice Dye
Workshop: Kakishibu (persimmon juice dyeing techniques)
This month we have another teacher from our guild—Michelle Sales.
After seeing her lecture last November, there were so many of us interested in learning more about the process. Michelle has been expressing herself forcefully with pigment & mixed media since childhood. Her early work was as a painter, but sculpture soon became her focus. Currently she works in 2 & 3 dimensional media.
In 1998 Michelle received a Recognition Scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in 2001 was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. The adult experience helped crystallize thinking about her life’s work.
Photo journals created during travels to Central & South America inform her work today. Stratified memories, expressed through color & texture are recurring themes. She maintains a studio in Winfield IL as well as presents workshops and lectures on surface design & fiber sculpture. Her work has won awards and recognition in both national & international exhibitions and recently was featured at SOFA Chicago 2008 at Navy Pier. Her work is widely collected and she is represented by Vale Craft Gallery in Chicago.
Workshop:
The workshop will explore the ancient art of persimmon juice dyeing known as kakishibu in Japan. Kakishibu is a non toxic dye made from the juice of unripe persimmon fruit. It has been used in Japan for about 3000 years and has most recently enjoyed a revival partly due to its non toxic nature. Each participant will be creating an ‘Ikkanbari’ covered basket using Japanese Kozo paper. The baskets will then be dyed using kakishibu. We will explore & create stencils using various non toxic modifiers to create unusual colors with kakishibu. These colors can be used to paint fabric, wood & paper that can be incorporated into baskets or other objects.
This is a great follow up to the katazome workshop the previous month as I’m sure we could use the stencil cutting knowledge along with the rice paste resist in creating designs with the kakishibu!
$90 + $35 supply fee. Total $125
April 3-5, 2012
Susan Sorrell
Lecture: Follow Your Dreams
Workshop: Organic Inspiration
Susan’s background is in graphic arts, and she was also an art teacher in public schools before becoming a full time artist. Her work has been widely exhibited with numerous awards. Susan says fiber is a very accessible medium and she has been truly fascinated by the use of cloth as a collage elelment for over ten years. She is always experimenting with different types of fiber/textiles, beading, painting, printmaking and found objects that can be attached to cloth or stabilizers. She loves the way textile art can push the boundaries of traditional quilting, embroidery and fine art.
Her work is about color & texture, relationships, contrasts and blends. The images she uses seem to go along for the ride. She wants to create images and objects that are special to her, so she tends to pull from her personal life, surroundings and interests. She says, if she can engage the viewer to stop and look at her work for a minute or two, then she knows she has done her job well.
In her workshop we will learn to “think in threads.” The experience will be a way to search for new ways of working in embroidery and mixed media. Organic designs will be the focus of the workshop with a twist. No formal training in embroidery is needed. Simple stitches will be used.
$100
May 1-3, 2012
Valerie Goodwin
Lecture: A Dialogue Between Quilting and Architecture
Workshop: Favorite Places
Valerie is an architect and professor who began designing and making quilts in 1998. Her interest began as part of her involvement in teaching architectural design classes at Florida A & M University’s School of Architecture. Her students investigate parallels between architecture and quilting as an introduction to ideas about composition, ordering systems, color and pattern.
Her work as an artist uses architectural elements such as built form, city grid, mapping and composition as a source of inspiration. These pieces are part of a continuing investigation of ideas that focus on geometrical relationships, patterns and ordering principles found in architecture. Her work conveys these ideas abstractly, through the use of collage, layering, transparency, density and improvisation.
Valerie’s work has been exhibited nationally and has won numerous awards. Her quilts are sought after from private collectors. In her workshop you will name a favorite place of yours. It could be your city, your state, a favorite vacation spot, an ancestral birthplace. Wherever you feel is your ‘favorite place.' You will then create a small map using fabric, paint and thread. Using a fun and simple series of painted and collaged, mixed media techniques you will create the feeling or ingredients of a place.
$120 + $10 supply fee. Total $130