Fall 2019 workshops and looking forward to 2020

Here is a quick look at upcoming workshops for Fall 2019:

Japanese Mending as Utility and Embellishment

A Work of Heart Studio

San Jose, CA

October 13th, 11:00 - 5:00

Boro Sampler Book and Boro Bags

Southwest School of Art

co-sponsored by San Antonio Fiber Artists

San Antonio, TX

November 9th and 10th, 10:00 - 4:00

(class is full - waitlist open)

 

and looking forward to 2020 for those of you planning ahead:

The Boro Aesthetic: Creating Fiber Art Pieces Inspired by Japanese Textiles 
Aya Fiber Studio,  Stuart, Florida
March 21 - 23rd, 2020

The Boro Aesthetic: Creating Fiber Art Pieces Inspired by Japanese Textiles 
Fibre Arts Australia
Ballarat, Australia: June 30 - July 4, 2020
Toowoomba, Australia: July 7 - July 11, 2020 
  

There will also most likely be a February workshop at French General in Los Angeles - we are still cooking that one up - it will be something new! ****update - new workshop is up here**** And, an April workshop at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Keep your eyes peeled for those...

I usually announce workshops first on Instagram and my Wishi Washi Studio Facebook page so join me there to hear about them first. I also list them on my blog - workshop page.

As always my Creativebug classes are available 24/7 from anywhere you have internet access, and my book The Boro Aesthetic is still available from Blurb Books.

Taos 2017

One week after I returned from Tokyo I was headed to the airport again to fly to Taos, New Mexico to teach with Diane Ericson, Design Outside the Lines, at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house.

What a wonderful, nurturing and inspiring venue Mabel's is.

 

 

I was brought on by Diane Ericson to co-teach alongside her and inspire the students with what I have learned about Japanese textiles, and Japanese Boro and mending techniques, and how I applied that to my artwork.

 

We practiced Japanese mending techniques on a piece of cloth that later was turned into a mini-bag:

I got to play around a bit and was experimenting with stencils and fabric painting on some scraps that I brought and turned those scraps into a different kind of a bag. When I asked the students if they would like to learn the structure, the answer was "yes"!

 

Well, a few of them became obsessed with this bag and they played around with the dimensions and pushed the original design of the bag into these fun structures:

 

Seeing as I had just returned from Japan, I could only really allow myself to take a day and a half to site see after my teaching duties were up.

But, my friend and I packed as much as we could into those hours.

The highlight was the Georgia O'Keeffe house and studio in Abiquiu.

 

So minimal and modern!

 And, the short drive to Ghost Ranch was just stunning with the post-rain saturated earth surrounding us:

Although I am thankful for the experience, Tokyo and Taos with just a week's catch up time in between is a bit more travel than I'm used to so I'm trying to slow down and process both of those inspirational experiences right now. 

As usual, more pics over on Instagram.

 

 

Summer Teaching 2017 - and a Spring Wrap Up

I pulled back from teaching this Spring so that I could dedicate as much time as possible to working in the studio on my Bibliomuse Series for an exhibit this Fall 2017 at Seager Gray Gallery.

It paid off since I was able to complete a few more pieces for the show - they are very labor intensive!

Incredible Truth

Above is a detail of a piece from the Bibliomuse Series called Incredible Truth.

I did teach a couple of workshops and thought I'd share some of the student work since I am teaching both workshops again this Summer at Cabrillo Arts and Handcraft Studio School.


In March, I taught a new class called Creative Textiles: Deconstruction, Reconstruction and Reuse at Cabrillo Arts (and will be teaching it again in July).

Essential - detail

This was a two-day workshop and was inspired by some of the processes I use in my own artwork. A couple of years ago I ran out of the old linen fabric that I use in my current work - but I did have an old farm dress hanging around that I had used in an installation. I realized that I probably was not going to use it as a dress anymore so made the move to cut it up and use the pieces in a wall piece. The first cuts were hard but then I was so glad that I did it. And, I discovered that the existing seams, hem, worn areas, and other elements inherent to the garment were a fabulous starting point for the piece. There were so many lines, curves and textures to react to. Below and above are details of the two pieces that I made out of that dress for my KEEP: Modern Library Series: Essential and Higbee.

Higbee - detial

For the Creative Textiles workshop I asked students to bring in old garments that were ready for re-purposing. We looked at images of Japanese boro textiles, Gee's Bend quilts, and artists that have worked with old clothes in their work, as inspiration. I taught some printing and image making techniques, some mending and embroidery stitches and then let the students fly! It was fun to see all of the different projects that emerged from the same points of inspiration.

student work - old waistband looking like shibori!

student work - reconstructed stripes

student work - men's shirt on delicates

student work - stitching on a t-shirt on a sweatshirt

Such creative work in that class and I'm teaching it again July 29th and 30th, 2017, at Cabrillo Arts.

The other workshop I taught was the tried and true Boro Sampler Book workshop but in a new location. My friend Rhiannon Alpers invited me to teach out of her studio space in San Francisco and it attracted some really talented students. They were artists, designers and creative business owners and needless to say their books were gorgeous.

I love how this student used Sally Fox fabric scraps as patches AND thread that she unraveled from the fabric:

student work - Sally Fox fabric and unraveled thread

And, more fabulous student work:

The next Boro Sampler Book workshop will be at Handcraft Studio School on July 15th, 2017. 

I'm traveling to Tennessee in a couple of weeks to teach at Arrowmont (class is waitlisted) and then to Shakerag to be a student! Really looking forward to both and will be sure to report back. 

Happy Summer of making to all and hope to see you in a workshop!

Three Days Are Better Than One - Japanese Boro Textiles

I recently taught a three day workshop at Cabrillo Extension entitled: Boro Textiles: Books, Bags, Zokin and Zakka.

One of the students brought in this stunning Boro specimen

 

I won't go into too much detail here since one of my students, Gayle, wrote a great blogpost with much better pictures than I was able to take. And, a student's perspective is always different than the teacher's! Here is a link to her blog: Gayleygirl

Some of my books brought in for inspiration

 

For almost two years now I have been teaching the Boro Sampler Book Workshop (see previous posts here and here) and just this last year I developed and taught the Boro Bags workshop (previous post here). They have been very popular and students have done such wonderful work that I wanted to give them three days in a row so that they could really immerse themselves in the subject.

Student sampler pages before binding

 

On the first day we made sampler books to learn what I call the vocabulary of Boro so that students had the language of the stitching and mending techniques in their hands.

 

Student sampler pages before binding

 

On the second day we were able to dive right into the bags since they already had the language down. This allowed them to explore different iterations of the stitching techniques as well as incorporate some surface design techniques into their bags. And, of course, many of the students brought their own gorgeous textiles like this eco-printed fabric:

 

Student work - on its way to being a bag/tsunobukuro

 

Day three was a free day where students were allowed to revisit anything previously taught or to dive into something new like a garment, zakka items or an art piece! To my surprise many students wanted to continue on their bags which was just fine and that resulted in some stunningly detailed work. 

This student made a boro-bunny-bear in addition to her sampler book and bag:

 This fabric was on its way to becoming a vest:

 

The workshop filled so quickly that we immediately planned a second date at Cabrillo Extension and that is coming up in September 2016: information here.

It looks like there may be some longer versions of the class in the works and coming up at a couple of out-of-state venues in 2017 and I'll announce those as soon as things are confirmed and posted.

Next blogpost will be a Fall 2016 teaching round up so you are sure to know where I'll be teaching in the coming months. (And, I'm working on creating a central place where you can go to see where I'm teaching and what is coming up - possibly on the "workshops" page of this blog - makes sense, right? Working on it!)

 

Spring/Summer 2016 Teaching Roundup

Although some of you are just starting to experience the first signs of Spring, registration for Summer workshops is in full swing and I want to make sure you don't miss out. And, some of the spring workshops are still open, and even if they are full it is worth it to get on the waitlist - you never know!

Here is what I have scheduled between now and September 2016:

Boro Bags

Boro Bags

 A Verb for Keeping Warm

May 14th, 10:30 - 4:30

Oakland, CA

  (class is full but get on the waitlist!)

Stitched Photo Collage

Stitched Photo Collage

Wishi Washi Studio

May 21st, 10:00 - 4:00

Santa Cruz, CA 

(class is full but get on the waitlist!) 

Boro Sampler Book

Boro Sampler Book

Squam Art Retreats

June 1st - June 5th

Squam Lake - yes, on a lake! and you get to choose two different classes from a stellar line-up of instructors

Holderness, New Hampshire

If you need persuading beyond the thought of stitching lakeside in June, here is a teaser Squam video:


Dreaming of Squam from Squam on Vimeo.
 

Boro Sampler Book

Handcraft Studio School

June 25th, 10:00 - 4:00 
(not on a lake but this is one of the best workshop venues in the Bay Area!)

Emeryville, CA 

Boro Textiles: Zakka

Boro Textiles: Books, Bags, Zokin and Zakka
Cabrillo Arts Summer Workshops
July 29, 30, 31st, 10 - 4 each day
Aptos, CA

This will be three days dedicated to learning the language of Boro and applying it to books, bags, clothing and art projects.
 
Register by June 6th for the Early Bird Special! 

and

there are still a couple spaces in  
Jennie Hinchcliff's upcoming workshop 
in Wishi Washi Studio:

Creative Carousel Books: Layers and Windows 
Wishi Washi Studio
Saturday, April 30th, 10-5
Santa Cruz, CA   

Creative Carousel Books with Jennie Hinchliff

 
 If you are in the Santa Cruz area you don't want to miss this chance to learn from Jennie!

And, remember there are always workshops on Creativebug 
anywhere, all the time, 24/7.

Hope to see you out there soon!
 

Boro Bags!

What's with the bags? 

I usually teach bookmaking and paper arts classes but for a number of years now textiles have been creeping their way into my artwork, and naturally, my teaching.

Tsuno Bukuro and Azuma Bukuro

Japanese Boro textiles have been an inspiration to me and have greatly influenced my series KEEP: Modern Library. In researching Boro I have taught myself many of the stitching techniques, learned a great deal about the different kinds of textiles that form boro, and started a small collection of my own.

Some Boro Textile pieces from my collection

 

In looking at Boro textiles, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful cloth Japanese bags. Traditional and contemporary Japanese bags are simple yet ingenious in design, and combined with Japanese textile printing, dying and weaving techniques - gorgeous. And then patched and repaired - scrumptious! Possibly, too, I gravitate toward bags because, like books, they are containers that can be stitched in a number of different ways. Their construction fascinates me.

Stitching on one of my Boro Bag class samples

My gateway bag was the tsuno bukuro. Yoshiko Wada taught us how to make that bag at Shakerag and ever since then I have been teaching myself to make other types of bags, mostly by looking at bags that I have seen and/or collected.

Class samples and supplies

I had been teaching the Boro Sampler Book class for a while and it has continued to be popular but I wanted to mix things up a bit so I developed the Boro Bags class. In this workshop we use one length of cloth as our sampler enabling students to work on a larger scale than was possible with the books.

Student work - Boro Bags Workshop

Students learn basic Boro mending and repair techniques that they practice on their cloth and then at the end of the class they make the cloth into a bag. Two different bag patterns are taught - the tsuno bukuro and the azuma bukuro. They are both quite simple, but clever in design, and can be used as a project bag, shopping bag, or even a clutch like bag.

Student work - Boro Bags Workshop

Students can then incorporate the learned techniques, and what I call the Boro aesthetic, into future sewing projects or into their art practice. 

 

Student work - Boro Bags workshop

It took me a while to develop this class since there were so many variables so in January I ran a "beta" class in Wishi Washi Studio to test it out. Everything went swimmingly so I offered two more in the last month and I now feel like the class is tried and true!

Student work - Boro Bags workshop

Two more Boro Bags workshops are coming up so check out these venues if you would like to learn about Japanese Boro textiles, try your hand at some of the stitching and mending techniques, and make a bag!:

Mountain Maid Workshops, Grass Valley, CA - April 23rd

A Verb for Keeping Warm, Oakland, CA - May 14th

(Update: directions for the Boro Bags are in my book: The Boro Aesthetic available on Blurb.com)