Workshop Round-up: Spring, Summer and Fall, 2019

Happy Belated New Year to all.

A little late on this post but here is a round-up of 2019 workshops that I have scheduled so far.

Boro Bag Workshop

French General, Los Angeles, CA

Sunday, March 31st, 2019

10:00 - 4:00

Japanese Mending as Utility and Embellishment

A Verb for Keeping Warm, Oakland, CA

Saturday, April 20th, 2019

11:00 - 5:00

The Boro Aesthetic: Creating Fiber Art Pieces Inspired by Japanese Textiles

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN

Sunday, June 2nd - Saturday, June 8th, 2019


 
Japanese Mending Techniques: Boro Sampler Book and Boro Bags
Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance, Chamblee, GA
June 9th and 10th, 2019
10:30 - 4:30 each day

Textile Manipulations: 

The Boro Aesthetic with Jody Alexander

Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word with Sandra Brownlee

Encaustic Castle, Lexington, KY

Wednesday, June 26th - Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019

Register for both or either workshop - see website for details

The Boro Aesthetic: Creating Fiber Art Pieces Inspired by Japanese Textiles

Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA

Friday, July 19th - Sunday, July 21st

9:30 - 4:30 daily

Japanese Mending as Utility and Embellishment

A Work of Heart Studio, San Jose, CA

Sunday, October 13th, 2019

11:00 - 5:00

note: first two images are bags that I have made and the last four images are Japanese textiles from my personal collection - we look at them, or similar, in all of my workshops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some of these workshop may be full but it is worth it to get on the wait list - life happens and people's plans change.

I often announce workshops earlier on Instagram and Facebook so join me there if you want workshop news earlier. Additionally, I try to keep the Workshop page on this blog up to date, so you can check that periodically, as well.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you in my workshops this coming year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

{if none of these workshops are convenient for you remember that I teach online book and paper arts workshops on Creativebug and I also have a book entitled The Boro Aesthetic that goes over much of the information I teach in my textile workshops}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
{note: many of you mention to me that they received an e-mail from me when in fact I haven't sent out an e-mail in quite a while - this is because some of you have it set up so that my blogposts go directly to your e-mail - that is great! but, please note that you can change these setting if you want - directions should be included at the bottom of the e-mail. and, if you would like to receive this as an e-mail so that you don't miss anything - there is a box in the upper right where you can enter your e-mail address}

 

Art of Textile Repair and Reuse Workshop, Summer 18

 I taught a new class recently at Cabrillo Arts. The name of the workshop is:

  

The Art of Repair and Reuse:

Looking at Mending and Re-purposing Traditions in Various Cultures as Inspiration for New Work.

 I did quite a bit of research for the course and showed students examples of repair and reuse traditions in the American South, Australia, Japan, India, China and France.

We also looked at the work of contemporary artists who create in the spirit of repair and reuse, and watched videos that exhibited different stitching techniques.

The students created samplers in the various traditions.

These samplers represented Gee's Bend and Wagga Wagga:

Of course, we made samplers inspired by Japanese Boro mending techniques - I always encourage students to vary from the indigo palette and rather focus on line, shape and texture:

 

 Samplers inspired by Kantha from India:

 When I was in France recently I saw some lovely mends on grain sacks that I shared with students - they interpreted those mends in the most creative way!:

 Chinese Ge Ba has been making the rounds on the internet and social media so we explored creating in that style, too:

 The workshop was only two days and would benefit from being a 3-5 day course where we could make the samplers at a more leisurely pace and then move on to personal projects.

 Some students just focused on the samplers but a few applied these techniques to garments that they brought into class and the results were creative, fun, whimsical and unexpected.

I'm hoping to teach this workshop again so look out for it in the new year!