Yarn Painting with Robin L. Bernstein

Saturday, February 8 + Saturday, February 15
with a midweek meetup
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The making of a yarn painting is much more than simply drawing a design and filling it in. The process of pressing colorful yarn into wax under the warm glow of a lamp accompanied by the sweet smell of honey is as meditative as it is exhilarating. It involves simple materials and little modern technology. And yet, the medium lends itself to communicating deeply held beliefs, ideas, and observations of the world. It also gives one opportunities to use color by optical mixing, as symbolism, and as a reflection of your personal aesthetic.

In this workshop, you will learn about traditional yarn paintings of the Huichol Indians, and see examples of work by professional artists and students. Working on a prepared wood panel, you will compose and transfer your design, and press and cut yarn into the wax. You will collect and have available a variety of colorful yarns, embroidery floss and colored strings from all corners of your life.

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Robin L. Bernstein (She/Her)

Robin L. Bernstein studied art in St. Paul, MN, and Champaign-Urbana, IL, before earning her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute. Once she discovered wood construction, she began to combine woodcarvings with thinly cut sheet metal, hammered together with thousands of tiny escutcheon pins. Years later, and along a similarly obsessive vein, she began pressing colored string into wax after learning about the Huichol Indians and their spiritual practices in Central Mexico. Her current work responds to urgent contemporary concerns as well as relevant historic events. She lives and teaches in Northern California.

Lacemaking with Maggie Hensel-Brown

Saturday, February 22 + Saturday, March 1
with a midweek meetup
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Make your own piece of needle lace. Starting from the very first steps, this workshop will carefully walk through every stitch, from start to finish, to make a specially designed “Knickers” sampler.

Needle lace is a medium with a long and rich history or storytelling and craftsmanship. With fewer and fewer practitioners working now in these techniques, this is an opportunity to keep the skills alive and in as many new hands as possible.

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Maggie Hensel Brown (She/Her)

Maggie Hensel Brown is a multi-disciplinary artist who specializes in contemporising traditional lace techniques. In 2015 she started working with Australian lacemakers to study, teach and build the profile of needle-made laces. She has training in Reticella, Punto in Aria, Aemilia Ars and Venetian Gros Point needle laces, and creates her works using a combination of techniques drawn from each of those traditions. Her works are based on the long tradition of storytelling in needle lace. Drawing from her own life, her laces use thousands of tiny traditional stitches to tell stories of contemporary moments of frustration, boredom and bliss.

Hensel-Brown has given public talks on the interweaving of lace making and contemporary thought at various conferences around Australia, as well as across the USA, including the University of Wisconsin and Bard University in New York. She exhibits widely around Australia and internationally, and regularly teaches needle lace classes both digitally and in person. Her lace works have been collected by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney NSW, the Tamworth Regional Art Gallery NSW, and the Denver Art Museum in Colorado USA.

 

Textile Alchemy with Theda Sandiford

Saturday, March 8 + Saturday, March 15
with a midweek meetup
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“Textile Alchemy” is an engaging and innovative workshop that combines the exploration of different environments—beaches, urban areas, and even our own closets—to source unique materials for textile art. Participants will learn how to source and creatively utilize found and upcycled materials from diverse environments to craft meaningful and sustainable textile pieces. The workshop emphasizes sustainability, resourcefulness, and innovation, encouraging participants to find artistic potential in the most unexpected places. By embracing a zero-waste philosophy, this workshop invites participants to turn what might be considered "waste" into "wonder."

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Theda Sandiford (She/Her)

Theda Sandiford is a highly regarded artist known for her unique approach to fiber and installation art. Drawing inspiration from the profound impact of racial trauma, she skillfully combines various fibers and found materials using techniques such as weaving, coiling and knotting. The materials she meticulously gathers, along with contributions from the community, serve as a representation of collective memory, forming what she terms "social fabric." This fusion of contemporary issues with personal narratives results in a vibrant tapestry of interconnected stories.

Central to Theda's artistic process is community art-making. She orchestrates diverse experiences that unite people through sound and artistry, providing a platform to explore themes such as equity, inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being.

Theda's artistic footprint extends globally. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim and Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. She has showcased in prestigious venues such as World of Threads, Expo Chicago, Untitled Art Fair, SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW, Governor's Island NYC, New Jersey Arts Annual, and the American Contemporary Craft: National Juried Exhibition. Her work has received acclaim in Excellence in Fibers VI and Fiber VIII from Fiber Art Now, earning her the 2020 Jersey City Arts Visual Artist Award, the 2021 Fellowship in Craft from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the 2022 Jersey City Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. She has been named a Fellow for the 2023-24 National of Leaders of Color Fellowship program.

 

Knotless Netting with Jenine Shereos

Saturday, March 22 + Saturday, March 29
with a midweek meetup
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In this workshop we will investigate the potential of knotless netting as a way of both revealing and concealing form. In some instances the netting functions as a second skin, and in others it seems to give form to the air itself. We’ll explore the potential of this technique across various materials such as waxed linen, wire, thread, and cordage. Working with found objects as a starting point, we’ll begin to layer material and meaning. We’ll also consider the history of netting and lace and look at the work of other artists who are using this evocative technique. You’ll come away from this workshop with a number of material studies and inspiration for future projects and explorations!

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Jenine Shereos (She/Her)

In this workshop we will investigate the potential of knotless netting as a way of both revealing and concealing form. In some instances the netting functions as a second skin, and in others it seems to give form to the air itself. We’ll explore the potential of this technique across various materials such as waxed linen, wire, thread, and cordage. Working with found objects as a starting point, we’ll begin to layer material and meaning. We’ll also consider the history of netting and lace and look at the work of other artists who are using this evocative technique. You’ll come away from this workshop with a number of material studies and inspiration for future projects and explorations!

 

Wrangling Wool Fibers in Wet Felting: Variables, Controls and Calculations for Shrinkage with Lisa Klakulak

Saturday, April 5 + Saturday, April 12
with a midweek meetup
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Felting wool fiber is a relationship of mass and space. So, let’s engage with a scale and a means for measuring area to gain some control over this often mystified, highly variable process to help you understand what you get and get what you want. Felting is attributed, of course, to the biology of hair, but the process is dictated by external conditions and forces that we control, the human variable in the process! Wet felting provides a unique sense of agency in the actual making of the material simultaneous to ones just touching it. Through a full range of pressure and rapidity of agitation, from the gentlest of nudging and nurturing to heated agitation and intrusive, directive pressure, we’ll expand our sense of touch.

We will discuss biological characteristics of wool, theory on fiber lay out, wet out and vertical fiber integration vs horizontal as related to possible shrinkage and resulting surface quality for two 2 extremely different weights of wool. With some simple math let’s calculate shrinkage of area and dimensions, learn how to apply these numbers to recreate the same quality of felt in various sizes based on one’s desired outcome and learn what “partial felt” is and discuss its varied applications in broadening felt design.

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Lisa Klakulak (She/Her)

Lisa Klakulak is an artist, wordsmith and educator living in Asheville NC. Klakulak graduated in 1997 with a BFA in Fiber Arts from Colorado State University after which she earned a Visual Arts Teaching License while an Artist-in-Residence at Tennessee Tech University’s Appalachian Center for Craft from 2002-2005. Exploring, making and teaching under the guise of STRONGFELT, Klakulak’s work has been recognized through American Craft Council and James Renwick Alliance Awards and publications, such as Fiber Arts, Surface Design Journal, Shuttle Spindle Dyepot, Fiber Art Now, American Craft and several international Felt Journals. With a reputation for technical precision and its opposite, wanderlust, her career and aesthetic have been marked by worldwide travel, conducting workshops in over a dozen countries. Having complete a Master’s Degree in Sculpture in Spring 2020, Klakulak’s recent work dials in on the correlation of concepts of space in material, social environments and the psyche.

 

Papermaking + Encaustics with Radha Pandey

Saturday, April 19 + Saturday, April 26
with a midweek meetup
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In this workshop participants will learn how to process plants for papermaking, and apply encaustic to their finished papers. In the first session of this workshop, we will cover papermaking–there are several plants that are good for making paper, including many you can harvest in your yard or neighborhood. Participants will learn how to identify which part of the plant might be good for papermaking, how to process the plant for fiber, how to process this into pulp and make simple sheets of paper using easy-to-find materials. In the second session, we will cover encaustics, and how the application of wax can transform your handmade paper into luminous pieces with many possibilities.

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Radha Pandey (She/Her)

Radha Pandey is a book artist, papermaker and letterpress printer. She earned her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She specializes in Indo-Islamicate Papermaking and teaches book arts classes in India, Europe and the US.

Her book Anatomia Botanica (2014) won the MICA Book Award and received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. In 2018, her book Deep Time won the Joshua Heller Memorial Award. Pandey’s most recent book Flora of Mughal India won the prestigious MCBA Book Prize (2024).
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Her books are held in over 80 collections internationally, including the Library of Congress and Yale University. Currently, Radha is working on a large-scale version of her book, Jaali, a movable book exploring co-existence using Islamic geometry in architectural motifs in India.

 

Cross Structure Binding: Two Ways with Erin Fletcher

Saturday, May 3 + Saturday, May 10
with a midweek meetup
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The Cross Structure gets its name from the interlacing that occurs across the spine to bring the covers together. These modern bindings are rooted in techniques found in medieval structures and were created by Carmencho Arregui. Although there are several variations on the Cross Structure, we will explore just two in this workshop. Beginning with the Basic, students will learn the technique for sewing and the basic way of interlacing the covers. The Protective variation will be the second model we explore. This binding will have leather covers and include button closures. We will also look at ways of adding texture onto the leather. This workshop is suitable for students with any level of bookbinding skill including beginners.

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Erin Fletcher (She/Her)

Erin Fletcher is the owner of Herringbone Bindery located in Austin. She crafts one-of-a-kind fine bindings and small editions for various clients and institutions. Her work is regularly exhibited throughout the US and abroad and is held in public and private collections. She first discovered a love for bookbinding while studying at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This experience brought her to study bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School in Boston where she graduated in 2012. She regularly teaches book arts workshops online and at venues throughout the US.

 

Introductory Bojagi with Youngmin Lee

Saturday, May 17 + Saturday, May 24
with a midweek meetup
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Bojagi are traditional Korean wrapping cloths. They were used to wrap, cover, carry, or store objects in daily life, on special occasions, and in religious rituals. Koreans believe that bojagi can not only wrap an object but can also enclose bok (福, 복, good fortune or happiness). The act of making bojagi also carries wishes for the well-being and happiness of its recipients. The labor of love and the good wishes felt while making the bojagi imbue the item with the affectionate energy of the maker.

Jogakbo, patchwork bojagi, embodies the philosophy of recycling, as the wrapping cloths are made from remnants of leftover fabric. Jogak means a small piece’ in Korean. There are many types of jogakbo, defined by the materials used, size, construction, and design.

Using Korean traditional stitch and seam techniques, Youngmin will teach basic jogakbo construction in this workshop. Bojagi construction involves hand stitching, which can be very relaxing. While working on your bojagi, wish for the happiness and well-being of the recipient of your finished bojagi.

 

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Youngmin Lee (She/Her)

Youngmin Lee is a textile artist using bojagi tradition and techniques to create her work. Her interest in textiles led her to study Clothing and Textile in college and received an MFA in Fashion Design in South Korea. She has researched bojagi making and techniques and endeavor to apply her findings to both in traditional and contemporary art. She actively works on preserving the bojagi tradition that embodies the philosophy of recycling and up-cycling, as the works are made from pieces of fabric leftover from other projects. She is working closely with Asian American community with community engaged projects and workshops. She founded the Korean Textile Tour in 2017 to introduce Korean traditional textile art and culture to bridge broader audiences. Youngmin’s works have been exhibited and collected internationally. Her new book, Bojagi: The Art of Korean Textiles with Techniques and Project, is coming in 2024.