The Deconstructed Suit: Breaking Barriers

Break out of traditional approaches to garment design in this workshop as we learn to overcome the awe of cutting up something valuable, such as handwoven yardage. Students will take a 3 piece man's suit from a resale shop, " deconstruct" it and redesign it. Encouraging playfulness and the outrageous are the objectives of this class. Let your ideas roam as we talk about new design approaches, felt and melt, slash and burn, stitch, dye, and discharge old garments into something new.

Fiber Reunions

We will explore the contemporary technique of silk fiber fusion and the ancient art of wool felt-making - both in 2 dimensional formats. First we will play with silk fusion - a technique that allows silk fibers to adhere to each other thus creating highly lustrous surfaces. These surfaces are then available for further embellishment via the sewing machine, hand stitching, stamping or printing. Then we will explore wool felting with the creation of several decorative pieces.

Fiber Fluency - Mastering Your Medium

Frustrated because you can't figure out what your fiber is? Cotton? Viscose? Silk? Wool? Blends? Stymied because you aren't sure of what the possibilities of the fiber are? Will it discharge? Can it be devored or cloqued? Will it shrink? Will it wrinkle? What dye is best? Just what can this fiber do?

Learning basic characteristics of each fiber will aid you in controlling your medium as opposed to be controlled by your medium. Spend a day examining the physical characteristics of various fibers and fabrics. The instructor, with very simple experimentation and observation, will help you learn to better identify fibers so that you can maximize their basic characteristics for that really knock-out next piece.

A Stitch In Time

Rediscover the meditative quality of hand stitching. Let the thread be your "mark" on the fabric. This workshop will teach various hand stitches used for shibori, a resist dye technique. Samples will be stitched and dyed in class using an indigo dye vat or discharged. Additionally, the running stitch will be explored as simple textile collages are created in class as students work with basic design and color concepts.

Shibori and Indigo

The techniques of shibori-shaped resist dyeing that create pattern on cloth--will be explored using cloth yardage (silk or cotton) and an indigo dye vat. Arashi (pole wrapping), folding, stitching, binding, and itajime (board clamping) will be reviewed and demonstrated. Students will go home with a working knowledge of resist dye techniques for cloth and the indigo dye process.

Lectures:

Psychology of Color
Nurturing the Creative Spirit
Why Fiber?