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A typical Monday for a teaching artist
I laughed as I wrote the title to this post because I don’t think there is such a thing as a typical day. But many people ask me what I do and so I thought I’d write a little about what my day looks like.
So I say that my job title is “teaching artist” which to me means that I do a lot of both of those things. Yesterday I started the day with a cup of tea and responding to emails and odds and ends. I’ve got two other teaching things this week so there were logistics to work out like when I’ll get to the venue or that kind of thing. I needed to confirm another thing and one partner sent a new schedule of submission deadlines, so I put all of those into my calendar. I actually like answering emails. I know lots of artists that will avoid that task like the plague.
Then I started the day preparing materials for my evening class. I knew this class would be a little squeezed for time, so I did just a little more prep than usual so we could jump in and start working right away. This means making individual kits of materials for each student. It’s amazing how much time it takes up in a class to say “choose your colors” and let everyone pick out their supplies.
These materials kits had about 7 pieces of felt, some with pattern pieces printed and stuck on to them with freezer paper. That’s what you see in the photo is the freezer paper pieces getting cut down at the paper cutter. Our project was these flower topped trinket boxes; we made a waterlily version. Then I double checked my class bins of scissors, glue sticks and threads to make sure that they were all ready to go. My last class left a little bit of a mess in the thread bins, so I spent some time fishing trash out of the boxes and putting everything back together. Finally I went through the project and made myself a little list of bullet point steps, so I remembered the order to teach everything and made sure that I hadn’t forgotten an essential material.
Once that was set up, then I packed some Etsy orders. Weekends are usually busy for my Etsy shops, so I had about 7 orders to pull and pack. I have three Etsy shops because each has a really specific theme (fiber art geekery, dog art and oboes) so I usually pop in and just check in on all three. I print shipping labels and then check on things that need an update like listings that have expired.
Then, I really believe in balancing work with free time so I worked on a more personal project for a couple of hours since I would be teaching that evening.
On Thursday this week, I am doing a curator talk for a show that I served as co-curator for. It was a super fun experience and I decided that I wanted to make something to wear for the event. The theme of the show was mixed media, so I decided to design a mixed media fabric and make a dress. I am working on an alphabet book, so I have stitched the entire alphabet in felt letters. I already took photos of them for the book and I love when I can reuse art, so I pulled them into a Photoshop canvas and decided to write a pangram sentence, or a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. I thought it would be funny if it was something slightly sewing themed, so came up with “When vexed by quirky design, calm stitcher jumps for bold azure threads”. I layered the letter photos with some handdrawn pencil lines and a painted texture in the background and desaturated the colors a little bit. You can see my finished fabric there in the center.
I started sewing a dress yesterday and got completely stuck at the zipper step. I’ve sewed about a zillion zippers, but I don’t work with metal ones very often. This pattern calls for a 12 inch metal zipper and I dug through my bag of zippers and only had 14 inch. So I looked up a tutorial and shortening it looked like a total breeze. Wow was I wrong. I watched 3 different videos and looked at two tutorials. I rummaged through every tool and pliers in my studio and there was absolutely no way I was making that zipper shorter. The videos make it look so easy and it’s just not. So I posted something on Instagram and several of my good sewing friends agreed that it was basically a nightmare and I just ordered some new zippers. Those came today so I’ll try again.
Then it was time to head to the library. This class was at a county library branch that is about 20 minutes from my house. I always end up driving in rush hour because class is usually in the early evening. So I leave in plenty of time and usually listen to something fun on the way; Prince was my soundtrack last night. I remembered my mug of tea (Sleepytime Peach).
The classroom was set up when I got there which I always appreciate. So I right away got materials set up on tables and everything ready to go. Someone always arrives at least 20 minutes before class starts, so I try to get things done asap, so I’m not running behind if people are chatty or have questions.
Class went great! I had about 16 students and they say that there were that many more on the waiting list too. I’m glad that it was popular and I always feel sorry for the people who aren’t able to get in. It’s super important to fill out those surveys that they always give you at the end of class, so that the people setting the budget know that these kinds of events are wanted and appreciated and maybe they’ll be able to do more of them. If you love this project, I also have it as an on-demand class on my website.
Class wrapped up and I headed home to a late dinner. I will go through all of the extra materials and put things away today sometime. I noticed that a bunch of glue sticks are getting kind of dried out, so I will go through that bag and weed some out. If people don’t take their sewing needles with them, then I wash those off with alcohol before I put them away. Finally today I’ll post a thank you on my social media channels. I almost always do this when I teach a community class, not only to thank the partner I worked with like the library, but I also want to make sure that people know that I teach these kinds of classes in a big variety of places so they know to look for more.
A new online class: Monograms!
I posted a new class to Skillshare this week about stitching custom monograms. I’m going to be teaching monograms in other formats later on this summer, so keep an eye on my calendar for those too.
I’ve always loved monograms. My mom has a gold signet ring with an “S” engraved on it. When I was a little kid I always thought it was for Stafford which is my family name, but it was actually for her great aunt Sarah Saxe. She’s worn it since she was 10 years old. Mom also always signs things with her initials and addressed Christmas packages to my sisters and me by our initials. When I sign artwork it’s almost always with my initials RSR.
The embroidered piece above was my grandma Muriel’s. Those are her initials and she probably did the stitching. I think this is an embroidered case for something delicate; it folds up like an envelope and snaps closed.
In my class I show how to stitch in a satin stitch like that one so you can do a really classic looking monogram. But I also show a couple more modern versions too. In one lesson, I use a chain stitch, which is a fun retro look. Chain stitch machines were really commonly used to do nametags on uniforms and jackets in the 1930s-1940s. Check out fast.doll on Instagram; she does fun demonstrations with her machine. I also show a backstitch and a whipped backstitch which are kind of the most modern looking versions. Lots of options for you to choose and design your own.
Today’s moment of joy: What’s your favorite dessert?
The random question I drew out of my card deck today was: What is your favorite dessert?
Spoiler alert: It’s not ice cream. I am honestly not much of a sweets person at all. I just don’t have a sweet tooth. If I pick something to snack on it’s almost always salty or even sour. I love food and I love to try new things, but sweets are on the bottom of my favorites list.
I think my favorite dessert would be a beautiful, ripe, fresh peach. All by itself. I know. It’s weird.
If I am in a dessert mood, I always go for the option with fruit. I really don’t like frosting at all and you can keep the chocolate caramel overload. If I were to pick a more traditional kind of dessert, then something baked with fruit like plums or cherries, or key lime pie, or coffee ice cream.
The embroidered ice cream cones are from my Skillshare class: Sewing Sweet Treats. Those are much more my kind of treat.
Introducing Olive
There’s a new canine intern in the studio and her name is Olive.
If you’ve been around my newsletter or blog, you have probably seen Stanley, our beloved big dopey yellow lab. Tragically, we lost him in December to a rare complication of Lyme disease called Lyme nephritis. By the time we figured it out with the vet team, he was already in kidney failure. He had been vaccinated, but sadly, vaccines are amazing but not 100% effective and labradors are particularly succeptible to this horrible variation. We miss him like crazy.
I hinted about Olive in my last blog post. We had a really rough December here. Just after the holidays we also lost two very close family members and January was a blur of family meetings, crying, and travel. We decided that our house just really seemed sad and broken without a dog, so we started looking for Olive. My husband and I were secretly both looking at rescue sites without telling each other.
Olive came from Kentucky as a tiny puppy. The story we heard is that she was dumped at a month old with the 7 other puppies in her litter at an animal shelter by an old guy who said “You better take em or I’m gunna drown em”. Her paperwork says she’s a spaniel mix and she’ll be 3 months old in just a few days. She was just 3.5 lbs when she came to live with her foster family in MN. We found her through Safehands Rescue. I didn’t know anything about them before, but the social media algorithms saw me looking for puppy things and flooded my feed with little furry faces. She and two of her siblings lived for about 6 weeks with a sweet foster family here in MN. She’s not quite 12 lbs now (which is a big change from Stanley who was 104 lbs!) Puppies are a crazy amount of work so we are so grateful to her foster family who took such good care of her. Safehands Rescue was so easy to work with and I appreciate the care they take in making sure that their fosters find the right homes. 
Updated to add: I actually got to “meet” her first foster mama from the shelter in KY via Facebook and she sent me this photo of the day that Olive came to live at her house because she was too little for the shelter to deal with. Look at that tiny little sad face.
Olive is short for Olivine Pegmatite. Our dogs always have names with a story. Those are both minerals in honor of my father-in-law who passed away in January. He was a geology professor and loved dogs, so we know he would have loved her. Winter is challenging for all kinds of puppy socializing things so we are trying to think of creative errands to take her along. Yesterday she went to the post office and said hi to all the people in line. She’s already helping out in the studio by finding every tiny piece of paper on the floor to chomp. Expect more puppy art coming soon!
Hi, I’m Becka.
Talking about fabric design, teaching, and the life and business of being an artist.
Teaching online and in person classes in embroidery, handcrafts, technology, fabric design and artist business skills. Co-author of The Spoonflower Handbook.
Making books, paper art and fiber art geekery.
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