Hi, I’m Becka.
I’m an artist who explores ideas through paper, fiber, pattern, and technology. My favorite projects usually start with curiosity and end somewhere I wasn’t expecting. I enjoy exploring new techniques, combining ideas from unexpected places, and seeing what happens when I follow a question instead of a plan.
I share that process through my artwork, writing, and teaching because I think creativity is more fun when it’s shared. I believe that seeing the whole creative process—the experiments, the successes, the failures, the art, the business, and everything in between—makes makes trying something new feel a little more possible.
Curiosity is contagious. I hope you find something here that inspires you to follow your own.
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Studio Journal
Product Review: Benzie Design Stuffing Tool
As a part of the Benzie Design Maker Team this year, they have sent me a couple of boxes of craft supplies. It has all been beautiful and so fun to discover some new things. In this latest package, they included one of their stuffing tools. To be honest, I am glad that it said what it was on the package because this is the kind of tool that you run across in a sewing box and then post about on Facebook to say “does anybody know what this thing is?”
I don’t think I ever would have ordered one for myself, because who thinks of searching for a stuffing tool? I use a chop stick or a knitting needle or a pair of forceps. Which all work basically fine. But since I had it, I pulled it out the other day to give it a try.
The tool’s end is only about as big around as a bamboo skewer and it has notches cut so it looks like a plus sign if you look at it from the end. It seems really simple. But here’s the surprise: it really works!
[read more…]
Blackwork isn’t just black and white
I just wrapped up teaching the Zoom version of my Modern Blackwork Embroidery Sampler class. We had such fun stitching it and for my group who have been meeting together weekly for several years now, this project had a unique challenge: counting.
So a little here’s a little history lesson. Blackwork has been around for a long time. The version you see if you Google the words “blackwork embroidery” was popular in the English Renaissance, although similar kinds of counted-thread embroidery were being done in other parts of the world much earlier. Traditionally, it was black silk thread on off-white linen, and it was often used on clothing, especially places like collars and cuffs. The reason it was specific to those parts of garments is because the traditional stitch, called the Holbein or double running stitch, is reversible. Since you can often see both sides of the fabric on collars and cuffs, that meant your stitching looked good no matter which side you were seeing.
A lot of the early designs were geometric and floral, which makes sense when you’re stitching on an even-weave fabric that gives you a built-in grid. It’s a pretty good setup for crisp geometrics and repeating patterns. [read more…]
Why a Fiber Artist Makes Paper Art
When I applied for an art show a few months back, I had to pick a category for my art: Fiber Arts or Paper. And I was stumped. I do both. And sometimes both in the same piece. Ultimately I decided that I would go with fiber arts because that’s what I’m “known for” in the local community and if someone was looking for where my booth was, that was probably the category that they would flip to.
I started adding more and more paper to my work about the time of the pandemic. I was trying to find things I could teach people that they could do from their own homes. I was also bored out of my mind and looking for classes I could take from home. Fabric and thread were hard to find. Paper was just much easier to get ahold of, especially recycled paper. It was an obvious choice for me because I’ve been designing fabrics from recycled papers for years, so it was already a part of my practice, just not necessarily the finished product.
I didn’t really set out to become a paper artist. At first, paper was just a practical solution to a practical problem. [read more…]
What I Wish People Knew Before They Start Designing Fabric
Spoonflower announced a sort of re-branding this week and I was thinking back about my relationship with Spoonflower over the years. If you’ve taken a class from me, you might have heard some of my stories, but I was on the beta-test list back when Spoonflower was basically just an idea and a single ink-jet printer. I’ve still got that first yard of fabric that I printed. We wrote The Spoonflower Handbook a few years after that. I’d like to think Spoonflower and I were still friends these days, although I don’t think I even know anyone who works there anymore. It’s been a lot of years and rebrands since then; I’m sure they’ll never see this post.
I met Spoonflower’s co-founder, Steven, because I was an assistant at a class he taught here in Minneapolis for the Surface Design Association. In class, we were making dinner napkins from crayon drawings. Yes, a big national conference workshop and we were drawing with crayons.
And that got me thinking about what I wish people knew about designing fabric. In the time since we wrote the book, the marketplace for teaching people about fabric design has [read more…]
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