UpcomingClasses

1 April, 2012

How did I get this busy?

beckarahn2012-04-01T22:19:43-05:00Classes & Teaching|Comments Off on How did I get this busy?

I have lots of behind-the-scenes-can’t-talk-about-it-yet projects going on here at the Project Journal so there is not much to talk about. However, I am teaching a couple of classes and events coming up very soon:

* Textiles for Teachers: Native American Fiber Arts is tomorrow evening at the Textile Center. This is a bit longer session than I did for the Art Educators of MN conference last year. We are going to cover beadwork, quillwork, quilting, natural dyes, finger weaving, and twining. I did a couple of simple natural dye samples this afternoon and hung them on the clothesline to dry. Both coffee and tea turn out virtually the same color on wool yarn, which is essentially “manilla envelope”. Someone asked me if you could get different shades with different kinds of tea and the answer is basically no. Good to know. There are still spaces available if you want to join us.

* Tuesday night is “5 Centers, 5 Media” also at the Textile Center. This is a 5 week class where each night you get to go to a different art center and dabble in something new. We are partnering with Northern Clay Center, MN Center for Book Arts, Highpoint Center for Printmaking and IFP Film & Video. My class is going to do shibori dyed silk scarves and some needle felting. This class is full, but there is another session coming up in July.

* On Saturday I will be at the Walker Art Center leading a “Make a Felted Garden” project for their free family day. My team of fiber art teachers and I are hopefully going to help about 400 people make a collaborative wet felted 3-d piece of art. I am going to be tired by the end of that day!

* Then in 3 weeks I will be doing a demo of something at the American Craft Council show. I know my shift is Friday 10-2, but not sure what to demo. I would like to do some of my digital fabric work, but I am trying to decide how to make that something interesting to watch. We will see.

* They just put out the class schedule for the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival and I am teaching “Photo Help” there in May. I love teaching technology classes with my laptop and LCD in the 4H barn. The juxtaposition of the high and low tech just tickles me – I taught a session about Etsy and one about blogging a couple of years ago. This year’s class is all about how to get your photos set for submitting to craft fairs, exhibitions, magazines and so on. How to resize, crop, touch up, rename and how to figure out what exactly they are looking for.

* Finally I am teaching a hands on Digital Fabric design class in Stillwater MN at Darn Knit Anyway also in May. My last class was so much fun that I hope this one fills up too. This class we are going to go step by step through how to make a “fabric label”, or basically a design that incorporates an image and some text. It could be a label for the back of a special quilt; it could be a banner for your art fair booth; it could be a pillow for a special event. Simple project, lots of ways to use it.

* I am also very excited to be assisting once again for Stephen Fraser of Spoonflower.com, who is coming to teach a workshop at the Textile Center on May 5.

6 March, 2012

Things in Progress

beckarahn2012-03-06T09:15:30-06:00Classes & Teaching, Gallery Exhibitions, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off on Things in Progress

It’s been quiet around here but really I am working on all kinds of things.

This exhibition opened at the Textile Center and light rail construction “officially” started. Constructions in Concert.

I taught a digital fabric design class. Hi Class! This was their “grid works” fabric design based on a celestial theme. I am teaching another class at Darn Knit Anyway in May. You should come!
I started knitting another “Venomous Tentacula” shawl. I wear my other one all the time and I love when people ask me what the pattern is and I say “venomous tentacula” and they look at me like I have lost my marbles. The photo of my other one is actually featured on the pattern page – the designer asked if she could use my photo (cool!) and will be featured on another site that is putting together kits to go with the pattern. This one is merino/silk yarn that I dyed and I have been waiting for the perfect thing to knit with it.
I have very recently become the co-Captain of the Etsy Sellers Assisting Sellers Mentoring Team. (Team SASsy) My job is keeping track of the team blog and Facebook page and doing a lot of mentoring in between. If you have an Etsy shop, you should know about us.
I submitted an article to a new e-zine about teaching embroidery to kids. We will see if they like it.

And somehow it is March already. How did that happen?

20 February, 2012

Book Review: Write, Publish & Sell Your Crafty Ebook

beckarahn2012-02-20T16:13:13-06:00Classes & Teaching, Everything Else|Comments Off on Book Review: Write, Publish & Sell Your Crafty Ebook

A while back, I took a class about writing crafty e-books from the lovely Diane Gilleland at craftypod.com. She decided to take all of the information (and more) from the class and turn it into a book. So, it’s literally an e-book about writing crafty e-books.

What’s an e-book, you say? In this case it is a .pdf file that makes an 84 page book, with photos and links and more. Since I had taken the class and chatted with Diane a few times about other geeky things, she asked if I would review the book. Absolutely!

So, I really liked the e-book publishing class, but I think the book, Write, Publish & Sell Your Crafty E-Book, is even better. The book format appeals more to me because it is so self directed. I can read, highlight and make notes on the .pdf and have Google open in another window to check things out. I can print it out if I want to. I can skip ahead or back when I feel like it. It was also great to see concepts in practice – for example, I could see right away what she was talking about with clickable chapter links or the copyright on the bottom of the page because I had an e-book right in front of me with those very features.

Diane has divided the book up into 4 chapters, which are roughly: Things to Think about, How To Make It, How to Get it to Customers, How to Market it. You get a sense of Diane’s personality throughout – friendly with a little humor but professional at the same time – which makes it a really easy read. I also appreciate that she shares a lot of “things she has figured out the hard way”, real examples to illustrate topics she is talking about and why she makes certain recommendations.

Chapter One has a lot of really great tips to get you thinking about your own e-book project and making a plan. She encourages you to think in very specific ways about the audience for your book throughout the process. As crafty people/artists I think it is easy for us to get caught up in the “fun of creating” and forget about everyone else.

Chapter Two is probably my favorite section of the book. This is the “how to make it” part and is a really thorough list of not only all the parts of your book you should think about, but some basics of design as well. The beautiful part of this section is that a lot of the design suggestions and concepts could really be applied to all kinds of things you might self publish – single patterns, artist statements, exhibition postcards, class handouts. Making a really appealing and professional looking publication is a great skill to learn.

Chapter Three and Four are the technical “delivering it to customers” section and marketing. This is in some ways the most intimidating part of the publishing your own book process, but I think these two chapters are a good foundation with plenty of examples to help you “get it”. They are also packed with resources (e-books can have live weblinks!) to other places (articles, podcasts) where she has covered a certain concept or topic in more depth.

I am teaching a mini-class on publishing .pdf patterns for a group of the International Old Lace Society in August and I plan to have Diane’s book on my Recommended Reading list. (I am going to read it myself a couple more times before then.)

23 January, 2012

68 more kids learned how to make felt today.

beckarahn2012-01-23T19:14:44-06:00Classes & Teaching, Everything Else|Comments Off on 68 more kids learned how to make felt today.

“Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”
— Jim Henson

Three of my very favorite fiber artists showed these kids what it is like to be super excited about fiber art. Job well done, ladies.

18 October, 2011

One of these things is not like the other…

beckarahn2011-10-18T20:06:41-05:00Classes & Teaching, Weaving, Felting & FIbers|Comments Off on One of these things is not like the other…

I am presenting a session in a couple of weeks for art educators about Native American fiber art. So I started today to do a little research to write the background info on finger weaving for my handout. Many schools study the Voyageurs in Minnesota history and so finger weaving is something that comes up frequently. When I started googling, I was dismayed at how many techniques are being labeled as finger weaving. Can you spot the “real” finger weaving in the collage above?

In the top left you see finger knitting. I often have kids tell me they know how to fingerweave and really they mean finger knitting. What’s the difference? Finger knitting involves making loops. Loops go over your fingers and loops go over one another to make a stretchy knit fabric.

Next is backstrap weaving. This uses a small rigid heddle to hold the threads in place and to help you move them back and forth to create the weave. The warp threads are put through the heddles and you weave with a separate shuttle thread.

On the top right is loom knitting. It works the same way as finger knitting, just with more “fingers”. This is a sample made on a comb, which is a great idea and I know my summer camp kids will think this is groovy.

Bottom left is macrame. It has beads and square knots. (It’s a screen shot from a YouTube video so I could see the process as they were working it.)

And finally, finger weaving. Finger weaving is like an elaborate braid, where you are moving the warp and weft threads with your fingers. It is unusual in that the same threads are used for both warp and weft, they just change places as you work.

23 September, 2011

Electric Stitches

beckarahn2011-09-23T11:45:55-05:00Classes & Teaching|2 Comments

By some cosmic coincidence, I got to take a class this week. I coordinate about 200 classes every year, but I almost never get to attend any purely as a student. The class was about stitched “soft” circuits using conductive thread. Cool huh? I learned how to make two kinds of switches – a “permanent” snap switch and a “squeeze” switch (using conductive thread and fabric) and mounted a battery and 2 LED’s. This is the sample project we made, a kind of girl scout badge, showing off our circuit. I put most of my components on the top rather than hiding them on the back. I thought it looked cooler that way. It was a fun class and it was really inspiring to do something new.