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.