I was thinking today that although I talk about it being “summer camp season” around here, I haven’t ever really told you what I do during the summer.  I am the administrator/errand runner/substitute teacher/curriculum developer/camp counselor and expert project finisher.  Once in a while I am “the teacher”, but mostly I just keep everything running smoothly.

We started out with a one day class making thermofax silk screens.

You make a line drawing and then run your drawing with some special coated fabric through an old-fashioned thermofax copy machine.  Magic happens, the screen opens up where the black lines are and stays solid in the other places.  Then you can silk screen paint through it.  This class made screens that they got to take home and learned how to silk screen on t-shirts and everything else.

The next week we had 6 classes going on:  a dye lab independent study, an independent study sewing class, a “dye it and quilt it” class, felting with a neighborhood program and 1 day of “5 Centers Camp”.  The independent study classes both have a goal of a finished something by the end of the week, but we let the kids figure out what it is.

• Our dye lab gang did batik and shibori and experimented with a bunch of different fabrics, t-shirts and socks.

• The sewing class made everything from a Medieval gown to a pin-tucked tank top to a summer sun dress. They pick the pattern & fabric and we just help them figure it out.

•  “Dye it & Quilt It” class got 3 1/2 yards of white muslin.  They dye the back and then 7 strips that get cut up in to squares.  This class learned 5 shibori patterns and mixed their own colors from red-yellow-blue stock solutions.  The grown-ups wield the rotary cutters, then the kids arrange and stitch their squares, tie and bind the quilt.

• “5 Centers Camp” means that the kids go from center to center and do something different each day.  We are amazingly lucky to have media specific centers here in Minneapolis.  The 5 partners are Textile Center, Northern Clay Center, MN Center for Book Arts, HighPoint Center for Printmaking and IFP (Film & Video).  Sounds fun, huh?  Our group sun painted bandanas, spun their own yarn and learned kumihimo braiding.

• Kids from the community center camp up the street came down to do a special project with us – felting “geodes” and wool pictures.

Last week we did pajama pants, a vintage inspired class (aprons, knitting, embroidery, pin cushions), another dye lab class and a skirt making class where they drafted their own skirt patterns!

This week we are:

• making pajama pants (dye the fabric and learn to sew)

•  another independent study for sewing (younger students)

•  a weaving & spinning class where they will get to spin on a spinning wheel, dye their own fiber, and try three different kinds of looms

• a re-design a t-shirt class. They will over dye and cut apart and re-sew into a new fashion.

And that’s just the classes that happen at the Textile Center.  We also did  about 15 classes knitting, finger knitting, felting, t-shirt restyles and more at libraries across the metro area.

Whew.  No wonder I am tired!