Special Topics Workshops

From Rectangles to Repeats: Learn to design your own fabrics with Spoonflower, working with Adobe Photoshop as a fabric design tool. Using photographs, paintings, drawings and cut paper textures as starting points for your designs, class time will be focused on practice with digital tools and techniques for creating seamless textures, learning how to work with layers, and understanding the techniques to accomplish specific effects. You will see hands-on samples of all of the Spoonflower fabrics and talk about optimizing your design for printing on different surfaces, troubleshooting color and scale, and choosing the right fabric for your project. You do not need drawing or painting skills; no experience with Photoshop or fabric design is necessary, although you should be comfortable with basic computer functions (copy/paste, saving and uploading files, working with a thumbdrive). You will leave class with several print-ready design files and will receive printed swatches of your designs mailed to you after class. Visit spoonflower.com to learn more about this platform.

Becka Rahn is a digital fabric designer, specializing in complex textured designs from cut paper illustrations using recycled papers and engineered photographic prints. She is the co-author of The Spoonflower Handbook, a how-to guide to designing your own fabrics. She has received grants from Jerome Foundation and the MN State Arts Board for her work and was recognized with an emerging artist award by Fiber Art Now magazine in 2018. Becka has taught workshops and seminars at national conferences including Surface Design Association, Midwest Weavers Guild and Handweavers Guild of America, as well as Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. She has served on the international Etsy Sellers Advisory Board, representing niche craft business owners and as a member of the board of directors at the Weavers Guild of MN and Hennepin History Museum. She is an active teaching artist in her community, working with local museums, art centers and schools, including a residency at the Bell Museum in 2020/21. Becka lives in Minneapolis with her husband and black lab, Leo. She spends a lot of time thinking about pixels.

Instructor website: beckarahn.com
Instagram: @beckarahn

Angie works in mixed media, primarily surface design on cotton and silk.  Knowles first encountered surface design in 2008 when she joined the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild and has since studied under many leading artists including: Jane Dunnewold, Kerr Grabowski, and Gasali Adeyemo.  She offers workshops in her studio and has taught at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Angie works in mixed media, primarily surface design on cotton and silk.  Knowles first encountered surface design in 2008 when she joined the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild and has since studied under many leading artists including: Jane Dunnewold, Kerr Grabowski, and Gasali Adeyemo.  She offers workshops in her studio and has taught at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Instructor website: angieeknowles.com

Join Rivers of Steel at Touchstone Center for Crafts for a one-of-a-kind workshop in bronze casting. You will work with leading foundry artist Ed Parrish for this 5-day workshop to build and transform your unique creations into solid bronze. Beginning with the creation of a pattern from wax, oil clay, or other basic materials, you will then learn to invest your pattern design in resin-bonded sand molds and work to cast each object on the final day of the workshop. PLEASE NOTE: Materials and Studio Fees includes some of the cost of foundry sand and bronze with additional available for purchase. This cost is calculated based on usage at the end of the workshop.

Ed was born and raised in North Carolina. He attended East Carolina University where he earned a BFA in sculpture. Soon after college Parrish relocated to Pittsburgh where he began working as an artist blacksmith and fabricator. He was part owner of Red Star Ironworks a custom metal shop focusing on decorative metal work. Moving forward he worked as an independent artist and taught foundry classes out of his private studio. Ed also worked in the film industry as a special effects technician and specialty prop maker. Parrish lead Hot Metal Happening a series of public iron casting events at various locations around Pittsburgh. He has exhibited work at the Mattress Factory, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Space Gallery, and most recently, a solo exhibit at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination. Currently he is working with the Rivers of Steel Arts as the lead foundry artists developing foundry and metal arts programing. Parrish has over twenty years’ experience and a lifelong dedication to the exploration of metal arts.

website: Rivers of Steel
Instagram: @edparrishjr 

Veterans and family members are invited to join this unique workshop and learn traditional hand paper making techniques, transforming military uniforms into paper as a means for sharing stories and building community. This 5-day workshop begins with an overview and explanation of the papermaking process, seeing and feeling examples of the paper and previous art made, and beginning the process of ‘deconstructing’ the uniform. You will begin to form an idea of what you might like to put on the paper, in the form of images and words and move on to pulling sheets of paper, making pulp prints, drying the paper, and making art. The art made can and will range from pulp prints, letterpress, writing, and bookbinding. Whether the blank paper or a created image on the surface, each work of art tells a story through the language of papermaking. Uniforms, pulp, and paper with be provided but it is encouraged that the veterans attending, if they have them, bring uniforms of their own to transform into paper. It’s a powerful experience turning the uniform you wore into paper. No experience necessary – just a willingness to explore something new in a supportive environment! Provided for veterans and taught by veterans.

Frontline Paper began in 2011 as Combat Paper NJ. CPNJ was founded by veteran artists and activists, Eli Wright and David Keefe. With inspiration from master papermaker Drew Mattot, and Drew Cameron’s traveling project called Combat Paper  Project, Eli and Dave built a unique community-oriented papermaking program that connects veterans and non-veterans from all eras through the transformational  practice of making handmade paper from military uniforms, creative writing, and  printmaking via the profound connection over making and telling stories together.  Through a process of deconstruction, reclamation, and communication, Veterans connect with non-veterans, by sharing their personal stories through handmade paper, printmaking, and participatory artmaking. Combat Paper NJ became Frontline Paper in 2017. 

website: frontlinearts.org
Instagram: @frontline_paper

Starting from the ground up, you will explore the processes for gathering and using a variety of natural materials such as willow, bark, iris and day lily leaves, roots, vines and sticks, that can be used for basket weaving.  Using willow as the ‘heart’ of the basket structures, you will learn a variety of techniques while experimenting and weaving several basket styles.  This workshop will open your eyes to the possibilities of materials growing around you! Expect to weave 3-4 baskets during the workshop.

Jo has been using willow in her basketry work since the early 1980’s. Her work has been featured in magazines, books, and exhibits across the United States – one of the most recent being “A Measure of the Earth” at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Teaching throughout the United States, she is also a co-organizer for several retreats – The Willow Gathering and Willow Weekend. She is a past board member of the National Basketry Organization that focuses on connecting both traditional and contemporary basketry makers across the US and beyond. In recent years, she has hosted a number of basketry tours to Ireland, Scotland, Spain, France and Denmark, Wales and England, and Italy, visiting with basketry weavers in those countries and learning new skills with willow and other natural materials.

Instructor website: willowridgebaskets.com
Instagram: @willowridgebaskets