Classes
These are my newest available workshops for all types of fiber artists. Hope they get your fiber juices started.
Introduction to Electronic Textiles
Bring your favorite textile bag – quilted, woven, embroidered, felted, or hand me down – and well light it up with LEDs using the latest advancements in electronic textiles. Using conductive yarns we’ll stitch a circuit together; no soldering, wires, or engineering degrees required. It’s even washable. You’ll get an introduction into this fascinating world of interactive garments and how to wade through the moutain of web information to find the supplies you’ll need.
Machine needle felting
Now that these new machines have gone mainstream, it is time to push their boundaries. Bring your embellisher needle-felting machine and discover the many new possibilities that arise when wool meets fabric with the help of five fast needles and a little water. Using simple techniques, you can add punch to your art quilts, make fabulous clothing and accessories, or create fantastic wall pieces all with textured surfaces perfect for embellishment with embroidery or beads.
Weaving for felt
Knitting for felting is all the rage these days, but now weavers can experience the fun of creating unique felted textiles from a woven base. We will weave at least two great looks using two entirely different felting processes all from one warp. Along the way you will learn a few loom weaving tricks, how to lay out wool fibers for felting, how to use decorative yarns and embellishments to their best advantage, and two wet felting processes.
Dyeing Outrageous Cloth
Using silk and cotton fabrics with cold water dyes, we will create bold designs that are perfect for enhancing nuno felt base cloth. These are quick and fun techniques that make textiles that can stand alone as beautiful pieces or be used as a base for laminated felt. Be careful: these techniques are addictive, you can’t do just one.
Nuno felt on outrageous cloth
Using the cloth dyed during the previous class we will delve into the exciting craft of nuno felting. This wet felting process offers an endless number of possibilities to create new textures and shapes by varying the base cloths and the manner in which the fibers are arranged. Once felted, the fleece acts like a color wash that adds depth to the finished look. We will use different fleeces, pre felts, rolags and try an embellisher machine to create exciting new textures that cry out for further embellishment.
Weaving classes available for guilds and conferences.
Plain Weave Revisited
Take a second look at plain weave and you’ll find it’s not so plain after all. Utilizing color and weave effects, differential shrinkage, novelty yarns, spaced warps, and a few other creative surprises, you’ll find there are a myriad of possibilities for this simple weave structure. Working as a round robin class with pre warped looms, you’ll go home with a sampler of possibilities for full sized projects.
2 days
Inkle Loom
In this class we will jump right into the basics of weaving without the need for complicated and expensive looms. Inkle looms are an easy way to make narrow bands in any size from bookmarks to guitar straps, belts, or even wrist distaffs. Colorful bands are simple and straightforward to warp, about as close to instant gratification as you can get with weaving.
1 day
The Woven Journal
Spend time exploring and rethinking your environment to create a small woven journal of your experiences. Capture the color and emotion of your day. After spending time with Geri, your view of your world, environment and your art will expand and will connect your daily life more closely to your weaving. This is an off loom class, open to all levels of experience.
1 or two days
Off Loom Weaving Projects
There are many wonderful off loom projects that use small amounts of yarns. We’ll begin by constructing a simple loom from inexpensive materials. While you’re weaving, we’ll look at a number of other simple looms and small projects. These projects are also suitable for use with children. We’ll discuss what ages are appropriate and a few hints on working in groups. All supplies, handouts, and materials for making the other sample looms you didn’t get time for in the class are provided.
1 or 2 days
Felting Workshops
Felting is a bottomless craft that only requires wool fleece, water, soap, and a few basic supplies.
There is no end to the directions you can explore. At the studio you can come for an introductory class or pick a technique to concentrate on for the day. Individuals may schedule with Geri directly. The cost is $75 per day and you will have Geri’s undivided attention, a real bargain price.
Workshops available for groups in the studio or on the road:
Half day or full day classes:
Nuno Felting
Think texture, think shape, think color. Think scarves, pillows, pocketbooks and garments. Think your wildest dreams; just donÕt think inside the box. WeÕll laminate wool fiber to all textures and weights of silk and cotton cloth in this wet felting class and send you home with finished pieces and samples for future projects. An embellisher machine will be available for you to try. This is a weekend long class.
Beginning Nuno Felting
Nuno Felting is the process of laminating wool to selected areas of a base cloth. In this beginner class we’ll master the process by making several small humanoids, animals, and ornaments. These smaller projects are a fun introduction to the process and give you the skills needed to make larger projects successfully. Marino fleece, base cloths, and decorative items will be provided.
Intermediate Nuno Felting
In this class you will make a lightweight drapeable wool and silk scarf. We will discuss appropriate materials and see samples of finished pieces. You will go home inspired by the limitless possibilities of this exciting process and what you can do next. Marino fleece, fabrics, and decorative items will be provided. Students are asked to bring a roll of bubble wrap 12 inches x 2 yards min., (make sure only one side is smooth), small amounts of fibers or yarns you’d like to try (optional), and rubber gloves.
Advanced Nuno Felting
Now that you know the basics of nuno felting, you can push the boundaries to make wild and funky textured scarves. Some of the new techniques we will try are: adding fringes, making puckered and sheered textures, shaping the fabric by changing the direction of the fibers, and alternating the side of the fabric that has added fibers. Marino fleece, fabrics and decorative items will be provided. Students are asked to bring a roll of bubble wrap 12 inches x 2 yards min., (make sure only one side is smooth), small amounts of fibers or yarns you’d like to try (optional), and rubber gloves.
Half day classes:
Bags, bags, bags
Use the differential shrinkage properties of wool and silk to create a uniquely textured textile the perfect weight for a handbag. We will cover patterned silk cloth with wool roving and laminate the wool to the silk. We will make a simple coordinating handle, learn a quick trick to reign in the resulting ruffles, and discuss how to stitch the whole thing together once the fabric dries. You’ll enjoy carrying the most unique bag around.
Cuddly collars and Loveable Loops
Learn how to laminate wool fibers to silk cloth to make a loop scarf or multilayer collar. You will be making fun additions to your wardrobe while you learn or hone your nuno felting skills.
Patch Pocket Perks
If you’d like to personalize a favorite jacket or blouse, try this nuno felted pocket. You can perfect straight edges or allow the silk to ruffle. This is surface design 101 with a beautiful practical product. You’ll have time to make several.
Rampant Ruffles
If you’d like to personalize a favorite jacket or blouse, try this nuno felted pocket. You can perfect straight edges or allow the silk to ruffle. This is surface design 101 with a beautiful practical product. You’ll have time to make several.
Seamless Joins
Creating a seamless garment is a two day class and two days for a workshop are hard to put together. So, in this advanced nuno felt class you will make a sample seam, learn alternate ways to lay out fibers and begin the initial shrinkage, and construct a pattern for a full sized vest to make after class.
Felted Bead Workshop
Felted beads can be a colorful and unique addition to any wardrobe, be used as buttons, or just sit in a bowl and look beautiful. In this class, we’ll make wet felted beads of several sizes and shapes and in many colors. We’ll embellish them with beads, yarns, and even tie-dye them. This is a fun and creative class.
School programs
Arts-Based Service Learning
For centuries families and communities gathered together to make their clothing and household linens by preparing fibers, spinning and dyeing yarns, and weaving or knitting fabrics. Today, the process of making clothing is fragmented – fibers may be grown in India, spun in Guatemala, dyed in the United States and assembled in Vietnam. In the process, we have lost not only the ability to make our own clothing, but also the cultural integrity that goes along with producing a unique, identifying garment from beginning to end. Teaching fiber arts raises an awareness of the issues of globalization, restores an element of cultural pride, and begins a conversation about local- and self-sufficiency. Community-wide, site specific, fiber arts projects have far reaching impacts both on the students that participate and the community that is the recipient.
Teacher In-Service
Half Day Classes
Chemical Dyes Made Easy
Natural dyes have been used for centuries in every culture and on every continent. The colors range from bright to subtle and can last for hundreds of years when applied properly. In this workshop you will learn how to dye wool yarns beautiful colors using natural and chemical dyes that are foods and food safe. These are hands on projects that work in the classroom for all grade levels using a minimum of readily available inexpensive equipment. There will be plenty of curriculum tie-ins and maybe a snack or two as well.
Weaving Stories
Weavings made on simple hand held looms are the starting point for story telling in this hands on workshop. We’ll tell a color story then weave and write our own individual stories. In the process we will learn about traditional story cloths from cultures around the world, learn several weave structures, discuss alternate age appropriate weaving projects, and be amazed by some little known historical facts that will work as curriculum tie ins for multiple disciplines.
