Contemporary Hand Embroidery

This 3-day course (6 hour days) (also available as a one day workshop) is designed to teach up to 15 students who love to stitch, create and play how to use traditional and modern materials in imaginative ways to produce a small piece of textile art which reflects their interests and personality.

• A brief overview of what we will cover:
• Selecting a general design and color scheme starting with a ground fabric
• basic design principles
• basic color theory
• Choices of materials and their sequence
• fabrics
• threads
• Tyvek
• beads
• pipe cleaners
• metal
• paint, etc.
• Applying the decorative elements
• visible stitching
• invisible stitching
• Finishing
• mounting
• framing, etc.

The students are responsible for providing basic supplies (a list will be provided) while the instructor will bring a lot of “bonus” materials which the students can use at no additional cost.

Using the Embellisher
(dry felting)

This 2-day course (6 hour days) (also available as a one day workshop) is designed to teach up to 15 students who love to manipulate fiber, create and play how to use the exciting dry felting embellisher in imaginative ways to produce a small piece of textile art which reflects their interests and personality. This inexpensive, threadless machine has been much underused by textile artists; this course will help to remedy this situation. We will use it to felt, to create a ground cloth for a complex surface design piece, and to explore its possibilities for raw edge applique. It is necessary that there be at least one machine available for every two students.

• A brief overview of what we will cover:
• We will use the embellisher with both felt and wool to build up layers and create cut out sections comparing how the different fabrics respond.
• Using hooped dress/quilt weight cottons, we will use the machine instead of thread to achieve the equivalent of raw edge appliqué. This is a much quicker, more nimble method.
• We will experiment with a wide range of textiles (ribbon, yarn, chiffons, etc.) to see how they are altered when run through the embellisher.
• Working back and front we will develop shading techniques.
• Finally, using the results of their experiments, students will make a small final project .

The students are responsible for providing basic supplies (a list will be provided) while the instructor will bring a lot of “bonus” materials which the students can use at no additional cost.

For booking details please contact Deborah directly at fiberfly@cox.net