Interim Sessions 2009

Interim Course
Tutor: Gail Harker

Status: Watch for new dates.

Interim sessions are designed to provide one-on-one assistance and inspiration for those who are currently enrolled in any on going course at the center. They are also especially useful to enable students working in isolation to interact with other students. These sessions are held throughout the year. For more information about these sessions, ask for an Interim Registration Form.

Art and Design: Color Studies 101
Certificate Course, Level 1

Class Name: Angelica
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Registrations being taken.

Color, color and more color is the focus of this 5-day hands-on class.  This course provides the sound basics of color theory, stripped to its essentials. A color reference sketchbook will be started in class that will provide you with new approaches to color, a lexicon of color schemes, and a valuable reference sourcebook for years to come.  We will work with different color wheels and use various methods to create color studies. It could be an aid to the following people: quilters, embroiderers, weavers, dressmakers, knitters, floral arrangers, horticulturalists, woodworkers, designers and, in short, anyone who would like to look and work with color in a more informed way. No prior experience is necessary.  Please note that this is not a drawing class. This course is a prerequisite for Level 3 Studies in Art and Design. 

Gail Harker

Experimental Machine Stitch 101
Certificate Course, Level 1

Class Name: Cloudberry
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Registrations being taken.

This course will be based on acquiring a thorough knowledge of your sewing machine with an imaginative approach to the creation of contemporary, innovative, samples. The course will be focusing on the large variety of effects that can be achieved through imagination, rather than through the mechanical capabilities of machines. This course is a prerequisite to Studies in Design and Experimental Machine Stitch, Level 2.

Gail Harker

Experimental Hand Stitch 101
Certificate Course, Level 1

Class Name: Wind Flower
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Registrations being taken.

A creative, contemporary approach to embroidery through basic design and color. This course serves as a basic introduction to the vast world of embroidery. Techniques and stitches will be worked in imaginative methods using color, line, shape, and balance. Using your own hand-painted fabric, you will create a variety of small, embroidered samples to include line, detached, textured, and composite stitches. This course is a prerequisite to Studies in Design and Experimental Stitch, Level 2.

Gail Harker

Experimental Feltmaking 101
Certificate Course, Level 1

Class Name: Heliotrope
Tutor: Valerie Stein

Prerequisite
Status: Watch for future dates

This four day course focuses on basic techniques with an emphasis on handling and manipulating fibers. Color theory and blending of fibers will be explored as well as the building of a glossary for each. Feltmaking as a process of forming fabric, 3-D effects, felt balls and cords, pictorials and edge treatments will all be touched on. Learn the specialized skills and techniques of feltmaking so that you can approach future projects with new found creativity and confidence.

Valerie Stein

Papermaking: from Pulp to Portfolio 101
Certificate Course, Level 1

Class Name: TBA
Tutor: Lisa Harkins

Status: Registrations being taken

Paper is the most basic necessity for so many creative art applications – bookmaking, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, collage, and photography.  Take a look in any art store, and the choices will boggle your mind, yet no store-bought paper can match the amazing textures, earthy colors, and special qualities you can achieve right in your own home, using tools and materials that are easily available for little cost.  This course is an introduction to the world of hand-made paper.  Over two sessions, you will learn the specialized skills and techniques that will allow you to approach papermaking with creativity and confidence.

Leah Kaufman

Studies in Design and Experimental Hand Stitch 201
Certificate Course, Level 2

Class Name: Paper Flowers
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Watch for future dates

Paint, print and dye fabric and threads to create a portfolio of hand stitched samples and techniques. Embellishments such as beads, sequins, cords, and tassels and a small amount of machine embroidery will also be used. Students will add to samples made from Level 1 Hand Stitch Course. A special study will be made, in class and independently, regarding historic embroidered book covers and contemporary stitch books, in conjunction with other media. An assessment will include the creation of an innovative stitch book from an original design.

Miriam Birkenthal

Studies in Design and Experimental Machine Stitch 201
Certificate Course, Level 2

Class Name:Lady Slipper
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Watch for future dates

Paint, print and dye, fabrics and threads, to create a portfolio of machine stitched samples. A special study will be made in class and independently regarding historic embroidered book covers and contemporary stitch books in conjunction with other media. An assessment will include the creation of an innovative stitch book from an original design. Students will learn the creative process of taking a work from design, to sample, to a finished piece, in a logical manner. Prerequisite: Level 1 Experimental Machine Stitch

Liz Cooper

Studies in Art and Design 301
Certificate Course, Level 3

Class Name: Periwinkles
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Watch for future dates

The focus of this course is to help students develop a series of basic design skills. Students will create a portfolio of design work based on the design principles of dominance, proportion, balance, contrast, variety, harmony, repetition, movement, economy and space in relationship with the elements of art - dot, line, shape, color, value, and texture. Originally developed by Gail for the CIty & Guilds of London program, this course is designed to take beginners to a level of competence where they are able to use a variety of art media to individually express theme ideas in a number of different ways.

Kim Weers

Advanced Studies in Experimental Stitch 301
Certificate Course, Level 3

Class Name: Calypso
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Registrations being taken.

This course focuses on using knowledge and skills acquired during level 1 and 2 Stitch and level 3 Art and Design courses. Students will add to the samples made in the level 1 and 2 courses, create innovative new art pieces, generate design and inspirational research from a wide variety of historical and contemporary sources and develop structured working and documentation methods. Advanced assessments will include a wall hanging, or panel, a stitched multi media bookcover and interior content, a portfolio of samples, and a 3-D item.

Studies in Experimental Stitch and Multi Media 401
Diploma Course, Level 4

Class Name: Topaze
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Watch for future course

Please be patient while this course summary is being prepared and updated.

Experimental Research for Advanced Design 401
Diploma Course, Level 4

Class Name: Sapphires
Tutor: Gail Harker

Prerequisite
Status: Registrations being taken.

The course provides students an opportunity to choose, research, explore, experiment, document and develop a major inspirational theme.  A professional body of artwork will flow from the research of the theme. Students will be encouraged to develop their own innovative and inventive design ideas.  Personal expression and more complex imagery will come from new techniques learned in the course along with those from Level 3 Art and Design.

June Steegstra

Print To Stitch
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Work from your own photographs or original artwork in photographs to produce prints on fabric.  There will be opportunities to see and try various methods of creating  printed fabrics for enrichment.  Layers of sheer fabrics will be used to increase and enhance tonality of your print.  Stitching by hand and/or machine will be one of our starting points.  Students will have options to express individuality in their artistic approach and will be coached on the methods that they would like to pursue for their printed artwork.

Jill Taylor

Felt: from Beads to Baubles
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Valerie Stein
Status: Registrations being taken

Felt is an exciting tactile medium for creating sculptural forms. Make hand-sized balls to

accent home interiors, strings of smaller felt beads for embellishment, and hollow felt pieces made around large commercial balls and found objects. Explore surface design possibilities on the felt using threads and fabrics. You will be surprised at how many ideas and items will be generated from this two day class.

Valerie Stein

Developing Camera RAW Images
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: John Telford
Status: Registrations being taken

This quick paced two day introduction course is about getting the best photos from your camera by learning the terminology of camera RAW, and how to go about successfully using it. It is not about taking photos. Camera RAW images are sometimes called digital negatives, as they have similarities to negatives in film photography. Many digital cameras can deliver undeveloped RAW images containing all the data recorded by the camera. Learn how to get the most out of the digital photos you take by developing Camera RAW images. John masterfully demonstrates and explains this process in the class.

John Telford

Discover Decorative Machine Stitching
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: June Steegstra
Status: Watch for future course

Have you ever wondered what to do with all of those built in stitches on your sewing machine?  This course will help you discover creative ways to use those stitches. Decorative stitches will be sewn on  a variety of specialized  fabrics provided by tutor June Steegstra.  Enriched textural surfaces are a result of the interaction between thread and fabric.

June Steegstra

Innovative Hand Stitched Book
Classes with the Masters

Tutor:   Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Unique and innovative hand stitched book and binding concepts have been devised by Gail for the Certificate Programs at our studio.  Paint radiant color schemes, layer fabrics and threads to create colorful hand stitched fabric pages.  Work with a handful of simple stitches to express your individuality.  Compile the book with a beautiful, strong hand stitched binding that allows it to open fully and the ability to easily turn the pages.  Learn about additions to the bindings and edges using embellishments such as beads, tassels and edging stitches.                           

Dianne Corso

Machine Stitched Book
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Create colorful pages and bindings to create a handmade book by machine. There will be a special emphasis on unusual edgings. Use experimental stitches, appliqué, lacing, pop ups and openwork.  Learn to create innovative bindings and attachments by machine.  Fill your handmade book with a few pages of machine stitches - any type of machine will work - even if you don’t have many stitches. You will leave this course with a small handmade book and samples of different construction methods to make other styles of books.

Jo Van Patten

Inspiration to Imagination with your Camera
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Learn to create unique designs from your photographs. Use your camera as an aid to help you select and manipulate inspirational images. View Gail’s photos and slides to see how  design elements can inspire. 

This course is for anyone who would like to create their own original design compositions that can be taken into stitch, quilting, weaving or designing on paper. You do not need to have any camera experience nor do you need to be a designer to take this course. We will not be doing computer manipulation.  All you need to know how to do is to aim the camera and snap the picture.  Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of the many things that the camera can do, we will be focusing on the design elements of an image.

            Gail Harker

Dyeing to Embroider
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Watch for future course

Explore color as part of your artistic development.  Dye scintillatingly luscious colors of threads.  Learn how the artful placement of dye can enhance the impact of a chosen color scheme. This is a class that is mainly focused on dyeing threads for hand stitchers (embroiderers). We will also dye small quantities and sizes of fabrics that are used specifically in our Level 1 Experimental Hand Stitch course or may be used in any personal embroidery project. After this class you will be able to dye any color scheme that excites you.

            Gail Harker

Elizabethan Stitches
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Watch for future dates

British Embroidery flourished in the Elizabethan era, literally. As Botanicals and Herbals were printed and made available to the masses, English embroiderers engaged in a frenzy of stitch activity. 

Flowers, plants, birds, bugs and beasts were embroidered on everything from bookbindings, caps, coifs, dresses, jackets, long cushions, bags, gloves, caskets (embroidered boxes) and even tooth cloths.  New fruits such as the strawberry were introduced as were many new flowers and other plants.  Images spread far and wide and the Elizabethan embroiderer keenly copied them from books to play with threads on fabric. Join Gail Harker and Penny Peters on this unique study course. 

        Embroidered Casket

V&A London

Immersed In Color: Symbols and Associations
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Color cajoles, entices, heals, comforts, cleanses, makes us feel warm or cold, sad or happy, passionate or jealous.  In general, color evokes an endless myriad of feelings in all of us.  Color is so much a part of our everyday life that we forget it is a powerful, suggestive visual force. It has a fascinating history in not only the arts  but in the culture and customs of all societies. Learn about traditional and contemporary color associations.  Learn how to use color in an imaginative, enriched and informed way. You will never see color in the same light again. The main focus will be painting with acrylic paints and working with colored paper to discover color in a personal way.

Color Demystified
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Demystify color theories and color wheels. Understand how  to work with colors and change the way in which you perceive them. Learn about Color Theory - Additive and Subtractive, Color Wheels, tints, shades and neutrals, optical color mixing, intensity and color proportion. The charts and samples that you create in your sketchbook will become a valuable resource. Color mixing becomes easy when you are able to manipulate brush and paints. The introduction to new hues will help develop confidence in understanding how color can be developed for spectacular artwork in any other media. - for  example - machine or hand stitch

Expressions through Color
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Your world of color will never be the same after this expanded course of Schemes and Systems. Create diverse combinations of colors and learn to express yourself through colors and schemes that are new to you.  Our students treasure their Color Schemes sketchbooks.

Expressions Through Color is one of three units which make up our Level 1 Certificate in Art & Design Course: Color Studies. The other two units Immersed in Color: Symbols and Associations and Color  are both available in a 2 day format.

Essence of Nature - Machine Stitch (3 days)
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

The special nature of organic design will be explored through the natural world around us. The demonstrations, instruction and workshop will focus on a few samples chosen from plants, flowers, trees, foliage, bark, leaves, roots, berries or mosses.  Inspirational pictures will be available at the studio or you may bring a few of your own if you wish. Students will use simple concepts to show the expressive use of color, line, texture and shape to create contemporary and innovative machine stitched samples. These samples will create a portfolio of special effects to personalize the essence of the theme.

A Jouney of Visual Discovery: Journals and Sketchbooks (4 days)
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Registrations being taken

Learn the secrets, disciplines and explorations of the designer to create an artistic sketchbook. Relax and enjoy the process of refining your observational skills and filling the pages.

I have been asked if you need to know how to draw in order to keep a sketchbook. The answer is no. Sketchbooks can be kept for all sorts of reasons - to jot down ideas and memories, documentation, paste photos into, for use as a diary of events and to practice creative skills of art and design. There is no right and wrong method of developing ideas for a sketchbook.

This 3 day class focuses on inspiration and techniques for using your sketchbook. See brochure for full course details.

Join us for 2 3 or 4 days - See registration sheet for details.

Sketchbook Studies - a Jouney of Visual Discovery (Evening Series)
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Watch for future course

Learn the secrets, disciplines and explorations of the designer to create an artistic sketchbook. Relax and enjoy the process of refining your observational skills and filling the pages.

I have been asked if you need to know how to draw in order to keep a sketchbook. The answer is no. Sketchbooks can be kept for all sorts of reasons - to jot down ideas and memories, documentation, paste photos into, for use as a diary of events and to practice creative skills of art and design. There is no right and wrong method of developing ideas for a sketchbook.

Class meets every Monday evening in June 2009 from 7 - 9 p.m. Please see brochure for full details.

Influences of the Northwest
Classes with the Masters

Class Name: Clover

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Watch for future dates

This very special master class will motivate and inspire.  The course is comprised of two sessions and will culminate in a Gallery Show at our center titled Influences of the Northwest April 9th through July 7th 2010.  Your work may be inspired from any of the following or can be a tangential idea based loosely on the theme: Weather, environment, landscape, a beach walk, rain forest, flowers and fauna, sunrise and sunset, rocks and trees, grids of nature, beaches, recycling, staying green, vegetable gardens, my imaginative world! As you know by now, you can make this theme work in many different ways.

 Prerequisites: Please see brochure.

Gail Harker

Adventures in Papermaking
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Lisa Harkins
Status:Registrations being taken

Learn and develop papermaking skills on this three day course. Tutor Lisa Harkins will show you the specialized techniques of papermaking in order to approach it with creativity and confidence. Techniques include: basic sheet forming, how to add color, casting, making paper with inclusions, differing methods for drying and pressing and how to process plant fibers from your own garden. Upon completion of the course you will have created a wide variety of handmade papers and will have begun a documentation notebook for the samples.

Lisa Harkins

The Dimensional Skin: Acrylic
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Barbara DePirro
Status: Registrations being taken

Think beyond the flat surface and move into the next dimension.  Gain an understanding of how to use acrylic to create 3D sculptural forms or simply add more dimension within your flat work. Explore various methods of constructing armatures, including the use of unconventional materials.  Experiment with various products that can be used to build up structure, even creating rigid free standing forms.

Collage - Decollage: Mixed Media
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Barbara DePirro
Status: Watch for future course

Collage is a diverse art form, as varied, as the scope of artists who historically have explored its depths. Moving beyond any preconceived notions of what defines collage; this class will expand your vocabulary of methods and approaches.  It will give you new insight into methods that can express your individual style in a more personal way.  Barbara’s vast knowledge of acrylic media and the quantity of Golden Paints that students are given for the class makes this an exciting way to explore the art form. Learn about what media are best suited to which types of papers and fibers, the building up of surface imagery, the use of patterns and text,  decollage surface techniques and creating aged, distressed and weathered surfaces through the use of glazes and tints.

Barbara DePirro

Transform and Adorn with an Embellishing Machine
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: June Steegstra
Status:Registrations being taken

This three day course explores machine techniques for creating felt as well as the use of hand felting needles. A multitude of efects will be covered using a wide variety of fibers. Approaches to creating an exciting catalogue of effects will include weaving, blending, cutting and folding of fibers. Learn about creating and embellishing with fabric beads. Boomers Sewing and Vacuum will supply an embellishing machine for you or you may bring your own.

June Steegstra

Beyond the Surface
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Barbara DePirro
Status: Watch for future course

Thinking beyond the boundries of the surface and the media, discover new ways to fully develop and express your ideas. Explore the expansive properties of one of the most versatile mediums, acrylic. We will probe the depths of a vast array of products, in combination with a range of mixed media. Each product was deigned with certain attributes and applications in mind, but we will go beyond that, pushing the limits of each. In this 4 day workshop, each artist will create multiple sample boards, utilizing each of the different products in various ways, a perfect reference for future projects.

Barbara DePirro

Glitz and Glisten
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Ruth Issett
Status: Watch for future course

Enter the wonderful world of iridescents, interference colors, metallics and pearlescence on paper and fabric. Work with interference colors, pearl luster pigments, metallic powders, Shiva Paintstiks and more. Keep a personal journal of all the glorious discoveries.

Ruth Issett

Color and Composition through Feltmaking
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Ruth Issett
Status: Watch for future course

A hands on, special four-day course creating glorious color through feltmaking and additionally using those felts to explore a variety of compositional challenges. Students will work with a wide range of pre-dyed wool roving. Feltmaking will be used as a process, rather than a technique.

The course will include:

• The opportunity to create a glorious personal palette of color
• Using pre-dyed fleece, various methods will be used to create a series of individual color mixes. These methods will include shading, blending, and layering.                                                                   

Ruth Issett

Print Crazy
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Ruth Issett
Status: Watch for future course

This course will introduce students to a wide range of different print techniques that will be explored and developed on paper and then expanded on fabric.

The course will include:

• An introduction to design development using printing techniques
• The creation of a number of different design ideas using different colorways
• The making of an individual printing block that can be used on paper and on fabric
• Understanding of different textile printing media (could include the use of iridescents and metallics)

Ruth Issett

Drawing for the Terrified

Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Richard Box
Status:Registrations being taken

This course develops from experiments with drawing materials to uncomplicated methods of learning how to see and how to record such observations in monochrome, and especially in color. Above all, the course is concerned with enjoyment, serious fun, and, as John Ruskin once said, "I would rather teach drawing so that my pupils will learn to love nature, rather than the looking at nature that they may learn to draw."

Richard Box

Painting for the Petrified

Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Richard Box
Status:Registrations being taken

Are you someone who would like to learn to paint but are afraid to begin? Learn how to mix colors, first with colored pencils and then with watercolors. Demonstrations and individual coaching takes the beginner from self doubt to a sense of self confidence at new found abilities.

Richard Box

Designer Tassels
Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Gail Harker
Status: Watch for future course

This class is jam packed with lots of different techniques showing how to create tassels by hand and machine. You will leave this class with a variety of different tassels and cords and a binder full of notes, ideas, and samples that will move tassel making into an art form. Gail's tassel making classes are very innovative, thorough, and full of imagination.

View more about Designer Tassels

Gail Harker

Surfaces to Dye For

Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Ruth Issett
Status: Watch for future course

This course focuses on the development of using individual designs to create samples of work using fabric and threads. A range of uncolored fabric types are patched, pieced, and quilted together by hand or by machine. Color, pattern, and texture are applied to these samples by the use of printing, dyeing, and stitching.

Ruth Issett

Piture it in Collage and Stitch - The Richard Box Textile Experience

Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Richard Box
Status: Registrations being taken

Experience the creativity of learning to work with fabric collage, machine and hand stitch as an intergrated practice. Principles of color, tonal values, composition, balance, harmony and design are addressed as Richard takes you step-by-step through his personally developed technique. This course is for beginners and those with more advanced experience. Knowing how to operate your own sewing machine is necessary.

Richard Box

Layers of Color - Print Dye and Stitch

Classes with the Masters

Tutor: Ruth Issett
Status: Watch for future course

This course features the coloring of natural fibers and fabrics, as well as innovative print techniques. Color, print and stitch will be used to experiment and design a collecion of decorated fabrics. By the end of the course, each student will have created a dye color reference journal, a palette of personal color combinations and fabrics that could be combined together or selected from for future projects.

Ruth Issett