Courses
Course 1 (2 days)
Intro to Improv: Where do I start?
In this two-day introductory course, you will learn the basics of improvisational fabric piecing and chart a new path in your practice. Discover your own launching point to improv through sketching, paper collage, fabric collage, and the development of “meditative spontaneity”, a crucial skill needed to let go of expectations and discover your unique creative voice.
Using a method I learned from American textile artist Irene Roderick, we will use a design wall to develop our work and give our ideas the space and consideration they need. Here, there are no mistakes, only new directions, unexplored opportunities, and the playful question: “What if...?”
Course 2 (2 days)
Inspiration: The evolution of an idea
Where do ideas for improv piecing come from? Inspiration is all around us. Sometimes the source of our inspiration is physical: paintings, sculpture, street art, rock formations, leaves, landscapes. Sometimes it comes from an ephemeral source: a memory, literature, weather, emotions. All sources of inspiration are rich material for improvisational fabric piecing.
To start us off, I will share some of my sources for ideas and show the work that these sources inspired.
Your job: Bring one source of inspiration to share in the class and to use as a launching point for your work over this two-day course. It could be an image of an artist’s work, a poem, photographs of the natural world, anything. Using this prompt, we will explore the first steps of turning inspiration into a pieced fabric collage. What draws your attention, and the intuitive process that it will inspire, will be as individual as you are.