This workshop is one of our most inspiring and creative, so much so that we have students who have taken it more than once. Students come to answer the question: How can creativity be tapped, mined, or made to flow when we need it most? In this original workshop, students will travel on an exploratory adventure, discovering techniques and letting go of assumptions that may hold them back.

The class will provide a wealth of images, sounds, and sensory inspirations. These will be combined with a variety of studies exploring the elements and principles of creative design. Such ideas as balance, symmetry, harmony, contrast, and unity will provide a toolbox that may be opened to understand both what we like about an artwork and what we want to work toward in our own work.

Using collage, image deconstruction, mono-printing, writing, and drawing, students will learn to narrate their stories incorporating personal references and applying design principles. Students will leave the workshop with a creative journal, the beginning of their ongoing artistic journey, as well as a series of small textile art pieces.

Instructor Bio

Natalie Grambow has an extensive background in design, teaching, and textile arts. An accredited Interior Designer, she spent many years in Ottawa working within the architectural design field and teaching Design Theory. Natalie’s first deep exploration of textiles began during her Visual Arts/Photography studies at the University of Ottawa when she experimented with non-silver techniques of transferring photographic imagery onto cloth. She subsequently studied at the École d’Impression Textile à Montréal and later travelled to Asia and Latin America where she spent six months learning to weave with local Mayan weavers in Guatemala. Shortly after completing the Textile Arts program at Capilano College in 2001, she was awarded the BC Craft Association’s Award of Excellence. 

Natalie has exhibited her textile art installations in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and the Sunshine Coast. She  has also developed a line of naturally dyed and printed fabrics and has been commissioned by such clients as the city of North Vancouver. Currently living in Roberts Creek, BC, she continues her art practice and studies from her studio.