2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Creative Fabrication

Rachel Meginnes

$495 includes 60 lab fee

October 17, 18, 19, 20, 2013 - Class Limit 14

Maiwa Loft: Above the Net Loft, Granville Is. Vancouver BC

Rachel Meginnes is presently a resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. We are fortunate to have her here to teach this four-day workshop on the inspiration and exploration of creative process.

Develop your own artistic voice through the personal discovery of mark-making, collage, and fundamental techniques in fibre. Explore your favourite materials and find your true approach to making art.

Each day will include exercises and demos using basic drawing and fibre techniques that will build into an understanding of one’s own innate artistic process. 

Learn how to see and understand your inspirations, how to follow your own artistic instinct, and how to feel your natural creative pace as a maker.

Instructor Bio

Rachel is currently a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She has traveled throughout the world studying textiles. Rachel earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Fibers at the University of Washington in 2005. 

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Hand Hooked Rugs

Michelle Sirois-Silver

$195 includes 65 lab fee

October 15, 16, 2013 - Class Limit 16

Maiwa Loft: Above the Net Loft, Granville Is. Vancouver BC

The original hooked rugs were a matter of thrift. Yet they left a legacy rich in personal history and storytelling.

In this two-day workshop students learn the basic rug-hooking and finishing techniques needed to make their own hand-hooked rugs and accessories. The class will hand hook fabric strips onto a linen backing.

Each student receives one-on-one attention from the instructor. Students may select from one of three designs provided by the instructor or are welcome to create their own design. They will leave the workshop with a completed, hand-hooked, 20 cm x 20 cm sampler. Topics covered in the workshop include fabric selection, backing, the sourcing of supplies, and the history of hand-hooked rugs in Canada.

This two-day workshop is ideal for those who are beginners as well as those who are relatively new to the craft and may want to refresh their skills.

Instructor Bio

Michelle Sirois-Silver is a McGown-certified instructor and teaches rug-hooking workshops on design and colour planning in Canada and the United States.

Her work has been exhibited at fibreEssence, Contemporary Craft in BC, Surface Design Traveling Exhibition, FibreWorks Gallery, Convergence, Gibsons Fibre Arts Festival, and the Silk Purse Arts Centre. She has a Creative Arts Diploma from Vanier College, a BA Specialization in Communications from Concordia University, and a Public Relations Certificate from the University of Toronto. She studied colour theory with Michele Wipplinger and at BC Open University. Ms. Sirois-Silver first began teaching rug-hooking in 1998 and formed Big Dog Hooked Rug Designs in 2004. 

www.michellesirois-silver.com

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Diary Paintings on Cloth

Susan Shie

$450 includes 85 lab fee

October 15 -18, 2013 - Class Limit 14

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

In 2011 this workshop left students astounded and so we have worked very hard to get Susan Shie back. 

 In this four-day class students will begin with a “page” of white cotton fabric, then, through a variety of techniques, create diary paintings. Each day the class will start by choosing an optional theme together. The theme may then be worked up in a sketchbook to come up with ideas for the day’s work.

Students will draw freehand on cotton with black permanent fine-tip markers, then brush-paint in the colours, and finally use the markers again, as well as airpen (optional), to write freehand on the surface, creating a typographic texture over the images in the story.  

As Susan describes it: “You’ll be drawing like you did as a child, in relaxed wonder over your abilities, and writing off the top of your head, just like when you write a letter. No planning ahead. This spontaneity is what makes naïve art and children’s art so appealing to the viewer and so inspiring for the artist.”

Susan will demonstrate each process and spend time with each student, making sure the work progresses smoothly. Special emphasis and instruction will be given with the airpen with ample time for students to discover whether it might be for them.

In addition students will learn how to make a self-bordered quilt sandwich and then do “crazy grid” quilting.

Susan is an encouraging instructor whose goal is to bring out the student’s freer inner self and to get the creativity really flowing.  

Susan Shie travels from Ohio to teach this workshop.

Instructor Bio

Susan Shie has taken quilting into new territory with her interest in script, text, and narrative. She has combined these interests with an iconic style, a developed line, as well as her socio-political commentary. Working out of her Turtle Moon Studios in Wooster, Ohio, she is in great demand as both a lecturer and a workshop instructor.

Susan’s work is widely exhibited and she has garnered several awards for her creative vison. In 2008 Susan was awarded Teacher of the Year from the International Association of Professional Quilters. www.turtlemoon.com 

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Nazome

Hiroshi Saito

$90 includes 30 lab fee

Nazome 1 October 11, 2013 - Class Limit 16

Nazome 2 October 12, 2013 - Class Limit 16

Maiwa Loft: Above the Net Loft, Granville Is. Vancouver BC

Hiroshi Saito is famous for two things: his art, and his ability to orchestrate acts of community-building around a long sheet of white cloth.

Known as “Nozome,” these fantastic events are staged outside with groups of up to 100 people. Using brushes and colourful fabric paints, Hiroshi supervises the collective colouring of 20-meter lengths of cloth. Nozome are  about individuals coming together in wonderful acts of group creativity.

In 2012, his Nozome projects in the Tohoku district of Japan brought a moment of peace, productivity, and enjoyment into the lives of earthquake and tsunami victims who are still living in temporary shelters. 

The first half of the workshop will be an opportunity for participants to learn about Nozome and Hiroshi’s art activism. Hiroshi will explain what makes a successful event and detail the many ways Nozome have been staged in the past. During the second half of the workshop, students will participate in an actual Nozome event conducted outside, right on Granville Island. 

Instructor Bio

Hiroshi was born in 1947 in Yokohama (near Tokyo). For many years he was a silk dyer, colouring cloth to be used in traditional kimonos. Each day he would dye up to 10 bolts of fabric exactly the same colour. At age 35 he decided that there was more to life and he began experimenting with handwoven cottons. The cotton from Thailand, Peru, Mali, India, and China appealed to him because of its warm, human quality. His extensive knowledge of traditional dyeing techniques is now used in the production of materials and clothing for contemporary Japanese dance and music companies.

Hiroshi Saito also works on large installations, including one he performed in the renowned Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. He is also well known for “Nozome,” an outdoor activity in which he supervises groups of up to 100 people dyeing 20 m lengths of cloth.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Indigo Shibori

Akemi Nakano Cohn

$250 includes 60 lab fee

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

Explore pattern on fabric through the magic of the ancient Japanese resist technique known as shibori. Shades of indigo blue have been applied to textiles for hundreds of years, yet the blues and patterns given by indigo and shibori still have a contemporary look which works well for modern clothing and interiors.

In this workshop students will learn to master the various shibori techniques such as stitching, pleating, twisting, clamping, wrapping, folding, and binding. They will apply these techniques and then learn how to prepare their own indigo dyepot and dye each item.

The excitement of removing an item from the dyebath is matched only by the satisfaction of creating stunning patterns through the application of these ancient techniques.

The art of both historic and contemporary textiles will be discussed through slides.

Akemi joins us from Chicago to give this workshop.

Instructor Bio

For ten years Akemi studied Katazome – a traditional rice paste resist printing technique – under Master Haru Izumi. Then, in 1985, she emigrated to the United States. The cultural shift inspired new work and new ways of working. 

Akemi has pursued an extensive series of international exhibitions and commissions. She is a master of the Nassen technique, which adds a dye to the rice paste to create both colour and resist simultaneously. She joins us from her home in Chicago.

Registration Opens June 24 at 10am

Katazome with Natural Dyes

Akemi Nakano Cohn

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

Katazome is a traditional Japanese resist-dyeing technique which makes use of hand-cut stencils. The beautiful designs achieved through this procedure are most often found on kimonos.

In this workshop students will learn to make the katazome rice paste resist with historic recipes and to master the use of traditional tools to cut the katagami (mulberry) paper stencils. In addition, students will develop design ideas by observing objects in nature such as leaves, flowers, and branches to get a sense of the Japanese aesthetic.

The katazome technique will be combined with the use of natural dyes and mordants to create compelling works. 

Akemi joins us from Chicago to give this workshop.

Instructor Bio

For ten years Akemi studied Katazome – a traditional rice paste resist printing technique – under Master Haru Izumi. Then, in 1985, she emigrated to the United States. The cultural shift inspired new work and new ways of working. 

Akemi has pursued an extensive series of international exhibitions and commissions. She is a master of the Nassen technique, which adds a dye to the rice paste to create both colour and resist simultaneously. She joins us from her home in Chicago.

Registration Opens June 24 at 10am

Tapestry Weaving

Elaine Duncan

This course will explore the weave structures and design elements used by cultures throughout the world to create pattern and imagery. Students will learn to build on basic universal techniques to create both geometric and figurative work.

Using portable copper-pipe looms and wool yarns dyed with natural dyes, each student will explore slit and weft interlock techniques to build shapes (squares, triangles, diamonds), to outline, and to shade and mix colours. Short talks and image presentations will inform students of the methods still used for handweaving rugs and dyeing with natural dyes.

Learn to weave tapestry or advance your current skills. Copper-pipe looms will be supplied for use in class, or students may use their own portable tapestry loom. Warp and weft materials as well as loom plans will be supplied.

Instructor Bio

Elaine Duncan obtained her Master of Science degree in textiles at Oregon State University. Raised in Nanaimo, she moved to Nanoose in 1975 and began the Nanoose Weavers Guild. Elaine has been weaving since 1969 and has been teaching weaving since 1975. For the past 17 years, Elaine has been intrigued with tapestry weaving. She has studied with Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie in Mexico and the United States as well as with Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei in Canada and the United States. Other teachers have included Barbara Heller, Sarah Swett, James Koehler, and Grete Bodegard. 

www.elaineduncan.com 

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

The Silk Way - Cocoon to Thread

Bryan Whitehead

For thousands of years the technique of Asian silk production was the most closely guarded secret in history. The powerful trade empires of the orient and the existence of the silk road itself depended on it.

The fact that the secret has been out for almost fifteen hundred years makes the complex processes from moth to textile no less fascinating.

Bryan is a silk farmer who has been raising silkworms for 15 years in the mountains of Japan. He  does the entire process from breeding moths to using natural dyes to weaving using old Japanaese tools and techniques. Join him for a hands-on demonstration of silk production. Students will experience reeling cocoons, making thread from double cocoons, making silk floss, and spinning the floss into yarns.

Participants will complete the workshop with samples of cocoons, reeled silk, and silk floss. 

Throughout the workshop Bryan will provide background information on the Japanese culture of silk farming and how such factors as technology, climate, tradition, cocoons, and moths all came together to influence the silks that were made.

Instructor Bio

Originally from Vancouver, Bryan Whitehead now lives in a small mountain village in Japan. On the shady side of the slope in a house perched on a ledge reached only by a narrow twisting road, Bryan has a small silk and indigo farm. With traditional tools he reels the silk before spinning and weaving on an antique loom.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Beyond Blue - Taking Indigo Further

Bryan Whitehead

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

This workshop will explore the rich tones that can be created by using indigo in combination with other dyes.

There are no natural dyes that will give a green. Yet it can be achieved through underdyeing yellow and overdyeing with indigo.

Indigo is unique in the world of natural dyes. Moreover, the nature of the indigo vat means that techniques for over-dyeing and under-dyeing must be properly sequenced to obtain the desired colour.

In this two-day workshop students will work with a variety of dyes (including gardenia pods, onion skins, madder, lac, and cochineal) in combination with indigo to obtain a range of purples and greens.

Instructor Bio

Originally from Vancouver, Bryan Whitehead now lives in a small mountain village in Japan. On the shady side of the slope in a house perched on a ledge reached only by a narrow twisting road, Bryan has a small silk and indigo farm. With traditional tools he reels the silk before spinning and weaving on an antique loom.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Japanese Indigo

Bryan Whitehead

In this two-day workshop on Japanese indigo, Bryan will give the details of his entire indigo process from seed, to plant, to fermentation, to dyed cloth. He will open with some fundamental facts about indigo before focusing on the growing, harvest, and culture of indigo as it exists in Japan.

Students will experience sukumo, the fermented indigo compost used in traditional Japanese dyeing. Students will learn important techniques for yarn dyeing, understand the property of indigo adherence through gradient dyeing, and see how indigo binds with linen, silk, wool, and cotton. We will also learn about the complex shibori structures the Japanese have developed and their special suitability to this dye. The class will conclude with a quick peek at katazome stencil dyeing.

Instructor Bio

Originally from Vancouver, Bryan Whitehead now lives in a small mountain village in Japan. On the shady side of the slope in a house perched on a ledge reached only by a narrow twisting road, Bryan has a small silk and indigo farm. With traditional tools he reels the silk before spinning and weaving on an antique loom.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

The Creative Studio

Natalie Grambow

Due to intense demand the Creative Studio has been expanded to a three-day workshop.

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 developed a line of naturally dyed and printed fabrics and has been commissioned by such clients as the city of North Vancouver (to present an artist’s vision of North Vancouver on fabric). 

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

The Art of the Headress

Jessica de Haas

Maiwa Loft: Above the Net Loft, Granville Is. Vancouver BC

This workshop is the perfect opportunity to make a highly fashionable headdress for a costume party or special event. 

In this fun, creative, three-day workshop, participants will learn construction and millinery techniques to make a comfortable and durable mixed-media headdress. Different types of bases and attachments will be covered, and students will learn the process of fulling sheets of merino pre-felt to shape, sculpt, manipulate, twist, and braid for adornment. The class will explore many embellishing techniques such as needle felting, making three-dimensional flowers, embroidery, and appliqué. A variety of materials such as raw wool, felted wool, buckram, fabrics, feathers, lace, and beads will be used.

Jessica will encourage a well thought-out and meticulously crafted sculptural headdress.

Instructor Bio

Jessica de Haas has had a life-long fascination with fibre arts. It may have started when she received a Fisher-Price loom for her eighth birthday and wove her first piece.

Growing up rurally in the interior of British Columbia gave her a great appreciation for the beauty of the natural world and nurtured her creativity and imagination. When she was a teenager, she discovered batik and started her first clothing company. At 18 years of age, she went to Indonesia to study with a family of batik artists. This was the beginning of a series of travels involving grassroots study and involvement in the local communities she visited.

Formally, she studied fibre arts at Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, BC. In 2003 she started her felt clothing line, Funk Shui, and she has been creating and selling out of her Granville Island atelier since 2006. www.funkshuifelt.com

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Knitted Möbius and the Mysterious Stitch Mirror

Sivia Harding

The knitted Möbius has beauty and grace. When worn and handled, its unusual form provokes an endless fascination.

Möbius knitting is easy, accessible, and soothing, just like knitting in the round. The real fun is in seeing what happens to various stitch patterns when worked in this half-twisted, one-edged form. 

In this class, students learn what stitches do as they interact with the Möbius structure. Amazingly, patterns appear to be mirrored and reversed on either side of the cast-on round. What stitches will reliably produce symmetry? The class will provide some guidelines but will also show ways to bend the rules and make many stitch patterns work once you understand the structure. Not all will result in symmetry, but all are interesting and beautiful.

In this workshop students will cast on and work a sampler cowl in worsted-weight yarn. Sivia guarantees that students will have many “aha” moments as they see simple stitch patterns develop in amazing and sometimes unpredictable ways! Many Möbius garments will be on hand to examine and use as inspiration.

Skills needed: Basic knitting and purling, basic increasing and decreasing, experience knitting in the round on a circular needle.

Instructor Bio

Sivia Harding says knitted lace is her first and enduring love. As a teacher, Sivia appeals to the creative spirit, and few can remain untouched by her verve and passion for her subjects. In her classes, technique, though important, is a means to an end, which is always the delight of following the joyful knitting muse wherever it may lead.

Sivia’s classes and workshops are often built around making a particular project, but only as a jumping off place for discussions on all sorts of related knitterly things. Students will often find themselves inspired to experiment outside the realm of the original project, sometimes coming up with highly original designs of their own as a result.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Harmonia’s Rings, Möbius and More

Sivia Harding

Maiwa Loft: Above the Net Loft, Granville Is. Vancouver BC

In Sivia’s own words: “Möbius knitting has had a special place in my heart ever since I learned the basic technique from Cat Bordhi several years ago. Now (with her blessing), I teach Cat’s cast-on along with my particular enhancements of this simple yet endlessly fascinating form.”

The Harmonia’s Rings family of patterns uses Cat Bordhi’s Möbius cast-on to achieve the mysterious spiral neck shape; they also feature a stitch pattern that creates concentric rings reminiscent of ancient architecture. This cowl sits cape-like over the shoulders and suits a wide range of body types. 

This class introduces many techniques: the Möbius cast-on, shaping within the Möbius structure, and the charming beaded picot bind-off, among others. We discuss customizing the shape to fit any body type. 

Skills required: knitting in the round, knitting and purling, basic increasing in knit and purl. 

Instructor Bio

Sivia Harding says knitted lace is her first and enduring love. As a teacher, Sivia appeals to the creative spirit, and few can remain untouched by her verve and passion for her subjects. In her classes, technique, though important, is a means to an end, which is always the delight of following the joyful knitting muse wherever it may lead.

Sivia’s classes and workshops are often built around making a particular project, but only as a jumping off place for discussions on all sorts of related knitterly things. Students will often find themselves inspired to experiment outside the realm of the original project, sometimes coming up with highly original designs of their own as a result.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Encaustic and Paper

Daniella Woolf

In this popular two-day class (based on the DVD of the same title) students will be introduced to the exciting possibilities of encaustic on (and with) paper.

Participants will warm up by making large sumi ink paintings. Then follow demos on numerous techniques for working with paper, including collage directly on the heated palette, transfers, drawing directly on the encausticated paper with india ink, and rusting on paper and fabric. We address a number of ways in which you can mount works on paper. You will leave class with a completed sample book of your work.

Daniella arrives from California where she is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts. 

Instructor Bio

Daniella Woolf holds an MA in Design with a specialty in Textile Structures from UCLA. Over her career she has worked in a variety of media, including fibre, collage, jewellery, installation, and most recently encaustic. She is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts, in Califonia. She teaches in the western states for R&F Handmade Paints and globally for Wax Works West. She is a 2007 recipient of the Gail Rich Award for excellence in the arts in Santa Cruz and the 2008 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. 

Her current work is exhibited nationally and internationally. She has a very popular teaching DVD, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility, and a  book which is a “gallery between pages” under the same title. Her newest publication, The Encaustic Studio: A Wax Workshop in Mixed-Media Art, was  published in 2012 by Interweave Press. She blogs at Encausticopolis under the name Dotty Stripes.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Encaustic With a Textile Sensibility

Daniella Woolf

Encaustic—the use of heated beeswax mixed with pigments—opens up a vast new territory for exploration when combined with textiles.

In this mixed-media encaustic workshop, students will gain a thorough knowledge of the encaustic technique. Participants will learn the basic materials and formulas used in encaustic, proper safety procedures, and the preparation of appropriate supports and grounds. 

Techniques will be taught sequentially and build upon one another. Demonstrations include: image transfers, metallic leafing, collage, line, edge, and three-dimensional work. This workshop is an exciting opportunity to expand your visual vocabulary with wax. 

Encaustic has texture and translucency beyond your wildest dreams! It is an amazingly versatile art medium and is truly the glue that will allow you to use all the materials you’ve been collecting for years. 

All skill levels are welcome.

Daniella arrives from California where she is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts. 

Instructor Bio

Daniella Woolf holds an MA in Design with a specialty in Textile Structures from UCLA. Over her career she has worked in a variety of media, including fibre, collage, jewellery, installation, and most recently encaustic. She is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts, in Califonia. She teaches in the western states for R&F Handmade Paints and globally for Wax Works West. She is a 2007 recipient of the Gail Rich Award for excellence in the arts in Santa Cruz and the 2008 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. 

Her current work is exhibited nationally and internationally. She has a very popular teaching DVD, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility, and a  book which is a “gallery between pages” under the same title. Her newest publication, The Encaustic Studio: A Wax Workshop in Mixed-Media Art, was  published in 2012 by Interweave Press. She blogs at Encausticopolis under the name Dotty Stripes.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Breaking the Rules - Beyond the Mark

Jason Pollen

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

The starting point of this workshop is the deconstruction and reconstruction of your collected fabric samples. These will be combined with canvas, silk, cotton, linen, and paper on which you will draw, paint, stitch, and make your marks. 

This adventure in spontaneous mark-making on fabric will be augmented through the addition of printed imagery, thus giving focus to your works-in-progress.

Breaking away from an overly familiar and cautious approach and breaking the rules will lead you into unknown territory, the place where innovative and remarkable new work will be born.

Jason joins us from Kansas City.

Students are required to bring a sewing machine with a free motion foot.

Instructor Bio

Jason received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in painting at the City College of New York. He was on the faculties of the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons School of Design, and Pratt Institute before serving as chair of the fibre department at Kansas City Art Institute. Jason now lives in Kansas City.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium
Visual Music - Composing a Surface

Jason Pollen

A playful and innovative approach to communicative mark-making and collage. Students will work with fabric and paper to create an emphasis on rhythm, harmony, and dissonance. The workshop will focus on drawing, painting, and adhering as well as both hand and machine stitching.

Students will experiment and explore with pigments, cloth, and thread to create dynamic, communicative artwork. Students will work with the aim of expanding their visual vocabulary. The pieces will be considered finished when they have a voice of their own and they start to sing.

Jason joins us from Kansas City.

Students are required to bring a sewing machine with a free motion foot.

Instructor Bio

Jason received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in painting at the City College of New York. He was on the faculties of the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons School of Design, and Pratt Institute before serving as chair of the fibre department at Kansas City Art Institute. Jason now lives in Kansas City.

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Colour Institute

Michele Wipplinger

2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Wayfarer’s Wanderbook and Windfall Cloth

India Flint