San Diego workshop with me and Patti Digh

Jane LaFazio & Patti Digh

Patti Digh and I are collaborating.
We are teaching a one day workshop in San Diego, California on March 17, called Geography of Loss Workshop: Creating an Art Quilt Map.
I'm preparing and getting excited! Hope you'll join us.

stitching samples to show and teach students

bits of cloth and embellishments for each student

I'm busy assembling little bags of cloth,embellishments, a piece of beautiful felt for each student, and some handouts for stitching and more creative ideas to do with cloth.


here's the description of our workshop:

Geography of Loss Workshop: Creating an Art Quilt Map
Two master teachers, an extraordinary journey, a work of art with deep meaning.

We have all experienced loss of some kind -- death, the end of relationship, a child leaving home, betrayal, our own aging, or the loss of "what could have been." It is an integral part of the shared human condition, and yet a very personal one as well.
This inspirational workshop will combine language and art to help you find your way through loss… with a soft map…and will be limited to 25 participants.
The day will not be all about loss… but also about life, great love, and humor, and community. And beauty.
This one-day art and writing experience is a journey into that loss, on a deeply personal level. We'll combine writing, cloth and paper to create a personal art quilt about loss in your life--whatever that means to you at this moment in time. You'll write to prompts provided by Patti Digh and then with artist Jane LaFazio's guidance, creating 6 or so small, layered, stitched squares of cloth and paper as we work our way through the day together. You'll leave with a small finished art quilt and a deeper understanding of your new map through grief and loss. 

Saturday, March 17 in San Diego, California
 click here for more info and registration

Patti Digh 

Patti Digh is the author of six books, including bestsellers Life is a Verb and Creative is a Verb. She travels the world teaching others about mindfulness: to live fully, love well, let go deeply, and make a difference. Patti's comments have appeared on PBSand in The New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Financial Times, and many other international publications. 

       

Jane & Patti

My sketchbook ~ orange

From my sketchbook

will you be my Valentine?

 

Still dreaming of Venice ~ needle-felted piece

"Still Dreaming of Venice" 8x12"

Machine needle-felted and hand stitched. 

I'd love to teach this class, more often, but most people don't own needle-felting machines. Here's a tutorial I did a while back, on how I create pieces like this. 

You can see all my machine needle-felted work here.

Marmalade Greenhouse ~ monoprint on cloth

Marmalade Greenhouse (11x14")

Monoprint (using a gel printing plate, of course) on cloth



I'll be teaching this workshop at Art & Soul in Las Vegas and North Carolina in June, and in Phoenix in August. See my teaching schedule for details. 

CREATE mixed media art retreat in SoCal in June

  

I'm teaching 4 workshops:
Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style
Date: Thursday, May 31 at CREATE in Irvine, CA
Time: 9:00am-4:00pm
Price: $149.00
Materials Fee: $5.00
Want to learn to draw and paint what you see? Want to create an illustrated journal page of your day, your garden, your trip? Jane will show you how to take the time to really look at an object and draw what you see, and then paint in a straightforward, intuitive way. We'll use pencil, ink, and watercolor to a few 5x7” journal pages as unique as your own handwriting. While this class is geared for beginners, all are welcome.

Students Should Bring: watercolors (Prang children's set is fine) Niji waterbrush (recommended medium round) or size 6 watercolor brush and water container, permanent waterproof black ink pen (superfine or fine point), pencil, eraser, paper towel and stuff to draw (small objects, collections, things you care about, the contents of your purse...we'll share objects).

 
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Recycled Circles
Date: Friday, June 1  at CREATE in Irvine, CA 
Time: 9:00am-4:00pm
Price: $149.00
Materials Fee: N/A
Create a fabulous mixed-media piece from your own paper and cloth scraps! As seen in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, Jane's recycled circles design is a layered project that will teach you an assortment of mixed-media techniques. Come and create in this guided, yet totally unique artwork experience. Each student's work will look very, very different, even though we are all doing the same step-by-step process. The class is especially great for beginners, as you just can't go wrong! (And there's no drawing!)
Students Should Bring: Soft Gel acrylic medium, scissors, acrylic paints (just a few colors to work with your fabric/paper selection), a palette knife or anold credit card for spreading glue, Gesso (small container or you can share with a friend), fabric scraps & collage paper scraps in a color scheme of your choice (you won't need large pieces, but you do want a selection to choose from. You re encouraged to use fabric you already have, and found papers like maps, wrappers and tissue. Thread for sewing machine. Needle and embroidery thread to do hand stitching.
Optional: Beads and/or buttons for embellishment.

 
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Free-Spirited Free Motion with Cloth and Paper
Date: Saturday, June 2  at CREATE in Irvine, CA 
Time: 9:00am-4:00pm
Price: $149.00
Materials Fee: N/A

You'll learn to combine cloth and paper and free-motion sewing with a little colorant to create a meaningful and quite fabulous art quilt. Using your own image or copyright-free images, Jane will show you how to sew like an artist and create a small art quilt (12"x16"). Your stitched image, fabric, and paper will tell a story or recall a memory.


Students Should Bring: sewing machine thread to contrast with fabric, scissors, pins, glue stick, tracing paper, Interesting paper to include in the quilt (maps, book pages, pretty papers), Black sewing machine thread, Neutral bobbin thread, Simple Images (your own, or copyright free)to sew from no smaller than 3x3 /no largr than 6x6 ,Embroidery needles and embroidery thread, Fabric (bring a section of fat quarters), Batting (enough for one or two small art quilts)
Optional: vintage napkins, bits of lace

 
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Sketch and Stitch
Date: Sunday, June 3  at CREATE in Irvine, CA  
Time: 9:00am-12noon  
Price: $85.00
Materials Fee: $3.00

Jane will guide you to use one of your images from your sketchbook or create a new one and transfer it to fabric and a cool little drawstring bag. Then you can add color and an assortment of interesting embroidery stitches.

Students Should Bring: Water soluble crayons (acrylic paint or fabric paint may be used also), small paint brush (Niji Waterbrush medium round is good) Sharpie marker, Embroidery thread and needle, Small scissors.
Optional: your sketchbook

 

Wet felting

from this pile of roving and prefelt...

To this piece of original felt.

I love making felt and I love teaching it. So satisfying. So low tech and organic. No machine. Just wool roving, hot water and soap and  a little elbow grease.

I taught a class this past weekend and here is some of the student work:
 

 
This student (below) taught us all a wonderful technique adding a third dimension to the felted piece! And that's why I love teaching classes, we all learn from each other.
 
I'm teaching wet felting (and some other workshops) in North Carolina (at Random Arts) in late June/early July.