Open Atelierdagen: A success

Thanks to all the DIY Textile students who shared their artwork during the Open Atelierdagen!  It was a good mix of various techniques, materials, and formats, as you can see for yourself.

The weather on Monday in Amsterdam seemed to cooperate by forcing people to run for shelter under the gallery and into DIY! We had a good number of visitors over three days, with present students, potential students and students registered for the Fall all visiting to see the textile art! 

Watch for news about our next exhibition in late September or early October!

Natural dyeing

I spent the day with a friend testing some new natural dye pigments. While I mordanted my cotton fabric, A. was preparing an Indigo vat for her woolen and silk yarns. 

  
I added the colors: Weld and Madder



Then helped A. hang her indigo dyed yarns between dippings.



Of course I wanted to dip one of my textiles in her vat for an indigo cloth as well. 


Are you wondering how my cloth turned out? Check A's site for more photo(13 april)!
Thanks A. for a fun day!

Want to do some natural dyeing too? Stay tuned - we'll be teaching a few classes this summer!

Amazing Stitches

In last weeks Stitch Art class, Cherilyn Martin supported students in transforming their practice stitches, into mini artworks. I'm so curious to see what amazing works of art will be created by our 6th and last lesson! Here are just a few examples of student progress from our last class...

Finding my center

In running a business, I find myself with constant chatter in my brain of things to do, people to talk to, visions to consider, e-mails to write, etc. Sometimes, I just need to go for walks and find my center. That is my way of meditating. On my last walk, my brain was insistently chattering so I repeated to myself,  here and now...here and now...here and now. I took deep breaths, I smelled the clean air, I stopped and took in the small buds on the bare trees, and I listened to the birds sing. I found my center.

This leaf  dropped off one of my indoor plants and I decided I wanted to embroider on it. I pulled out my sketchbook to create a plan. I drew the leaf and the word NU (now) appeared on the leaf, then the word HIER (here). It was as if I was led to create this. So I did. Creating is one of the best ways to lose oneself into our center. I had forgotten that core message. Time to get back to my own creations. Ginni

Stedelijk visit, paper-fabric collage, and more!

Johanna Wroblewska gave a hands-on tour at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Our Textile Arts students explored various aspects of modern art to improve their knowledge of composition and design.

The Mixed Media group learned about paper-fabric collage and creating your own lace and/or fabric with watersoluble stabilizers.

Our 2-year Textile Art 2011 group also met with Monika Auch to review their development over the last 2 years. No pictures yet, as we want to surprise the greater public with an amazing exhibition. It was really re-affirming to compare a first year experiment and compare it with a recent project. Wow!

Stitch Art & Mixed Media classes

It was a busy week last week. Cherilyn Martin taught her second class in the Stitch Art Series and it was amazing! The students were incredibly busy creating different backgrounds for their future embroidery projects. Check out these two wonderful examples: 

And look at these two inspired pieces from their homework! 

Now, that wasn't all...we had our second Mixed Media class. Everyone  proudly showed their dyed fabric (here are only 2). 

Then we printed some of them with stamps and thermofax screens. Awesome results! If you think this looks like fun, sign up for the next Mixed Media class starting: 5 April. There are only a few places left! 

Jette Clover & Markmaking

As part of the 2 year Textile Art program, Jette Clover came and gave a lesson on Markmaking. But of course before we started anew, we reviewed the masks everyone completed after Mirjam Pet-Jacobs enthusiastic Collage and Maskers class. I've chosen only a representative two...

Hanneke Reinalda

Mieke Plug

to show how students are using their workbook and also creating with different materials! I love seeing them so inspired and creating. 

Jette showed samples of her work and then stimulated everyone with fun and easy markmaking techniques.

 Another excellent day!