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Providing year-around classes in Textiles, Pottery, Metals, Glass, Painting, Papermaking and other Art Forms.
6N158 CRANE ROAD
ST. CHARLES, ILLINOIS 60174
630.584.9443
FAX 630.584.9490
CENTER HOURS
Mon. - Sat. 10 AM - 5 PM
CLASSES
Mon. - Thurs. 9 AM - 9 PM
Fri. - Sat. 9 AM - 5 PM
WORKSHOPS
TEXTURED CLAY WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Laurie Pollpeter Eskenazi
Ceramic artist Laurie Pollpeter Eskenazi will share
over 20 years of experience in this one day workshop. Using stoneware
clay she will give wheel throwing and
hand building demos showing how her highly textural, very intricate designs
are created. Several pieces will be on hand to demonstrate the various
stages the
work goes through and the techniques used to create her unique style of pottery.
Laurie will discuss her construction methods as well as making impressions
in the clay with found objects and hand made stamps. Finally there will
be a demonstration
on applying glass mosaic tiles to a piece to add another texture and dimension.
See Laurie's work at her website www.Lpeclay.com.
Saturday: Apr 12; 9 AM – 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Pottery Studio
Member $110; Non-Member $135
FIBERS FOR
WEAVERS, KNITTERS, NEEDLE WORKERS
TRUNK SHOW Takako Ueki is the owner of Habu Textiles in New York. This company imports from Japan some of the most unique, unusual, and appealing yarns for weavers, knitters, crocheters, and needleworkers. Think silks of every size, color, and texture, wool and silk combined with copper or stainless steel, crepe yarns, paper yarns, bamboo, ramie, and on and on it goes! Takako will provide us with many very tempting yarns and some of the finished products made from them. Some of her kits will also be available. You must come and see these very special yarns and some of the ways you can use them. Friday, May 9; 10 AM - 5 PM |
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FANCY FIBER TALK LECTURE
Guest Artist Instructor: Takako Ueki
This talk will focus on presenting unique and difficult-to-find materials for weavers, knitters, needle workers, surface design artists, etc. These yarns include bamboo, silk or wool stainless steel, ramie, naturally gold, green or brown silks, hand-reeled Akagi silks, etc. Takako will begin her talk with a short introduction of herself and her work. Then she will show slides of a couple of unusual silks and ramie yarns. After the slides, Takako will give a show and tell of the actual fibers and the textiles on the table.
Saturday: May 10; 9 AM – 12 N • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Fiber Talk Only: Member $50; Non-Member $70
FANCY FIBER WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Takako Ueki
Following Takako's talk she will conduct a mini workshop on pre-warped looms (warps to be sent ahead of time). You will have a chance to experiment with many of the unique fibers and yarns Takako has introduced us to while weaving plain weave sheer fabric. There will be a demonstration of warping an extremely fine yarn and how to weave with it; as well as experience with silk reeling and hand-twisting "karamushi" (ramie) yarn.
Supply List: notebook, pen, measuring tape, masking tape, scissors, boat shuttles and bobbins.
Saturday: May 10; 1 – 5 PM • The Barn Weaving Studio
Member
$100; Non-Member $125
Materials Fee $25 (warp only – weft
additional)
FELTED JEWELRY
Instructor: Leslie Samson
Beautiful and expressive jewelry can be constructed
out of felted fibers. Stones can be set within this malleable material.
Felt can be the perfect
base for embellishment with beads and pearls. In fact, the luster of
pearls seems to work particularly well with natural fibers. In this class
you will learn how to make multi-colored felted cords, felted bezels
for stone setting, toggle closures, felted chain links and very, very
hard felted beads. We will work with very fine wools, pearls, cabochon
stones and porcupine quills. Unlike many of Leslie's other classes,
which require a good deal of physical energy – this class is a
sitting class. No experience necessary.
Supplies: You will need to bring fine beading needles that are strong enough to pass through felt. Needle threader will be handy. Please bring a small selection of threads. What we will need are threads that are both fine and strong. If you have beads at home that you would like to use, please feel free to bring them. We will be working on fine details. If you have or think that you would need a magnifying glass on a stand – you will find it useful.
Saturday: Aug 2; 10 AM – 4:30 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Surface Design Studio
Member $100; Non-Member $120 • Material Fee $25
TESSELLATION SECRETS –CREATING
YOUR OWN INTERLOCKING PATTERNS WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Lucy Neatby
A design class with technique included. Beginning with chequers from the smallest units up, how to knit them and what happens if we rotate them or choose to knit them from another direction. We move through triangles to complex Esher type shapes of our own design and plan strategies for knitting. How your chosen technique is dependant on the location of the motifs and the relationship to other elements of our design. Discover and test the basic geometric rules for creating your own Esheresque designs. With paper and scissors, test the moves necessary to create your own shapes for fascinating motifs. Subdividing shapes for use of color and texture. Experienced beginner upwards.
Supplies: Soft pencil, eraser, dark marker, colored pencils (optional), ruler, scissors for paper, Scotch tape, safety pins. Usual knitting equipment, dpns are ideal in a couple of sizes suitable for the weight yarns you bring along – sport or worsted weight in a couple of colors.
Friday: Jun 20; 9 – 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $125; Non-Member $150
EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE!
MULTIDIRECTIONAL KNITTING
WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Lucy Neatby
An overview of a variety of ways of knitting in many different directions on the same piece of fabric. Garter stitch and its properties. How this lends itself to easy multidirectional knitting in Log Cabin and entrelac style. Equilateral triangle knitting, creating hexagon units or continuous strips for folded constructions. A revision of necessary finishing techniques for assembled knitting – mattress st. and setting stitches to rows. Freeform knitting. Counterpane and domino knitting. Choosing yarns from your stash to emphasize the properties of the fabric. Experienced beginners upwards.
Supplies: A variety of colours and types of yarns of approximately DK/Sport weight (throw in some variegated or hand painted if you have any). Needles; approximately 4 mm/US 5 or 6; circulars (60 cm/24" or less) and a few dpns. Don't forget your usual knitting tackle (scissors, crochet hook, etc.)
Saturday: Jun 21; 9 AM - 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $125; Non-Member $150
BRUSH LETTERING WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Barbara Close
Learning Brush lettering is fun and easy. Barbara
will instruct and show us how to use Faber Castell fiber markers as great
lettering tools. Others
will be introduced as well. There will be added creative fun with painting
pages, florals & using the brush techniques learned.
Supplies: Practice paper of your choice (Strathmore sketch pads 9 x 12 yellow cover series 300 recommended).
Thursday: Jul 17; 6 – 9 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $45; Non-Member $65 • Material Fee $3
TEXTURED LETTERS WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Barbara Close
In this wonderful, wacky lettering class, students will be designing alphabets
after a full demonstration from instructor in a Versal-like style. These will
then take life with exciting treatments of paints, pastels, lettering and more.
We'll be decorating, texturizing, and accessorizing with many techniques. If
you like letters and really want to have fun with them – and you like
painting techniques – this is definitely the class for you. Many projects
will come from this class.
Supplies: Supply
list given at registration.
Friday: Jul 18; 9 AM – 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $110; Non-Member $135 • Material Fee $3
DYEING FOR SPINNERS AND FELTMAKERS
ATTENTION SPINNERS AND FELTMAKERS:
DYE, CARD, AND
BLEND WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Deb Menz
In this 2-day workshop you will dye your own clean fleece a unique palette of colors using Lanaset dyes. No experience necessary. We will start from the beginning of how to use the dyes. How to mix colors will be explained and there will be dye sample books to see as well. At the end of day 1 you will have a range of colors to card the following day. On day 2 we will use drum carders to blend colors and create unique batts for either spinning or felting. Color theory will be covered as it relates to blending colors with fibers. See Deb's beautiful work at www.debmenz.com.
Supplies: Apron
(or old clothes), scissors, masking tape, ziplock bags, 1.5–2
pounds of washed fleece, 7 quart canning jars, and canning kettle and
drum carder if available.
Friday & Saturday: Oct 24 & 25;
9 AM – 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Surface Design Studio
Member $250; Non-Member $275 • Material Fee $20 (for handouts and dyes)
STARS OF THE SOUTH OVAL TWILL BOWL WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Tressa Sularz
This basket's unique shape is fun to weave.
The base layout is provided in graph form making it easy to follow as
you weave. There are two different colors of dyed rattan contrasted with
natural spokes creating the diamond "stars of the south" pattern.
The basket is woven with narrow natural rattan in a continuous 3/2 twill
weave. Emphasis will be placed on shaping and the 3/2 twill pattern.
This basket has a fold and wrap style border which creates a beautiful
finish to a lovely basket. This basket could have many uses and looks
nice. Both sides of this base are quite interesting.
Level: Intermediate/Advanced – twill experience necessary.
Supplies: Normal basket making tools, plus a spoke weight.
Friday: Sep 19; 9 AM – 4:30 PM Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $90; Non-Member $115 • Material Fee $38
TULIPE BASKET WORKSHOP
Guest Artist Instructor: Tressa Sularz
This design came about when I became intrigued with
origami and did some playful experimentation. You'll begin with
a flat pre-woven piece of natural rattan, make precision cuts, some finishing,
and overlap cut edges. Then a variety of beads are tied on strategically,
along with short round bamboo pieces, creating some interest on the surface,
both inside and outside – the tie-ons are for function and aesthetics.
Students have the flexibility to explore possibilities beyond the class
example, and the instructor will have a variety of finished shapes to
inspire students. You'll receive material for two baskets, and
will complete one in class, or possibly two, depending on how fast you
work. This process can be applied, outside of class, to paper or fabric
or other materials, if desired. This class is not limited to "basketry" students!
Level: All.
Supplies: Sharp basketry cutter, normal basket making tools, plus a spoke weight and a large-eyed, blunt-end needle.
Saturday: Sep 20; 9 AM – 4 PM • Kavanagh Bldg. Painting Studio
Member $90; Non-Member $115 • Material Fee $37