Creative Embroidery at TATTER is a new series of workshops that aim to expand stitching skills and encourage new, creative approaches to embroidery. Led by experienced teachers and practicing artists, the program explores embroidery as writing, painting, drawing, narrative, play, and subversion. It endeavors to foster confidence in the medium and demonstrate its potential for conveying deep concepts and thinking. By employing varying materials and stitching techniques, participants are encouraged to think beyond traditional notions of embroidery and develop their own creative practice with needle, thread, and cloth.
The Series
Embroidery as Painting
with Megan Canning
This workshop will focus on pushing the boundaries of your practice and expanding the embroidery stitches, materials, and techniques in your own “toolbox.” Together we will explore texture, materiality, and play as a group before transitioning into more focused time for each participant to begin building their own unique palette of stitches.
September 21st, 2024
Embroidery as Writing
with Beverly Army Williams
In this workshop, we’ll examine historic and contemporary uses of writing with cloth, needle, and thread. Participants will learn a variety of embroidery stitches that lend themselves to writing. After practicing copying words in embroidery, participants will create a poem by responding to prompts with embroidered words or phrases, composing directly on the cloth. This process connects participants with those, often silenced in other arenas (such as women and the incarcerated), who found voice through embroidery.
October 12th, 2024
Embroidery as Mark-Making on Print
with Stephanie Santana
Explore the endless creative potential of combining hand embroidery with printed designs. Using a focused selection of screenprinted imagery as a starting point, we’ll look at alternative sources for inspiration and think through transformative uses of color, texture, form and pattern. Through guided instruction, you’ll experiment with a range of embroidery techniques, including ways to combine stitches or develop your own. Whether you’re looking to add a new dimension to your textile art or simply want to explore the interactions between print and thread, this class will provide you with a foundation for embracing your unique hand and a new approach to this timeless craft.
October 26th, 2024
Embroidery as Narrative
with Tamanna Rahman
Together we will begin a cloth embroidery journal, where instead of writing our thoughts and feelings, we will represent them in the form of abstract stitches. During the session, we will explore the sensory experiences of touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell and ask ourselves: what words, images and associations are coming up for me, and how do I translate those into meaningful marks? What about these marks and sketches are unique to my experiences, which are speaking to me most? How do I expand and iterate on these, and transfer them to fabric? Through a series of creative, guided exercises, we will walk through all of this together!
November 16th, 2024
Embroidery as Play
with Shahnaz Khan
Participants will be guided through a series of exercises and prompts which have been designed to unlock creativity, connect the senses of sight and touch, and invite mindfulness and playfulness in embroidery practice. Learning to “sketch” with thread, participants will experiment with meandering lines and creating intentional marking to produce a work of abstract art.
December 14th, 2024
Embroidery as Drawing: Personal Shapes
with Jordana Martin
This workshop lies at the intersection of drawing, drawing with thread, the devotional gesture of embroidery, and identity as found in personal shapes.
Students are encouraged to bring two small, personal objects to class. Found objects will also be on hand. We will open this class with a discussion about drawing and about personal objects and personal, visual vocabularies. Together, we will work towards different ways of articulating the object with thread.
January 25th, 2025
Embroidery as Subversion
with Elliot Rockart
Throughout history and around the world, people have used embroidery to record and process the abuses and inequities of the systems of power which seek to silence and erase them. In this class, students will discuss how embroidery has been used as a subversive act. They will be shown examples from Rockart’s own art as well as historical examples from the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots to the stitchers of the Keiskamma Guernica during the AIDS crisis in South Africa. Students will learn basic and intermediate embroidery stitches, while engaging in collaborative discussions to generate ideas to use embroidery in their own subversive practice.
February 22nd, 2025
Dates
Embroidery as Painting – September 21st, 2024
Embroidery as Writing – October 12th, 2024
Embroidery as Mark-Making on Print – October 26th, 2024
Embroidery as Narrative – November 16th, 2024
Embroidery as Play – December 14th, 2024
Embroidery as Drawing – January 25th, 2025
Embroidery as Subversion – February 22nd, 2025
Time
All classes are on Saturdays from 12pm – 4pm Eastern Time
Materials
All class supplies will be provided. Participants are welcome to bring any materials they might be interested in experimenting with.
Tuition
$100 for one class. $625 for the series.
Scholarships
There is one scholarship spot available for each series session. Please email [email protected] to request the application form.
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