Smocking is an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments where buttons were undesirable. Smocking was developed in England, has been practiced since the Middle Ages, and is unusual among embroidery methods in that it was often worn by laborers.
The technique and definition of smocking is wide-ranging and loosely defined. Annie Coggan has been experimenting with multiple smocking techniques for the last ten years and has gathered various techniques into a stitching logic that she refers to as Modernist Smocking.
The class will include Coggan’s insights on the history of this technique as well as a hands-on workshop examining smocking techniques and modernist experiments in the world of three-dimensional embroidery. In this workshop Annie will again discuss the logic and cultural constructs of smocking and impart other smocking techniques that will further your textile practice.
Dates
Wednesday, September 11th, 2024
Time
5 pm – 7 pm ET
Location
TOAST
367 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Cost
$55
What to Bring
All materials will be provided
OUR TEACHER
Annie Coggan, Designer and Architect
Principal at Chairs + Buildings Studio, Coggan received her Bachelor of Arts from Bennington College in Vermont and her Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles CA.
Coggan’s practice is based in visual scholarship focusing on fabricating furniture as a mechanism for storytelling and experimental textiles as soft construction within a historical context.
She is an Associate Professor at Pratt Institute School of Design. She exhibits regularly with Russell Janis Gallery and has shown at A D/B Project Space (Brooklyn), Gestarc Gallery (Brooklyn), Barbara Toll Fine Arts (Manhattan), the Textile Arts Center (Brooklyn), Mississippi State CAAD Visual Arts Center, Hartford School of Art and Jackson State University.
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