TAPESTRY DESIGN WORKSHOP
Collage as Art Form & Design Tool
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Using Photographs to Design Tapestry
with Molly Elkind
Collage as Art Form & Design Tool (Saturday afternoon)
For over 100 years collage has been a respected contemporary art form, uniquely appropriate to today’s world. We will look at examples of collage by fine artists and discuss the design elements and principles that make a collage succeed. Then we’ll practice making collages using fun prompts and several kinds of materials. Finally we’ll look at how collage can be a great way to develop designs for your own work in fiber, whatever your medium or technique.
Using Photos to Design Tapestry (Sunday)
Most of us carry a smartphone everywhere and we take lots of photos that inspire us. But how can we turn those images into tapestries? It’s not as simple as printing out the photo and saying “there’s my design” (if only!). Discover how to use your own photos as springboards for weave-able tapestry designs—and also learn what pitfalls to avoid (ask me how I know). Learn how to distill the essence of the photo you love, to convey the mood or idea that’s important to you. Make choices that ensure your weaving will be fun and successful. Leave with at least one design cartoon for a tapestry, ready to weave.
Optional: bring a small loom and yarns for the photo you want to work with and begin a sample weaving for your project.
On both days, students Should Bring:
- Lunch and snacks (or prepare to order Uber Eats – there’s nothing walkable
- Layers of clothing because temperature in our beautiful room is variable!
Saturday Supplies:
- blank paper or sketchbook (at least 8.5 x 11”),
- colored paper or old
- magazines in a variety of colors and textures, scissors,
- glue stick,
- markers and/or color pencils.
Saturday Materials Fee: $3
Sunday Supplies
- 3-5 photos to potentially develop into a tapestry design; tracing paper;
- pencils, sharpie, color pencils, sketchbook or blank paper, glue stick, scissors for
- paper, ruler. Optional weaving supplies: small tapestry loom (no pin or Zoom looms)
- warp and weft yarns;
- your usual tapestry tools (scissors, needles, sewing thread, fork or beater, optional bobbins.)
NO Materials Fee on Sunday
Workshop Fee: $95 for full members, $135 for nonmembers.
Biography:
Molly earned an M.A. in Studio Art from the Allen R. Hite Art Institute at the University of Louisville in 2002. Exhibition highlights include two solo exhibits in Atlanta and numerous juried and invitational shows nationwide since 1996. Molly has been published in a number of fiber art-related publications, and her work is in several private collections.
Besides making art, Molly is passionate about teaching it. She is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and teaches both online and in person for fiber guilds and conferences. When not in her studio Molly can be found out hiking the trails near her home.
Molly Elkind’s recent work explores weaving with paper and mixed media that include painted and found images, threads and natural elements. Since 2018, Molly has been inspired by New Mexico’s high desert landscape, which is rugged, fragile, beautiful--and vulnerable to wildfire and drought. The structure of weave offers a language with endless expressive possibilities. Woven structures are an apt metaphor for what we know about the functioning of earth’s ecosystems. The mutual disruption of image and pattern in Molly’s woven collages points to the ways in which our natural environment is experiencing the effects of climate change.