Wild Threads: Experimental Embroidery and Surface Design
press release: May 15 6:30-8:30pm
Ages: 15+
Register HERE, maximum 12 participants
In this workshop we are letting go of all preconceptions about what embroidery is. We’ll use weird threads, incorporate found bits of things into work, and generally forget about neatness. Please bring small objects (anything! Don’t just limit yourself to buttons and beads--surprise me with new ideas), threads, rope, any kind of weird thing you think could be incorporated into a fabric. Believe me, we can find a way to work with almost anything smaller than your palm. Also bring some fabric--a half yard of something substantial would be great. As with all workshops, a small sewing kit is awesome, but not required.
This workshop is a great way to build on the Domesticated Threads workshops, but it also stands alone.
Hannah O'Hare Bennett grew up on a small organic farm in Kansas, where she was in constant contact with the textures of the natural world. After studying printmaking in college, she returned to farming as a career. Eventually she realized that she approached the work as if it were a personal art project, an ultimately inefficient way to grow food. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, she learned how to knit and saw beautiful weavings made by local people, and a seed of what would become her career in fiber based arts was planted. Then, as a graduate student, she encountered hand paper making, an art form that holds infinite possibilities. Ultimately, her work emerges from the tactile and obsessive labor of farming, and the patterns and textures of the midwestern landscape. She exhibits work around the country, teaches workshops, and takes on custom dye, quilting and paper projects, as well as working part time as a substitute in Dane county public schools.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY: Domesticated: A Fiber Arts Studio inspired by a Wild World Bigger, brighter, softer, piebald, cuter, tamer, sweeter, less spiny, more compact: these are some of the characteristics that plants and animals develop as they become domesticated by human beings. Think of the difference between your pet dog and a wolf. During this residency, we will create works of art inspired by nature and domesticated nature. Objects will expand or shrink, grow harder or softer, explode outward or bind shut, become evenly patterned or patchy, spikier or smoother or more noticeable or more camouflaged. A book will go feral, extending longer and longer over two months. Sewing pins will sprout strange vegetation and disperse across the walls, spreading like milkweed. We will make paper from plant material and old rags, learn embroidery patterns and then let them go wild, and much more.
The root word of domestication is domus, which means home or hearth. This studio will reflect my own home, and I hope that visitors will be able to feel at home themselves. Make a cup of tea, bring a book or a project and nestle in for the afternoon. Additionally, this residency will emphasize reusing and recycling materials, but also conscious decision making around when new materials are the best choice.