Stamp, Stitch, Colour, Play!

To book phone us 4464 3387 or scroll down to the bottom of the listing and click to ‘add to cart’. If tickets show as sold out online, please contact us by phone.  Occasionally places do pop up again. We can always place you on a standby list and notify you of anything changes. 

Your Class: Stamp, Stitch, Colour, Play!

Join Jennifer Corkish for an exciting two days embellishing fabric with stitch, stamping and paint. Your class fee will include a full kit so that you can just turn up and play! Jen will provide a block printed panel which could be your ‘blank canvas’ to colour and embellish with stamp and stitch. You’ll also find some stamp carving rubber, threads and a needle in your kit and Jen will bring along stamp pads, dye paints and a range of materials that you will be able to share and use to make marks on your cloth to and learn to embellish. 

Whilst there will be a structure and plenty of instruction for beginners or those not sure about leaping off into the unknown, this class also has the possibility of being a very creative and experimental day. Those who want to, will be encouraged to ‘go their own way’ to create a personalised artwork or series of experiments. 

During the first day, you will learn to carve your own stamps to create additional patterns in the background of your panel or if you are uncertain where to start, you could use Jennifer’s already created stamps and stencils that she will bring in to share. This day is all about creativity, experimenting with the materials and concepts that Jennifer will introduce and having fun. Dyes and paint will be used in day one so they will have a chance to dry overnight. 

On day two Jennifer will discuss a range of stitches that are good for filling areas, some stitches that are well suited to emphasising outlines and a handful to create texture. Jennifer also will cover ways to add non fabric items like shells or paper or o-rings or even stitch covered metal washers to your composition. If you are more interested in stitch alone, you could bring in some fabric of your own with motifs you’d like to embellish and skip the stamping and painting and get straight into stitching. Jen will assist you with colours and creative ideas. 

In class you will work on a small-ish composition (under 50cm square) or a series of smaller sample pieces. Once done, (and perhaps not finished completely in class) you will end up with a frameable artwork OR a piece that could be turned into a bag or pouch OR an embellished block that could be the start of a much larger quilt project OR small sample pieces that could be saved and turned into a ‘stitch sampler’ ‘or ‘experiments’ book. Below are some photographs of Jennifer’s stitch sampler books. Jennifer makes these frequently as a way to remember and refer to the experiments that she has done over time. There are pics from one of these included below. 

On the weekend a full kit will be provided and plenty of materials such as seams and paints will be available to share but you could bring any items you might like to work with. eg Small beads, or tiny memorabilia. Bring your scissors and embroidery needles and any threads you’d like to work with and be prepared to stitch, print, be adventurous & and laugh.

Class runs from 10am – 3pm with an approx 1/2 hour lunch break.  

Call us if you’d like to do a single day’s class in stead of the two. Depending numbers it might be possible. 02 4464 3387

COLOUR + CLOTH

The workshop is taking place as part of our COLOUR + CLOTH weekend. There will be a display of quilts in the church hall and outside our shop which focuses on the colourful work of Sheena Chapman. In the display will be many of Sheena’s own designed and made quilts hung alongside quilts made by her students in class. Sheena is a bower bird and loves to mix vintage and contemporary fabrics in projects. Also on display will be some vintage quilts from Sheena and others’ collections that have informed or influenced Sheenas designs or colour schemes. It promises to be a great celebration of Colour + Cloth. In addition to the display and workshops over the weekend, Shiji and Alison Yamazaki will be bringing their Wabi Sabi designs Pop-Up Shop which will be set up in the Uniting Church Hall across from our Berry Shop. They sell an wonderful array of Vintage and new Japanese textiles, indigo dyeing materials and Japanese textile focused books as well as some vintage Japanese wearables. 

COVID 19 DETAILS:  

At the time of making this listing, it is not a requirement to wear masks during the workshop or be physically distanced in class OR to check vaccination status of participants. We will have sanitising equipment but it is up to you to assess your personal comfort zone and in this situation. You will be very welcome to wear a mask if you would prefer. We will encourage anyone experiencing cold or flu symptoms not to come and will offer a store credit if they can not attend at the last minute or a full refund if we are prevented from running the event due to covid 19 regulations changing.

Your tutor; The colourful and irrepressible Jennifer Corkish

A detail of style of stitch embellishment you could try. Found fabric embellished by Jen.

More found fabric embellished creatively with stitch by Jennifer and turned into a cushion.

Jennifer Corkish with some of her creative stitching projects.

Jennifer’s Japanese Stitch book. An idea of the sampler style book you could create from your experiments.

Coming up: A book of experiments which partly inspired this creative class. You can see close ups of couching, stitching over 3D objects like washers, stitching on paper, adding shells or beads. You can head completely in your own direction in this class OR be lead by Jennifer to experiment on the woodblock print that she will provide in the class kit. 

More Examples of Textile Artwork by your Tutor Jennifer Corkish

An inventive woven and stitched piece by Jen Corkish

Another inventive stitch project by Jennifer.

Jennifer’s One Red Thread artwork FRACTURED

Jennifer’s One Red Thread Textile piece ‘REDEMPTION’

A felt embellished piece by Jennifer

Jennifer’s One Red Thread artwork EMPOWERED