Instructor Information

Larkin Van Horn

www.larkinart.com

Texture, Glorious Texture

Nov 13 – 16, 2008

All Levels

Ready to take a step or two off the flat surface of your next quilt or wearable art? One of the things we all love about working with textiles is the tactile quality that transfers to our fingertips. Who can resist sliding their hands across a length of fabric? Stroking a hank of gorgeous yarns? Running their fingers through a bowl of beads? Adding to the texture and dimension of a quilt or garment creates tactile as well as visual interest. This workshop is a combination of Larkin’s most popular classes: A Touch of Silk, Embellishments a la carte, and Beading on Fabric.

Some of the techniques you will explore include: fabric collage and manipulation; wrapped, twisted, and covered cords; faced shapes; couched fibers; water and heat-soluble stabilizers; beads and found objects.

Silk comes in many weights and textures, and one of my favorites is silk organza. Considered a "hard" fabric, it is nonetheless sheer, light, and easily manipulated to create beautiful texture. In addition to the wonderful wrinkles and depth to be found in the hand-dyed silk, we will create more texture with free motion machine stitching and maybe a few beads thrown in for good measure. This is an exciting process, easily mastered, and produces astonishingly gorgeous results.

Beads! Beads! Beads! They are way too much fun to play with and highly addictive! They add texture, dimension, and sparkle to embroidery, quilting, wearables, and jewelry. We'll explore a variety of ways to attach beads to fabric and then the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. If you've never tried working with beads, or you just want some new ideas to play with, please join us for an exciting introduction to the world of beading.